Pittsburgh Pirates News: Aaron Fletcher Recalled

The Pittsburgh Pirates have made a roster move to bolster the bullpen by adding a fresh arm to the mix

Prior to the start of game two of their three-game series in Washington D.C. the Pittsburgh Pirates made a roster move on Tuesday afternoon. Left-handed reliever Aaron Fletcher has re-joined the Pirates.

This is Fletcher’s third stint with the Pittsburgh Pirates this season. He cracked the team’s Opening Day roster and then was recalled last month, but did not pitch in a game at all. Fletcher has pitched in 8 games out of the Pirate bullpen this season, allowing 10 hits and a pair of home runs in 8.2 innings pitched. He’s walked 7.1% of batters faced, struck out just 14.1% and has posted a 9.35/6.82 ERA/FIP.

Fletcher has found more success for Triple-A Indianapolis this season than he has with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Fletcher has pitched 17.2 innings out of the Indy bullpen. He has walked just 6.6% of batters faced, has not allowed a home run, and has posted a strong 1.53/3.31 ERA/FIP. However, he has still struggled to generate whiffs striking out just 11.7% of batters faced.

To make room for Fletcher on the active roster righty Miguel Yajure was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis. This comes one day after Yajure started for the Pirates, turning in his best outing of the season allowing 4 hits and walking 3 in 4 scoreless innings pitched.

On the season Yajure has pitched 14.1 innings with the Pirates, with 10.1 of them coming out of the bullpen and before he was optioned to the minors in early May, posting an 8.16 ERA and a 5.78 FIP. He will likely go back to working out of the rotation for Indianapolis.

Fletcher will join a Pirate bullpen that has been overworked in recent days. It is unclear which relievers Derek Shelton will and will not have at his disposal tonight, which is never a good spot for a manager to be in during an 18 games in 18 days stretch.