Jared Hughes Demoted, Juan Cruz Activated
By Matt Shetler
Riding their first three-game losing streak since early June, the Pittsburgh Pirates will be looking to break out of their mini-slump Sunday afternoon when Erik Bedard takes the hill at PNC Park to take on former Pirate Ross Ohlendorf.
Before the first pitch will be thrown though, the Pirates made a roster move by activating reliever Juan Cruz from the disabled list and demoting rookie reliever Jared Hughes.
Hughes has been fantastic all season, but got caught up in a numbers crunch and someone had to be sent down.
It won’t be long before you see Hughes back in a Pirates uniform, but for now manager Clint Hurdle elected to keep the pitching depth with Jeff Locke, in case the Bucs need innings out of someone. Players called up at the end of the month aren’t eligible to be on postseason rosters, so I would be that we see Hughes back sooner, rather than later.
Despite having a 2.70 ERA in over 57 innings pitched, and throwing 2.1 scoreless innings on Saturday, Hughes became the odd-man out. He had allowed five earned runs in 1.2 innings during his previous two outings.
Cruz on the other hand, has struggled after a very good start, but has still put together a solid campaign, posting a 2.61 ERA on the season.
I don’t know if this move makes the Pirates bullpen better in the short-term, but again, someone had to go.
For Hughes it may be good to take a step back for a couple weeks and then come back up refreshed and help this team on its playoff push.