Good afternoon from PNC Park where tonight at 7:05 the Pirates (19-27) start a four-game series with the Washington Nationals (24-22). Edinson Volquez (1-4, 4.71 ERA) will take the hill for the Bucs and will face Blake Treinen (0-1, 0.77 ERA).
Wandy Rodriguez DFA’d
The Pirates have DFA’d Wandy Rodriguez in order to make room for Russell Martin, who has been reinstated from the 15-day DL. Martin will serve his one-game suspension tonight and Clint Hurdle expects him to play tomorrow.
Rodriguez recorded a 0-2 record in six starts this season while posting a 6.75 ERA with 20 strikeouts, eight walks and ten home runs allowed. It was a move that manager Clint Hurdle and management made after viewing Rodriguez’s whole work over the course of this season.
“It was nothing that Wandy came to us or approached us with,” said Hurdle. “We tabled the volume of work before the injury and then we took a good, hard look at the appearance in Milwaukee, the appearance yesterday and in our mindset, he’s made every effort. He’s healthy. With what we believe would be the next step for him, we think he might have to recreate himself, but he might not and it’s not fair to ask a guy to do something if he’s not bought into it, so it’s not like we got in-depth in the conversation.”
The move is based more due to the fact that the Pirates don’t have the time to help Rodriguez work his way back with their position in the standings and their playoff chances dwindling so early in the year.
“We don’t feel that we got the time or the innings to really push this forward any longer with what he has right now,” said Hurdle. “In all fairness to him, to have the discussion again, where it’s going to go, we don’t know. Either way, we are in a position now that we just feel we’ve gotten better and this, again gives him every opportunity to go find another opportunity to pitch because he is healthy.”
Pirates GM Neal Huntington agrees with Hurdle that a change is needed and it is time for someone else to come up and try to take their turn to solidify a spot in the starting rotation.
“I think [Wandy] recognizes that we felt like we needed to make a move,” said Huntington. “It’s not been the quality that Wandy’s used to. It’s a little bit different for him right now, the velocity down a tick, the breaking ball is down a tick, the changeup doesn’t have the same confidence and he recognized that we got some pretty good arms that are waiting for their turn. Wandy’s been that guy that has waited for his turn and capitalized on it for years and right now, it’s been a struggle for him and we decided to go i a different direction and I think Wandy respects that and again, we’re truely appreciative of what he’s done for us and he’s thrown the ball when healthy and we made a tough decision to go in a different direction because we feel like we have someone that’s going to make us better.”
A corresponding move wont be made until Rodriguez’s spot in the rotation comes up on Monday.
“I would think right now that Cumpton and Locke are probably the frontrunners for Monday’s start,” said Hurdle.
(Photo Credit: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
