Daulton Jeffries is a name we’ve heard a few times in the last few weeks. He has been tabbed as a call-up candidate on a few occasions, being a guy with former major league experience. He also served as the team’s 27th man during their double header a few weeks ago in Detroit.
But now he’s officially a Pittsburgh Pirate. Today, the team optioned recent free agent signee Justin Bruihl to Triple-A Indianapolis to bring up Jeffries.
Bruihl pitched just 5.1 innings for the Pirates before being optioned. He allowed 7 hits and 4 earned runs in that time.
Jeffries, meanwhile, is an interesting righty, but not in the ways you probably think. What I mean is, the Pirates have a strong interest in this guy despite his numbers looking pretty bleak in most areas.
The Pirates acquired him on May 10th in a trade with the San Francisco Giants that saw High-A outfielder Rodolfo Nolasco go the other way. At the time of the deal, the 28-year old Jeffries had 61.0 innings of major league play to his name, with a career ERA of 6.64.
The vas majority of those innings came when he was a member of the Oakland A’s organization. From 2020 to 2023 he pitched 56.1 innings with the A’s, recording a 5.75 ERA, 1.349 WHIP, and a 2.64 K/BB ratio.
It’s important to note that in 2021, 4 of his 5 games came from the bullpen, but in 2022, all 8 of his games were starts. His 2022 was cut short due to a thoracic outlet syndrome diagnosis and a subsequent Tommy John surgery.
The recovery time forced him to miss all of 2023, before winding up with the San Francisco Giants organization, where he signed a minor league deal.
He made his first start with the Giants on March 31st of this season, but he was absolutely shelled. Lasting only 2.0 innings, he was dinged for 9 runs (but interestingly, only 5 were earned runs) in an eventual 13-4 loss for San Francisco.
He wouldn’t pitch in a Giants uniform again until May 1st, where he came out of the bullpen and pitched 2.2 innings, giving up 4 runs (all earned) and was credited with his second loss in as many appearances.
The Giants then designated him for assignment before working out a trade with Pittsburgh.
For his part, his Triple-A numbers with the Sacramento River Cars were a vast improvement. He pitched 18.1 innings there (4 games, 2 starts), he recorded a 3.44 ERA, 1.036 WHIP, and 3.40 K/BB ratio. He went at least 4.0 innings in each game and limited opponents to 2 or less runs in all but one of those games.
However, that success in the Pacific Coast League did not translate after he was traded. Upon joining Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate, the Indianapolis Indians, his ERA skyrocketed.
In 5 games (all starts) with Indy, Jeffries has a 6.10 ERA through 20.2 innings pitched, and has a 1.742 WHIP and 1.20 K/BB ratio. Virtually every statistic has taken a nosedive since joining the Indians, and Jeffries is giving up way too much to his opponents.
However, there is something to be said for coming off a really good game, and Jeffries is. In his last start with Indy before the call up, he went 5.2 innings, allowing just 4 hits and 1 earned run back on June 11th.
Between both the major leagues and Triple-A, that was the longest he had pitched in a game and just the second time he held opponents to 1 run or less.
Jeffries was a very goof strikeout pitcher back before the arm injury. His strikeout numbers and ratios at all levels within the A’s organization were rather impressive, but that side of his game has yet to return since getting back into baseball.
In addition to that, his limited sample size in the major leagues is not super encouraging for a Pirates team that is cobbling together bullpen games and has suffered a string of arm injuries. You couldn’t be blamed if you saw his stat line and worried that the Pirates might have the next Ben Heller on their roster again.
Perhaps they’re hoping that with more time, he can bounce back and continue to grow into his skills. But call me skeptical.
I hope he proves me wrong.
(Featured photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
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