{"id":105749,"date":"2025-08-11T14:01:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T18:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=105749"},"modified":"2025-08-11T14:01:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T18:01:22","slug":"pirates-reinstate-shugart-from-il","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/11\/pirates-reinstate-shugart-from-il\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates to Reinstate Key Bullpen Piece from IL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates will reactivate right-handed relief pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/shugach01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chase Shugart<\/a> from the injured list for Monday night\u2019s game in Milwaukee. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/moretda01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dauri Moreta<\/a>, another right-handed reliever, has been optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis to make room for Shugart. The ever-diligent Alex Stumpf of mlb.com was first to enlighten us with this report.<\/p>\n<h2>Pirates to Reinstate Key Bullpen Piece from IL<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Chase Shugart is going to be activated off of the injured list today, per source. Dauri Moreta optioned to Indianapolis<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alex Stumpf (@AlexJStumpf) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexJStumpf\/status\/1954903974978736376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 11, 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>Pirates Reactivate Shugart<\/h3>\n<p>Shugart, 28, was acquired from the Boston Red Sox in the offseason. He didn\u2019t break spring training camp with Pittsburgh. It wasn\u2019t long before he was called up to the big club after an <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/06\/pirates-colin-holderman-injured-list-knee-sprain\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">injury<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/holdeco01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Colin Holderman<\/a>. Shugart soon became an important bullpen piece for the Pirates. Before going on the IL with left knee inflammation on July 8, in 32 games, he was 4-3 with a 3.69 ERA, 5.21 FIP, 1.154 WHIP, and four holds. Those numbers are a bit misleading, however. Going into the fateful July 7 game when he suffered the injury and soldiered on for 2 2\/3 innings, during which he gave up four earned runs, he had a more palatable 2.97 ERA and 4.26 FIP.<\/p>\n<p>Shugart isn\u2019t a big strikeout guy. He\u2019s struck out just 13.8 percent of batters faced while walking a slightly above major league average 9.4 percent. However, he\u2019s gotten the job done, holding opponents to a meager .214\/.289\/.407 slash line and a .209 BABIP. He pitched well during his rehab assignment at two minor league levels, giving up one earned run on two hits in six innings, striking out five and walking three.<\/p>\n<h3>Down Goes Moreta<\/h3>\n<p>Moreta, 29, becomes an unfortunate casualty of Saturday\u2019s foolish decision to go with a bullpen game when the Pirates could have called up any one of their starting pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/08\/pirates-face-decision-veteran-andrew-heaney\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">prospects<\/a> from Indianapolis. With the bullpen covering four more innings on Sunday, a Monday roster move was inevitable. With several relievers likely unavailable for Monday\u2019s game, Shugart comes off the IL just in time for the Pirates.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, except for a rough outing on Sunday, Moreta hasn\u2019t pitched that poorly since coming off the IL himself on August 2. In five games covering 4 2\/3 innings, he\u2019s given up just the two earned runs on Sunday. The choice of Moreta to go to Indy may have had more to do with the fact that he has minor league options remaining. So, too, does 28-year-old right-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sandeca01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cam Sanders<\/a>, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/05\/pirates-daily-roster-move-sanders-oviedo\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">called up<\/a> for the first time last Tuesday. Sanders, the feel-good story of 2025, made Pirates fans feel bad on Sunday when he gave up five earned runs in one-third of an inning. Sanders threw 31 pitches, one more than Moreta. It\u2019s just one of many puzzling decisions by the Pirates&#8217; brain trust in recent days.<\/p>\n<p>The Pirates had high hopes for Moreta when they <a href=\"https:\/\/throughthefencebaseball.com\/hello-newman-what-the-reds-are-getting-in-kevin-newman\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">acquired<\/a> him from the Cincinnati Reds for shortstop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/n\/newmake01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Newman<\/a> after the 2022 season. Moreta pitched well in 2023, with a 3.72 ERA, 2.93 FIP, 1.086 WHIP, and 31.8 percent strikeout rate. He held opposing batters to a mere .187\/.276\/.330 slash. Moreta missed the 2024 season due to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnto01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tommy John<\/a> surgery. After finally working his way back to the majors, he\u2019ll ply his trade at Indy and wait for another call.<\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s not your father\u2019s baseball anymore. The constant bullpen shuttle between Pittsburgh and Indianapolis is a permanent reality, not to mention, on a selfish note, that it provides material for writers covering the team. Any time the bullpen has to cover a few innings, one can bet that a roster move is forthcoming. Thus, pitchers with options such as Moreta and Sanders have become more valuable than ever, despite not being compensated accordingly. Now it\u2019s Shugart who\u2019s turn it is to silence opposing bats for the Pirates. He\u2019d be advised not to sign a long-term lease. He, too, has minor league options remaining.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates will reactivate right-handed relief pitcher Chase Shugart from the injured list for Monday night\u2019s game in Milwaukee. Dauri Moreta, another right-handed reliever, has been optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis to make room for Shugart. The ever-diligent Alex Stumpf of mlb.com was first to enlighten us with this report. Pirates to Reinstate Key Bullpen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":105766,"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":[28273,5685,6380,3080],"class_list":["post-105749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","category-news","tag-cam-sanders","tag-colin-holderman","tag-dauri-moreta","tag-kevin-newman"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105749","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=105749"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105767,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105749\/revisions\/105767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}