The Pirates have claimed reliever Anthony Claggett, 25, from the Yankees. To make room for him, Jose Ascanio has been moved to the 60-day DL. The Yankees got Claggett in the Gary Sheffield trade with the Tigers a couple years ago. He was, frankly, a big mess for Class AAA Scranton this year--he had a 3.07 ERA, which is fine, but he only struck out 43 batters in 82 innings. Claggett also made a pretty memorable big-league debut earlier this year, allowing a full eight runs in one and two-thirds innings against the Indians April 18.
Claggett has put up stronger strikeout numbers in the past, and he hasn't pitched very long (having grown up as an infielder), so I suppose you could make some case that there's a smidgen of upside here, but his performance record is mediocre and, unlike some of the other head-scratching relief acquisitions Neal Huntington has made, Claggett isn't even supposed to have blazing stuff. He does, however, fit into the Pirates' bizarre trend of grabbing every pitcher they can get their hands on from the high levels of the Yankees system--in addition to Claggett, Ross Ohlendorf, Daniel McCutchen, Jeff Karstens, Eric Hacker and Steven Jackson have all come from there. I like a couple of those pitchers just fine, of course, but the overall pattern is still pretty weird. No harm in it, I suppose, but even in an organization that's starved for relief pitching, this is a pretty bottom-of-the-barrel acquisition.