Pirates Signal Tanner Rainey, Hunter Stratton To Minor League Contracts

The Pirates have signed right-handers Tanner Rainey and Hunter Stratton to minors offers, as respectively reported by Simply Baseball’s Aram Leighton (X hyperlink) and Stratton’s MLB.com profile web page.  Rainey’s contract accommodates an invite to the Pirates’ huge league spring camp, and it may be assumed that Stratton’s deal additionally has an invitation, although Stratton’s unsure well being state of affairs within the wake of knee surgical procedure may restrict his participation in Spring Coaching.

Rainey heads to Pittsburgh after a topsy-turvy six-year run with the Nationals, highlighted by a World Sequence ring in his first 12 months with the membership.  Rainey delivered a 3.91 ERA and 34.6% strikeout in 48 1/3 aid innings for that 2019 championship workforce, but additionally had an unsightly 17.8% stroll fee.  These management points plagued Rainey for many of his time in Washington, and he additionally missed just about all the 2023 season whereas recovering from Tommy John surgical procedure.

After Rainey posted a 4.76 ERA, 19% strikeout fee, and 12.6% stroll fee over 51 innings in 2024, the Nationals unsurprisingly determined to non-tender the righty, despite the fact that Rainey was projected for a modest $1.9MM arbitration wage.  Now getting into his age-32 season, Rainey will look to rebuild himself within the Bucs’ spring camp, and hopefully regain a few of the type and velocity that made him a beneficial bullpen asset for the Nats in 2020 and 2022.

Stratton was additionally non-tendered by the Pirates in November, however there was an expectation that Pittsburgh would (simply as they did final offseason) re-sign the righty to a brand new minor league deal.  Stratton has a formidable 3.26 ERA and 4.9% stroll fee throughout 49 2/3 profession Main League innings, all with Pittsburgh during the last two seasons.  Regardless of a scarcity of massive strikeout totals, Stratton’s skill to induce comfortable contact has made him an fascinating aid possibility out of the Pirates’ bullpen.

Sadly for Stratton, his 2024 season was minimize brief by a flukish damage on August 24 that left him with a ruptured patellar tendon.  Stratton was behind residence plate at PNC Park and pursuing a unfastened ball when he stumbled into the stone wall, inflicting the damage and placing his profession on maintain for an estimated 7-10 months.  This fluid timeline signifies that Stratton would return wherever from Opening Day to late June, however the minor league contract offers him loads of time to completely get himself proper throughout Spring Coaching or within the Pirates’ farm system.