Yesterday afternoon, Ken Rosenthal reported that someone had made Jason Grilli, pitching with the Phillies Triple-A affiliated in Lehigh Valley, a Major League contract offer and because of a clause in his contract, the Phillies either had to promote him to Philadelphia or release him and let him sign with the offering club. Rosenthal speculated that the Pirates were the team interested as the club is looking for relief and Grilli pitched well with Clint Hurdle’s Rockies in 2008.
This morning, Grilli tweeted, “Black & Yellow! Black & Yellow! Black & Yellow! Cannot wait to join the new squadron” (via the essential-in-July MLB Trade Rumors) which gives you a pretty good idea of which team it was that made the big league offer and whether or not the Phillies were going to match it.
Grilli is, get this, a big guy (listed at 6’5″) that throws in the low-to-mid 90s with a slider and when he’s healthy he gets a bunch of strikeouts. Rosenthal mentioned that though he missed all of 2010, it was with a knee issue and not an arm issue and judging by his numbers with Lehigh Valley (43 strikeouts, 12 walks, just two homers in 32 2/3 innings) he’s healthy. The move isn’t officially announced so there’s no corresponding move, but Evan Meek is probably headed to the 60-day DL and it seems like a safe bet that Chris Leroux is going back to Indianapolis. Leroux’s been pretty good in his short stint with the Pirates and I’m not sure how much of an upgrade Grilli functionally offers, but if Hurdle’s a little more comfortable with him and that allows him to use Grilli a bit more and offer Veras and Resop and Hanrahan rest on the nights they need it, I suppose I’m fine with this move.
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