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Phil Irwin Promoted to Altoona

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The Pittsburgh Pirates have promoted pitchers Phil Irwin and Josh Poytress from Bradenton to Altoona. Irwin’s promotion is expected. He returned to Bradenton over the weekend after missing the early part of the season with an injury. He pitched half the season in Altoona last year and was always ticketed to return to the level.

Poytress has pitched well this year. He started the season in West Virginia, then quickly moved up to Bradenton after giving up one run in 8.1 innings, with an 8:3 K/BB ratio. While with the Marauders, the left-hander threw 16.2 shutout innings, including six shutout innings in relief last night in Bradenton’s 18 inning victory. He’s posted an 11:7 K/BB ratio in Bradenton, along with a .175 BAA.

Poytress was drafted last year in the 18th round out of Fresno State.

Altoona already had one open roster spot. Another was created by transferring right-handed pitcher Kyle Cofield to the DL.

UPDATE: Poytress tweets that he’s not actually going to Altoona. It’s just a paper move to open up roster spots for Bradenton. It’s rare to see a paper move in the upper levels. Usually we only see them in West Virginia. It made more sense for Irwin to be going, although that could also be a paper move.

Rick VandenHurk has been added to the Bradenton roster, and will throw tonight for the Marauders. So obviously that’s where the need for a roster spot came from.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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