The Pittsburgh Pirates need relief help in the worst way. Any major additions won’t happen until later in July, so that means they’ll have to find help on waivers, minor league signees, or trades for depth relievers. One former Pirates reliever was recently DFA’d by the Atlanta Braves: right-hander Hunter Stratton. They should reacquire him if they have the opportunity, given his previous success in Pittsburgh.
Pirates Should Acquire Former Recently DFA’d Reliever
Struggles in 2025 and 2026
The last two seasons have not treated Stratton well. He has only pitched 20 MLB innings with the Pirates and Braves, allowing 11 earned runs. While he has only walked seven opponents, he has additionally only struck out 17 batters. Stratton has become very prone to hard contact and base hits. He has a sub-par 89.3 MPH exit velocity, and opponents own a .293 batting average against him. It also does not help that he has given up three long balls.
Stratton also struggled badly at the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate this year. It was only 24.1 innings, with a 4.38 ERA and 4.60 FIP, but a poor 1.62 WHIP. Free passes gave him plenty of problems, with a 14.2% BB rate. While he held batters to a 2.7% barrel rate and 85.1 MPH exit velocity, he also had a sub-10% swinging strike rate (7.4%) and a whiff percentage of 19.1%. His in-zone pitch rate clocked in at just 50%. Though, for what it is worth, Stratton pitched well in the minor leagues last year, with a 2.96 ERA and 16.7% K-BB ratio.
Promising 2024 Rookie Season
At one point, Stratton looked like a potential long-term member of the Pirates’ bullpen. He tossed 37.2 innings in his 2024 rookie campaign, putting up a solid 3.58 ERA, 3.25 FIP, and 1.17 WHIP. Stratton did not get many strikeouts, with a 20.9% K rate.
However, it was about the only blemish on his bottom line. Stratton induced plenty of whiffs with a 27.4% whiff rate and fooled batters very often, with a 32.7% chase rate. He rarely walked batters, with a BB% of just 4.4%. When opposing hitters made contact against Stratton, it was rarely ever good contact. He held opponents to just an 87.3 MPH exit velocity and a 6.1% barrel rate. Unsurprisingly, he had a 0.72 HR/9 ratio.
Don’t look at Hunter Stratton’s Statcast page…….
Back-to-back strikeouts as he goes 1-2-3 in the 7th pic.twitter.com/hivnMcyWwe
— Platinum Key (@PlatinumKey13) May 23, 2024
Stratton’s stuff also looked very good. He put up a FanGraphs Stuff+ of 106. His fastball still sits 95-96 MPH, while his cutter comes in around 92-93 MPH with above-average movement. The right-hander had one of the most effective sliders in 2024. 310 pitchers threw at least 100 sliders in ‘24. Of those 310, Stratton’s .094 xwOBA and 77.2 MPH exit velocity were the best. He was also tied for the best barrel percentage at 0%, while ranking among the top ten pitchers in batting average (.100) and slugging percentage (.133). Plus, he induced a whiff rate of 43.5%.
Career-Derailing Injury
Stratton can trace the start of his struggles to a knee injury suffered during the second half of 2024. On August 24, the right-handed reliever suffered a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee while fielding a wild pitch. The injury shut him down for the rest of 2024 and was arguably one major reason why the Pirates optioned him to Triple-A at the start of 2025.
A Low-Risk Candidate
The Pirates are not going to get a high-end reliever right now. However, given the familiarity between the Pirates and Stratton, how well he pitched in Pittsburgh the last time he was fully healthy, and their desperate need for relief help, he could be a bargain. The Pirates can either trade for Stratton within the next seven days or hope he falls to them on waivers if he does not get traded by then.
Main Photo Credit: Michael McLoone-Imagn Images
