{"id":102633,"date":"2025-06-21T15:49:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T19:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=102633"},"modified":"2025-06-21T15:49:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T19:49:51","slug":"pirates-place-borucki-on-il-recall-stratton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/06\/21\/pirates-place-borucki-on-il-recall-stratton\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Place Borucki on IL, Recall Stratton, Among Other Moves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates have recalled right-handed relief pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/strathu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hunter Stratton<\/a> after placing pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/borucry01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Borucki<\/a> on the injured list. Additionally, outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/reynobr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bryan Reynolds<\/a> has returned from paternity leave. Outfielder\/first baseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cookbi01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Billy Cook<\/a>, who had been <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/06\/18\/pirates-call-up-propect-cook\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">recalled<\/a> replacing Reynolds, has been returned to Triple-A Indianapolis.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">We have reinstated OF Bryan Reynolds from the Major League Paternity Leave List, and optioned OF Billy Cook to Triple-A Indianapolis.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, LHP Ryan Borucki has been placed on the 15-day injured list, and RHP Hunter Stratton has been recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Pirates\/status\/1936492045495161069?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><strong>Borucki to IL as Pirates Recall Stratton, Welcome Reynolds Back, and Option Cook<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Borucki entered Friday night\u2019s game against the Texas Rangers in the ninth inning and exited with a lower back injury after facing four batters and recording one out. The left-hander had been pitching well, with a 2.55 ERA as of May 13. Since then, however, he\u2019s hit a rough patch, giving up 10 earned runs in eight innings. He goes to the IL with a 5.26 ERA and 1.247 WHIP.<\/p>\n<p>This will be the fifth stint with the Pirates for Stratton, 28. He got his first taste of the big time in September 2023, when he impressed with a 2.25 ERA and 1.000 WHIP in eight games. He made the squad out of spring training in 2024. It was then that he quickly became a favorite of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/08\/pirates-fire-manager-derek-shelton-don-kelly-replacement\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">then-manager<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/sheltde99.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derek Shelton<\/a>. Pitching in late-inning, high-leverage roles, the rookie posted a 3.58 ERA and a tidy 1.168 WHIP to go with five \u201cholds\u201d in 36 games. He was on a roll, with 10 consecutive scoreless appearances from June 8 to August 24, when a knee injury ended his season.<\/p>\n<p>A brief, two-game stint with the Pirates at the beginning of 2025 didn\u2019t go so well for Stratton. Returning to Indianapolis, this season he was 0-1 with a 3.65 ERA and a 1.257 WHIP. He\u2019s on a roll in June. He\u2019s given up just one earned run in seven appearances covering eight innings during the month. Generally, he hasn\u2019t been used for multi-inning stints. He\u2019s pitched two innings just once and has exceeded one inning six other times. It seems unlikely that manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kellydo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Don Kelly<\/a> will push him past his limits at the major league level. Stratton seems ticketed for a late-inning, short-relief role with Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n<h3>Left Short of Left-Handers<\/h3>\n<p>The fall-out of the Borucki injury will be interesting in that it leaves Kelly with just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/ferguca01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Caleb Ferguson<\/a> from the left side in the bullpen. Pittsburgh began the year with four left-handers in the pen. Since then, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mayzati01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tim Mayza<\/a> has been placed on the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/24\/pirates-call-up-prospects-send-down-suwinski-roster-moves\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">60-day IL<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wentzjo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joey Wentz<\/a> has been released. Unlike Shelton, who generally made mid-inning pitching changes only after a reliever had surrendered some runs, Kelly likes to make <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/15\/pirates-manager-kelly-is-no-shelton\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">percentage moves<\/a> and go to a left-hander to face a left-handed batter. Kelly will have to be choosy in his use of Ferguson. With the choice of Stratton, the Pirates felt it was more important to add a pitcher who was pitching well, regardless of the arm he uses.<\/p>\n<h3>Welcome Back, Reynolds<\/h3>\n<p>If that doesn\u2019t quite have the same ring as <em>Welcome Back, Kotter<\/em>, the Pirates will be pleased to regain their All-Star right fielder to boost a lineup that is to major-league offense what the Sweathogs were to academics. That said, it\u2019s been an off-year for Reynolds. The quiet switch-hitter has struggled to the tune of .222\/.295\/.360, 8 HR, and 39 RBI. Even so, the eight homers are tied for second on the team. Historically, he\u2019s heated up in June, but so far, he\u2019s hitting .157\/.259\/.275 for the month. Perhaps fatherhood will do for Reynolds what it did for former Pirate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mackoro01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rob Mackowiak<\/a>, who, in 2004, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/rob-mackowiak-on-2004-doubleheader-hrs\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hit two ninth-inning home runs in a doubleheader<\/a> the day his son was born, one a walk-off grand slam, the other a game-tyer.<\/p>\n<p>In three games, Cook was 2-for-6 while being used in the outfield and at first base.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Philip G. Pavely-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates have recalled right-handed relief pitcher Hunter Stratton after placing pitcher Ryan Borucki on the injured list. Additionally, outfielder Bryan Reynolds has returned from paternity leave. Outfielder\/first baseman Billy Cook, who had been recalled replacing Reynolds, has been returned to Triple-A Indianapolis. &nbsp; We have reinstated OF Bryan Reynolds from the Major League [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":102646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1071,35],"tags":[28733,1374,3351,3160,28961,1306,953,5901],"class_list":["post-102633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","category-news","tag-billy-cook","tag-bryan-reynolds","tag-caleb-ferguson","tag-derek-shelton","tag-don-kelly","tag-joey-wentz","tag-ryan-borucki","tag-tim-mayza"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102633"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102647,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102633\/revisions\/102647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}