Pirates sign Josh Stinson

The Pirates have announced that they've signed righty Josh Stinson to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training.

Stinson will be 27 in March. He came up with the Mets system, then spent a year with the Brewers before being claimed by the Athletics and then the Orioles, with whom he spent the 2013 season. He pitched 17 reasonably good innings in the big leagues that year, then pitched in eight relief outings in 2014 before the Orioles outrighted him in June. He spent most of the past year with Triple-A Norfolk, where he walked four batters per nine innings but struck out 8.4, a big jump from 6.0 at that level the previous season. His fastball averaged 92 MPH in the big leagues.

Stinson clearly has flaws, but given that he isn't a soft-tosser, he can start or relieve, and he's not yet 27, he's a pretty good get by the standards of minor league contracts. Hopefully, he'll spend most of the season in the Indianapolis bullpen.