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Former Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Nick Burdi has found a new home after being outrighted by the team earlier in the offseason
There are few relief pitchers in MLB with nastier stuff and more pure ability than Nick Burdi. The right-handed Burdi has a power fastball that routinely sits in the high 90s while topping 100 MPH to go with a wipeout slider. Unfortunately, injuries have always hampered the former Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher.
After pitching in just 2.1 innings in 2020 before getting injured, Burdi underwent Tommy John surgery earlier this offseason. This led to the Pittsburgh Pirates designating him for assignment before outrighting him. After this, Burdi elected free agency.
Burdi has now found a new home. On Tuesday, Burdi signed a minor league contract with the San Diego Padres. With this signing his time in Pittsburgh has officially come to an end. It should be noted that due to his Tommy John surgery Burdi will miss the entire 2021 season.
With the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2019 Burdi’s fastball average 96.9 MPH and this jumped to 98.9 MPH in 2020. His slider averaged 87.8 MPH in 2019 and 87.2 MPH in 2020. So, in addition to being a wipe out pitch his slider was also a power slider.
It also appeared that Burdi was going to start to dabble with a curveball in 2020. Pitching coach Oscar Marin has made it clear he likes his pitchers to throw curveballs, and in his final outing of 2020 Burdi threw his first curveball generating a swing and a miss with the pitch.
In his two seasons with the Pirates, unfortunately, injuries limited Burdi to just 11 innings of work. Burdi was able to flash his elite stuff in these 11 innings, striking out 21 of the 50 batters he faced, giving him a healthy 42% strikeout rate.
As has been said a million times by now health is the key for Burdi. If he can get and stay healthy he can be as good as just about any reliever in baseball. While his future will no longer include the Pittsburgh Pirates, we still hope Burdi can find health and success with the Padres and beyond.