Pittsburgh Pirates: Five More Surprising Ex-Players Still Active

Pittsburgh Pirates history is full of obscure players. However, many of them are still active in professional baseball today despite not playing in MLB.

Last month, we took a look at ten former Pittsburgh Pirates who are surprisingly still active in professional baseball. There are plenty of other relatively obscure Pittsburgh Pirates players still out there. Many of which haven’t appeared in the major leagues for a handful of seasons.

Today, we’re going to take a look at five of those players. Most of these guys have played in the majors very sparingly, if at all, over the past handful of seasons. However, to find guys who served as depth for major league teams is still interesting to see. They’re keeping the dream of playing baseball as a profession, even if it’s not with a Major League team or one of their affiliates.

Wilfredo Boscan

Wilfredo Boscan was pretty much a career minor leaguer when he made his debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2016. He made his pro debut back in 2007 as a 17-year-old Venezuelan with the Texas Rangers. While he pitched solid throughout the minors, he never reached top prospect status. He played with the San Diego Padres and Boston Red Sox systems before getting to Pittsburgh, but never gained much traction.

Boscan posted pretty good numbers at Triple-A Indianapolis in 2015 and then got off to a hot start in 2016. That’s when the Pirates called him to the majors and he seemed to be a pretty solid multi-inning bullpen arm. His first 9 innings yielded just 2 earned runs, 1 walk, and 5 K’s. However, after 2 poor outings, Boscan was sent back to the minor leagues.

Boscan struggled down the line at Indianapolis and was eventually released by the team. Then, he was signed by the Atlanta Braves. Boscan was released by the Braves in early September and then was picked up by the New York Mets as a depth right-hander for the 2017 campaign.

But this was his last season with a major league-affiliated team. Boscan pitched in the Venezuelan and Mexican Leagues for the next handful of seasons. This past season, he pitched 48 innings with the Tigres De Quintana Roo of the Mexican League, and Navegantes del Magallanes of the Venezuelan league. All told, he had a 3.75 ERA while only allowing a single home run. But he struck out just 29 while giving up 18 free passes.

Kyle Lobstein

Kyle Lobstein was a second-round pick by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008. After bouncing around with the New York Mets and then the Detroit Tigers, the Pirates purchased his contract from the Tigers in the 2015-2016 off-season. Between 2014 and 2015, he pitched 103 innings with the Tigers, only posting a 5.33 ERA, 4.33 FIP, and 1.456 WHIP.

Lobstein was brought in to serve as a long relief man. After all, he did start 17 of his 20 outings. Lobstein pitched 25 innings in 14 games. While he did have a solid 3.96 ERA, Lobstein had a poor 4.67 FIP and 1.48 WHIP. He allowed just 2 home runs, but walked 12 and struck out 15.

The Pirates sent him to the Baltimore Orioles at the August waiver deadline for another minor league pitcher, Zach Phillips. But he wouldn’t play a game in an Orioles uniform. In fact, he wouldn’t appear with any major league team for 4 seasons. He bounced around the minor leagues with the Orioles, Marlins, Dodgers, and Athletics before landing with the Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals this year.

After posting solid numbers with the Nats’ and Brew Crews’ Triple-A affiliates, the Nationals promoted Lobstein to the big leagues for the first time since his last appearance with the Pirates in 2016. He only managed 4 outs in 3 outings and surrendered 3 earned runs.

Brandon Cumpton

Brandon Cumpton was a right-handed pitcher the Pirates drafted in the 9th round of the 2010 draft. After climbing his way throughout the minor leagues, Cumpton made his debut in 2013 and was pretty solid in his first look in the majors. He pitched 30.2 innings, starting 5 of the 6 games he played in. The right-hander only allowed 7 earned runs with just 5 walks. Sure he only had 22 K’s, but also allowed a single long ball.

Cumpton spent the 2014 season as a swingman pitcher, starting 10 of the 16 games he appeared in. While he had a 4.89 ERA in 70 innings pitched, he allowed just 2 long balls, 18 walks, and 46 K’s. He still had a solid 3.22 FIP.

However, a 2015 Tommy John surgery kept him out of the next two seasons. He returned in 2017 to professional play but didn’t appear in the majors for the Pirates. After 2017, he was released and was signed by the Texas Rangers. But his stint wouldn’t last long as he would get released again, this time in Spring Training. The last MLB team Cumpton would play for is the Toronto Blue Jays. In 2018, he pitched 1.2 innings in the majors for the Jays but was let go after the season.

Since then, the right-hander has pitched in the Dominican Winter League, Mexican League, Atlantic League, and American Association. In 2021, Cumpton pitched 46.1 innings in the Mexican League, but gave up 41 earned runs and had a WHIP just a tick below 2.0 at 1.99.

Brandon Cumpton had a pretty promising start to his career. He looked like he could be a back-of-the-rotation type starter or swingman for the Pirates for a handful of seasons. But a poorly timed Tommy John surgery and other injuries led to a downfall for the former Pirate.

Drew Hutchison

The Pirates made a questionable trade at the 2016 trade deadline. To shed the remaining amount left on Francisco Liriano’s contract, the Pirates traded Liriano, along with former first-round pick Reese McGuire and then outfield prospect Harold Ramirez to the Toronto Blue Jays. In return, the Pirates received back right-hander Drew Hutchison.

Hutchison arguably has one of the strangest seasons in MLB history under his belt. In 2015, the right-hander won 13 games and only had 5 losses. The thing is, he had a 5.27 ERA, 4.42 FIP, and 1.483 WHIP. So how did he get credited with 13 wins despite having the highest ERA in 2015 in at least 150 innings? The Blue Jays averaged nearly 8 runs per game (7.9 to be exact) when Hutchison took the mound. Among pitchers with at least 150 innings in a single season since 2010, it’s the most run support a pitcher has received. It’s also the highest winning percentage for a pitcher with a 5.00+ ERA in the sport’s history.

Before being acquired by the Pirates, Hutchison spent most of 2016 with the Jays’ Triple-A team. He pitched just 12.2 innings in the majors with Toronto giving up 7 earned runs on 4 home runs. Post-trade, Hutchison would only go on to throw 11.1 innings, surrendering 7 more ER. This would be the only innings Hutchison would throw in the majors for the Pirates. The right-hander didn’t appear in the major leagues in 2017, logging 159.1 innings with Triple-A Indianapolis. He was released at the season’s end.

Hutchison would then latch on with the Philadelphia Phillies, as well as the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2018 season, but only threw 42.2 innings in the majors for both teams combined. In 2019 he would bounce around with the New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins, and LA Angels. 2020 marked his foray into Independent League ball, tossing 22 innings with the Milwaukee Milk Men. Finally, Hutchison made his return to the bigs this year with the Detroit Tigers. He would pitch just 21.1 innings while surrendering only 5 earned runs. However, he also gave up 11 walks with 10 K’s.

Hutchison has pitched sporadically throughout the last 10 seasons, but the oddity of his 2015 season has made his name more popular in the baseball community, mainly because of popular baseball YouTuber Foolish Baseball’s video analyzing the season. He may never be a massively popular pitcher, but his ‘15 season will remain an interesting footnote in the sport’s history.