In an announcement that almost coincided with the first pitch in Paul Skenes’ third major league start, the Pittsburgh Pirates announced that they had recalled left handed reliever Jose Hernandez.

To make the corresponding move, the Pirates have optioned outfielder Jack Suwinski to Triple-A Indianapolis.

Despite the comments being filled with some combination of the words “DFA” and “Rowdy”, it’s a move that needed to be made, even if the Pirates still should probably show Rowdy the door for the time being.

But the Pirates needed another lefty in the bullpen ever since the team designated Josh Fleming for assignment last week. Hernandez, a lefty, was sportint a 1.93 ERA in his very limited major league time this season (4.2 innings pitched).

Hernandez has had some struggles in Triple-A this year, posting a 7.62 ERA in 13.0 innings, but some bumps in the road in Indy this season hasn’t stopped the Pirates from calling up some other arms. Recent call up Carmen Mlodzinski, who had tremendous success last season in the majors, left Indianapolis with a 6.43 ERA at the time of his recall.

But more importantly, Jack Suwinski had to be optioned down. He was batting .174 on the season with a .565 OPS. His batting average was the worst among Pirates who received regular playing time, and his OPS isn’t all that far off.

The Pirates clearly tried to work on the 25 year old’s main issue: his strikeouts. In 2022 when he played 106 games for the Pirates, he had a strikeout rate of 30.7%. Last year, that issue only got worse when it increased to 32.2% in 144 games.

To his, and the team’s credit, Suwinski’s strikeout rate fell dramatically 25.5%, but his other issues did not correct themselves in the process. It seemed as though the coaching Suwinski received, and/or the lessons he took from said coaching, only erased one issue, and did not address the others.

Albeit in a much smaller sample size, Suwinski’s current major league numbers are the worst of his career across the board. His batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS are all the worst numbers of his career to this point.

Suwinski did have 4 home runs and 13 RBI, and that power in his bat is part of the reason he has been kept in the majors as long as he has. But in his third year, the Pirates desperately needed more consistency from him this season, and they just haven’t gotten it.

Suwinski was the ultimate boom or bust type player the last few seasons: he was either about to hit a homer or strike out.

With a team that has had large droughts at the plate, the Pirates needed players who could hit the ball more reliably. The strikeouts dropping simply wasn’t enough, because they weren’t being replaced with any more hits.

Optioning him does not mean he can’t still be a major leaguer. It does not mean his issues can’t be corrected. It just means he needs a reset.

And quite frankly, that reset has been needed for a long time. His batting average has not started with a 2 since April 8th, and only twice all season did he enter a game with a batting average over .200.

Suwinski has not played a minor league game at any level since 2022. He played in both Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis that season.

In the meantime, it does clear up some lineup questions for the Pirates. The optioning of Suwinski opens up an outfield spot for the recently called up Ji Hwan Bae, who was raking it in with Indy.

The Pirates used Bae as a utility player last season, almost equally splitting his playing time between the outfield and second base. With Bae’s speed, he serves the Pirates better as an outfielder anyways, so now there’s an open slot for him.

Besides, if you’re the Pirates, you want to get Nick Gonzales’ bat in the lineup as many days as possible, and his strongest position remains second base.

As for Jack, now he gets some time to correct his swing and get his groove back. We’ve seen positive affects happen with Henry Davis, who the Pirates had big hopes for but needed more from. Since he was optioned to Indy, Davis has gotten back to smashing baseballs and looks a lot more confident.

Maybe the same effect happens with Suwinski. For his sake, let’s hope so.

(Featured photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images)