Pittsburgh Pirates: Big League Debut for Catcher Jason Delay

The Pittsburgh Pirates have called up a lot of young talent over the recent weeks.  Now, a young catcher is going to get a shot in the Majors.

In 2017, the Pittsburgh Pirates used their fourth-round pick on a catcher from Vanderbilt.  That catcher was Jason Delay.  Delay has been in the Organization since and has slowly made his way up the Minor League ladder.  Furthermore, Delay was sent to the Arizona Fall League showing that the new Front Office wanted to keep him around.

Well, now Delay will make his big league debut.  Delay was not expected to be called up, but the Pittsburgh Pirates have a double-header today against the Cardinals and get an extra roster spot.  With the double-header, it makes sense to carry another catcher on the roster. Jason Mackey caught up with Delay and found out that he really did not expect this:

Also, the team is really missing starting catcher Roberto Perez.  Right now Tyler Heinemann and Roberto Perez are splitting duties behind the plate and things could be better.  Heinemann has done a decent job, but Perez is picking up where he left off last year, and that is not very good.  Perez was cut off the 40-man roster so it will be interesting to see if the Bucs will decide to keep Delay and move on from Perez at the Big League level or if Delay will go back down.

Overall Delay is not one of the Pittsburgh Pirates notable prospects.  He is a career .230 hitter with an OPS just over .630 so there should not be much in terms of expectations of him being the team’s next catcher.  Still, Michael Perez has worse career numbers than that so maybe Delay would at least be an upgrade at this point. Hopefully, he can make the most of his Big League Debut.