Pirates reportedly will call up Montana DuRapau

With Keone Kela headed to the injured list, the Pirates reportedly will call up Montana DuRapau.

DuRapau has consistently put up excellent numbers in the minors, with a career 2.47 ERA and 9.5 K/9. He also has such an intimidating name that nobody has ever dared take a photo of him, so I don’t have one to post here.

DuRapau has had an interesting odyssey the last couple years. He got a spring training invite last year, only to lose it when he got suspended for a drug of abuse. This year, he didn’t even have a roster spot at Indianapolis to start the season, thanks to various luminaries who now have ERAs in or nearing double figures. But space opened up for DuRapau in time for him to get into a dozen games. He has an ERA of 0.63, WHIP of 0.70 and K/9 of 11.3. He relies heavily on a cutter, which in a game I watched about a week ago was sitting at 92-94 mph. He was also throwing a breaking ball that was generating swings and misses. He tends to work up in the zone and is a flyball pitcher.

UPDATE: As MLBTR points out, the Pirates can clear 40-man roster space for DuRapau by moving Lonnie Chisenhall to the 60-day IL. Chisenhall has already been out 44 days and isn’t ready to begin running, so he’s unlikely to return before he reaches 60 days.