The Pittsburgh Pirates activated infielder JT Riddle off of the 10-day injured list prior to Wednesday night’s game. To make room on the roster, Nick Burdi has been placed on the 45-day injured list with a right elbow injury
The 28-year-old Riddle signed with the Pirates as a free agent over the off-season, after spending his first three seasons in the majors with the Miami Marlins. In 51 games last year, he hit .189/.230/.371, while splitting time between shortstop and center field. Riddle only played shortstop during his first two seasons in the majors. He is a .229/.269/.368 hitter in 223 big league games. He has been out of action since Spring Training 2.0 with a right abdominal strain.
Burdi has pitched just three times this year and only 12.1 innings over 16 appearances in his three seasons with the Pirates. He will have three full seasons of service time, despite the limited play. Even if he’s able to return this season, there will be just eight games left on the schedule when he’s first able to return, so effectively, his season is over.
Adam Berry has some extra info:
Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk said Burdi reported yesterday his elbow "just didn’t feel right" after pitching Monday.
Tomczyk said they're still gathering information on the injury, thus the vague description, but they know enough to say Burdi's season is over.— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) August 5, 2020
Manager Derek Shelton added a bit of an update on closer Keone Kela. He threw a bullpen session today, but there is no word on when he will return to action yet.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton said closer Keone Kela threw a bullpen session but provided no timeline for his availability.
— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) August 5, 2020
The Pirates will need to make more roster moves tomorrow, as the 30-man roster gets cut to 28 players for the rest of the season. Teams were originally going to drop to 26 players after two weeks, but MLB decided yesterday to go with 28-man rosters for the rest of the season. An interesting side note is that teams will now be allowed to carry five men on the taxi squad instead of three.
