The Bucs have agreed to terms with reliever Brendan Donnelly on what appears to be a one-year, $1.5 million major-league deal.
It's tough to know what the Pirates are getting with Donnelly, who's spent much of the past several years being injured, but he made a triumphant return last year, posting a microscopic ERA for a couple months with the Astros' AAA affiliate in Round Rock and then probably pitching even better for the Marlins. He struck out about three times as many as he walked at both stops. His velocities last year suggest his stuff was about the same as it was before having Tommy John surgery in 2007. He'll be 39 in July, so it's hard to call this a huge-upside move, but I do think it's a worthwhile gamble--Donnelly was one of the best members of some of those awesome Angels bullpens of a few years back, and he showed indications last year that he's back from an injury that slowed him since then. He isn't likely to post a 1.78 ERA the way he did last year, but let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. It's only $1.5 million.