Involved in a bit of an under the radar move back at the trade deadline, left handed pitcher Bailey Falter has experienced a rebound to what started as an incredibly harsh season for him.

Acquired by the Pirates in exchange for infielder Rodolfo Castro, Falter has now pitched just about the same amount of innings with Pittsburgh (37.1) as he did during his time in Philadelphia (40.1) in 2023, and the results with his new team have been much better.

At the time he arrived in Pittsburgh, the addition of him wasn’t necessarily praised from the rooftops near PNC Park. He was coming over from the Phillies carrying a 5.13 ERA and an 0-7 record, and hadn’t even pitched major league innings for weeks when he was traded.

Now here in Pittsburgh however, Falter is trying to carve out a spot for himself on the team’s roster next year. Deployed as both a starter and as a (very long) reliever, Falter has been able to bring down several of those troublesome numbers.

Falter’s year long ERA has dropped to a 4.40, but with the Pirates it’s now down to a 3.62, a huge improvement from his time in Philadelphia.

While on the mound, Falter has ever so slightly increased his strikeout rate as well, now with 30 on the year.

His Pittsburgh ERA is a little bit deceptive, hiding some of the better outings he’s had as a Pirate. In 5 of his 8 outings as a Pirate, Falter has allowed just 1 earned run. It’s some impressive work, considering he’s pitched at least 3.2 innings in every appearance he’s made for the Pirates so far in 2023.

He’s performed better as a long reliever in several of the Pirates’ bullpen-only games. He’s allowed just 2 earned runs in 13.1 innings pitched (over 3 games) after coming on for someone else.

His results as a starter have been much more of a mixed bag. Falter has either strung together some nifty work, or completely imploded late in games (fighting literally everything in my body to not write “faltered”).

Falter had both 4 and 6 runs against him in games back in August, both of which he couldn’t make to the fifth inning.

But he’s shown potential in that role as well. Falter pitched 6.0 innings allowing just 1 run in his most recent game, earning the win against the Washington Nationals.

He did much the same back on August 21st, with a similar stat line, only in that game he managed to get 8 punchouts as well, tying his highest major league career total.

While the starting rotation is a complete mess for the Pirates, and their bullpen is a bit of a revolving door, Falter is certainly a name to keep an eye on.

If Pittsburgh opts to convert him to reliever, he may deliver some solid work and, maybe more importantly, a huge stopgap from a poorly performing starter to the end of the game bullpen lineup.

It’s possible that the Pirates view Falter as more of a bullpen guy at this stage, given his more reliable work as a reliever, and also the amount of starting pitching prospects the Pirates are still high on.

But his future for now still remains somewhat up in the air. He hasn’t settled into a set role with this Pirates team, but that hasn’t stopped him from giving Pittsburgh some good performances while on the mound.

(Featured photo from Getty Images)