Report: Pirates calling up Osvaldo Bido

Pittsburgh Pirates fans were notified Sunday afternoon that reinforcements were on the way amid several long-term injuries to pitchers. Most, if not all, were hopeful that a former first-round pick would be the likely choice.

Little did they know, the Pirates had other plans.

According to reports, Osvaldo Bido will join the team on Tuesday and will make his Major League debut either Wednesday or Thursday against the Chicago Cubs.

Bido, 27, is 3-4 with a 4.55 ERA in 12 games this season with Triple-A Indianapolis, spending time as both a starter and reliever.

Career-wise, Bido hasn’t been great, piling a 27-42 record over five-and-a-half years with a 4.40 ERA, a 1.35 WHIP and 482 strikeouts. His best season came in 2019, where he went 11-5 with a 3.55 ERA, 90 strikeouts and 29 walks.

Bido also impressed in three outings during Spring Training, going 1-1 with one run allowed off a solo home run. His best game came March 17 against the Tampa Bay Rays, where he picked up a win after striking out four over 10 innings.

Again, this is Spring Training. We all know how unreliable those stats can be, but he did carry the success into his first four appearances of the season with Indianapolis. In those games, he allowed five earned runs over 16 innings, four coming in one outing.

He also struck out a season-high nine strikeouts on April 16.

He did go on a downward spin over the course of the season. In May, he allowed 10 earned runs in under 25 innings, then in June, he’s allowed seven earned runs in just 11 innings.

Calling up Bido over 2019 first-round pick Quinn Priester is puzzling, to say the least, but the only explanation one can think of is that the latter option has a few things to work out. What those are is up for debate.

It’s not worth getting upset over, though. Remember, General Manager Ben Cherington hinted that several promotions are coming up. Priester could be one of them.

Who knows, maybe they do a grand announcement of calling up Priester, Endy Rodriguez, Henry Davis, and a few others.

OK... that might be a stretch.

Either way, if Bido succeeds, they might toss him into the bullpen for the long run. If he fails, he gets cut and that’s that. Give him a chance before getting upset.