Pittsburgh Pirates: These Two Lefties Have Killed the Bullpen

The Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen has been killed by these two lefties, but can improve the situation in the near future.

Every bullpen needs some left-handed relievers. The Pittsburgh Pirates have three in Anthony Banda, Sam Howard, and Aaron Fletcher on the 40-man roster. However, two of these three names have killed the pen. That’s the latter of the three, Howard and Fletcher.

Howard was acquired back in October of 2019 as a waiver claim from the Colorado Rockies. He became a regular part of the Bucs’ bullpen during the 2020 shortened season, but the small sample size was highly beneficial for the southpaw.

Despite his 3.86 ERA, Howard had a 4.86 FIP, 4.45 xFIP, and 5.13 DRA. His overperformance caught up with him in 2021 when he had a 5.60 ERA while his FIP (4.81) and xFIP (4.48) remained relatively constant. His DRA improved to 3.98, and his SIERA sat at 3.62 in 2020, but the last number would have an uptick to 4.26 in 2021. Plus, since joining the Pittsburgh Pirates, Howard has a 15% walk rate and 1.59 HR/9 rate, which heavily offsets his 29.2% strikeout rate.

Fletcher, on the other hand, is a new acquisition. This lefty was acquired off waivers like Howard but from the Seattle Mariners. Fletcher had minimal playing time in the majors before being acquired by the Pittsburgh Pirates, with just eight innings with the M’s. But he walked as many batters as innings pitched while giving up two home runs.

Howard has pitched just two innings with the Pirates in 2022, as he started the year on the injured list, and Fletcher has just 8.2 innings under his belt. But despite these two making up 11.3% of innings pitched out of the bullpen, they are responsible for 27.3% of the earned runs out of the bullpen. If you take out Howard and Fletcher’s contributions, the bullpen ERA goes from 4.20 to just 3.55.

When Anthony Banda returns from his flu, one of these two lefties will likely be DFA’d. Banda is currently on the injured list, and when he was placed on the injury list, Howard was activated. It’s hard to tell who the team will remove from the roster to make room for Banda, but one has to go.

Banda has been solid, but is there anything the team can do to improve the situation significantly? The bullpen needs another lefty outside of just Banda, so what options do the Bucs have? The team does have Trey McGough in the minor leagues. McGough has worked out of the bullpen and starting rotation throughout his minor league career, with 45 total appearances and 20 starts. Last year, he had a 3.19 ERA, 3.57 FIP, and 1.12 WHIP in 113 innings of work. He only had a 19.7% walk rate, but his 5.5% walk rate was the best among Pirates’ minor league starting pitchers. McGough has pitched five innings with the Indianapolis Indians with zero earned runs, six strikeouts, and a walk.

McGough would be a nice addition to the bullpen as the team needs lefties. The team could also consider Omar Cruz. Acquired in the Joe Musgrove trade, Cruz was used solely as a starter in 2021 but has been utilized as a long relief man in 2022. He has 17 innings pitched in four bullpen outings and two starts. Although he has allowed eight walks, he has given up six earned runs, four of which were in his lone start, eleven hits, and 24 strikeouts with Altoona. He could get an early promotion to Triple-A Indianapolis, given he started 14 games and pitched 70.1 innings in Altoona during 2021.

The Pirates have the opportunity to improve the bullpen in the coming weeks. With Banda coming back and McGough performing well at Indy, the team could replace Sam Howard and Aaron Fletcher, two guys who have killed the bullpen this year, with two decent left-handed arms in the pen. That would also give Cruz the chance to get innings in at Triple-A, pushing another potential long-term lefty bullpen/swingman arm up another ring.