Pirates Select Cam Vieaux, Designate Jose Godoy

The Pirates announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Cam Vieaux. Righty Yohan Ramirez was optioned to make room on the active roster. To open a spot on the 40-man, catcher Jose Godoy was designated for assignment.

This will be the second time that Vieaux, 28, has been selected to the Pirates’ roster. They first called him up in June, letting him make five appearances. The first four went pretty well, with the southpaw only allowing a single earned run in that time. In his fifth outing, however, the Bucs sent him in to pitch the top of the eighth in a game they were losing to the Brewers 9-1. Despite Vieaux getting hit around badly, there was no help forthcoming to get out of the inning. The lefty ended up tossing 56 pitches in that one frame, allowing six hits, three walks and eight runs, seven of them earned. As a result, he has a 14.40 ERA through five innings this year.

As a reward for eating that inning, Vieaux was optioned to the minors and designated for assignment in the following days. He cleared waivers and was outrighted, sticking in the Pirates’ system. In 42 Triple-A innings this year, he has an even 3.00 ERA, with a 23.3% strikeout rate, 8.8% walk rate and 43.1% ground ball rate.

As for Godoy, 27, he’s surely racked up his share of frequent flyer miles this year. He began 2022 in the Mariners organization but was claimed off waivers by the Giants in March, who promptly lost him to the Twins on another waiver claim. He stuck with Minnesota until August, at which point he went to Pittsburgh on yet another trip to the waiver wire. He’s spent most of his time in the minors this year, getting into 44 Triple-A games and hitting .201/.272/.299 in that time.

Since the trade deadline has passed, the Pirates will have no choice but to put Godoy on outright waivers or release waivers in the coming days. If Godoy doesn’t get claimed for a fourth time this year, he can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, by virtue of having been previously outrighted in his career. This leaves the Pirates with Jason Delay and Tyler Heineman as the only catchers on their 40-man roster.