The Pirates have called up their hottest hitting outfielder and potentially let go one of their top relievers from last year.
Josh Palacios has had his contract selected by the Pirates, and will start in right field Tuesday night against the Rockies. To make room on the roster, Chase De Jong has been designated for assignment.
Palacios, 27, was selected by the Pirates in the minor-league portion of this year's Rule 5 draft and has torn the cover off the ball his first few weeks with Class AAA Indianapolis. In 60 trips to the plate, he has slashed .434/.500/.774 with four home runs, four doubles, 20 RBIs and three stolen bases. He earned International League player of the week honors in the last week of April.
Despite his hot start to the 2023 campaign, Palacios was pleasantly surprised that he got the call to the big leagues.
"I think you are always shocked when you finally get that call," Palacios said. "You never quite know what is going to happen in The Show, there is a lot going on. I was pretty happy. My phone was dead when they were trying to call me. I missed a couple of phone calls and they had to call my boy that was next to me. We were making jokes like, 'Hey, imagine they are calling me up right now and my phone is dead'. It actually happened to be true."
The Pirates' offense could certainly use a spark, as they have scored just 11 runs over the last eight games, the first seven of which were all losses. They have not scored more than two runs in any of those contests.
The problem with the offense, however, is more infield than outfield. Bryan Reynolds, Jack Suwinski, Connor Joe and Andrew McCutchen have all contributed, and Joe can't be simply moved to first base full-time because Carlos Santana has performed well. Palacios swings left-handed, so he isn't a natural platoon partner for Suwinski either. However, just having another bat for that mix -- especially one that can play all three outfield positions -- does add some depth. And, it gives Shelton more flexibility to take advantage of favorable matchups, especially while the offense is trying to work itself out of a funk.
"I think the one thing that Ben’s done a really good job of is when we’ve identified it, like we did with Miguel Andújar when he came up, it was, 'Okay, we’re going to face a left-hander, we’re going to get you in there,'" Shelton explained. "Same situation here. (Tuesday) is a match-up we like, so when we started to talk about it, if we’re going to bring him up, we’re going to get him in. That’s not to say he’s not going to play every day, but what it does is it gives us leverage, platoon advantages like we did early in the year. We’re going to try to maximize those as much as possible."
Palacios has appeared in 42 major-league games in his career the past two seasons with the Blue Jays and Nationals. In that time, he slashed .207/.267/.232 with six RBIs and a stolen base.
Designating De Jong for assignment so early into the season didn't seem that plausible back when spring training started, but the right-hander has battled a back issue and struggled out of the gate, allowing 11 earned runs over 9 1/3 innings. He allowed at least one run in four of his five outings this year, and was tagged for five in his mop up role against the Blue Jays Sunday.
This was De Jong's third year with the Pirates, which began with him as a starter in 2021. He seemed to take to a bullpen role last year, where he recorded a 2.64 ERA over 71 2/3 innings, ranging from a hybrid pitcher to multi-inning guy to some leverage spots late in the year.
De Jong generally struggled in those leverage spots though, and the Pirates have other middle relief options on the roster right now, even with Wil Crowe on the 60-day injured list due to a shoulder injury.
"Yeah, it was challenging," Shelton said on the decision to designate De Jong for assignment. "We knew we were going to take two guys out of our bullpen. With [Cody] Bolton, we need him to go down and pitch. With Chase, we just thought there were other guys ahead of him. It’s unfortunate because he is such a great kid and having that conversation -- because I had had a personal relationship with him even before coming here -- was very challenging and that’s a tough one for our group today. Ultimately, we have to look out for what’s best for our group, and right now, we feel like this is what’s best for our group."
De Jong and Crowe tied for the team lead in wins last season with six.
