Roster news: Pirates trade Richard Rodriguez, Austin Davis; recall Mitch Keller

Well, it wasn’t nearly as an exciting trade deadline day as we would have hoped. After swinging a minor deal earlier in the day with the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates traded reliever Richard Rodriguez to the Atlanta Braves for right-handed pitchers Bryse Wilson and Ricky Devito.

Wilson is expected to join the rotation immediately and had already started seven games for the the Braves, going 2-3 with a 4.83 ERA, a 1.547 WHIP, and 21 strikeouts in 31 innings pitched.

Devito is a Minor League arm and he had an 0-3 mark at Atlanta’s Rome affiliate, though he did have a 2.66 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 20 innings.

The Bucs also traded reliever Austin Davis to the Boston Red Sox for utility guy Michael Chavis, who’s hitting just .190 with 2 homers and 6 RBIs in 78 at bats on the year.

In addition, the Pirates have recalled Mitch Keller from Triple-A, and it’s rumored that he could start this weekend, though it’s not entirely clear yet how the rotation will fit together with Wilson now in the mix also.

Keller was having a rough year in the Majors, but pitched pretty well in his Minor League stint, racking up a 3.23 ERA, a 1.43 WHIP and 38 strikouts in 28 innings. Hopefully, he can carry over some of that solid performance when he returns to the mound in Pittsburgh.

So not a huge day by any stretch of the imagination for the Buccos, but they managed to get a few deals in before 4pm deadline. We’ll be waiting to see how the rotation shakes out.