The Pirates continued their recent Pac-Man approach to waivers, claiming righty reliever Chaz Roe, who'd been designated for assignment by the Yankees. They made room for Roe by placing Charlie Morton on the 60-day disabled list, officially ending his season.
Roe is a standard fastball/slider reliever. He throws in the low-90s and throws the slider about a third of the time. He was originally a supplemental first round pick of the Rockies way back in 2005. He never really lived up to his early draft status as he was coming through the Rockies' system as a starter, due to weak command and secondary stuff. He completely tanked once he got to AAA. He also got a 50-game drug suspension in 2012, which led to him spending the year in independent ball. By then he'd moved to relief. He caught on in 2013 with Arizona and saw most of his major league time during several callups that year. He spent this year in AAA with Miami and went to the Yankees in a cash deal at the end of August. He made three brief appearances with them before being designated for assignment.
Roe's been more effective as a reliever, missing a lot more bats than he did as a starter. His K/9 in AAA this year was 10.1, and it was 9.7 in 22 major league innings last year. In his brief time in the majors he's had an enormous platoon split -- fastball/slider relievers typically struggle against left-handed hitters. He has no options left, so he'll have to make the major league roster out of camp next spring or be exposed to waivers. I doubt he'll make it that long, though, as the Pirates will probably dfa him this off-season when something more interesting comes along.