The Pirates have claimed right-hander Adonis Medina off waivers from the Phillies, according to an announcement from Philadelphia. This ends a months-long stay in DFA limbo for Medina, as he was designated for assignment on December 1st of last year when the Phillies signed Johan Camargo. Shortly after that, MLB instituted a lockout, keeping Medina’s status frozen until that lockout ended last week.
This will be just the second organization for Medina, who was signed by the Phillies as an international free agent back in 2014. As he climbed the minor league ranks, he cracked Baseball America’s list of the 100 prospects in baseball, coming in at #84 in 2018.
However, since that time, he’s mostly struggled with the competition in the upper levels of the minors and in the majors. In 2019, he made 21 starts in Double-A, along with one appearance in relief, throwing 105 2/3 innings of 4.94 ERA ball. He only struck out 17.5% of the batters he faced, well below average, but did get ground balls at an encouraging clip of 45.1%. In 2020, the pandemic wiped out the minor league seasons, though Medina was able to make his MLB debut, making one four-inning start. In 2021, he logged another 7 2/3 innings in the big leagues but mostly pitched in Triple-A, making 17 starts for 67 2/3 innings 5.05 ERA ball. Much like 2019, his ground ball rate was good at 45.7%, but the 18.5% strikeout rate was still lacking.
For a Pirates team that’s firmly in rebuild mode, there’s little harm in taking a flier on Medina, especially considering he’s still just 25 years old and has less than a year of MLB service time. He is out of options, however, meaning the club will have to keep him on the 40-man roster or else designate him for assignment again. Outside of veteran Jose Quintana, the team’s rotation currently consists of inexperienced younger hurlers. Medina will be competing against the likes of JT Brubaker, Zach Thompson, Bryse Wilson, Mitch Keller and others.