The Pittsburgh Pirates have released right-handed pitcher Josh Lindblom, who is returning to Korea, where he pitched the last two seasons.
Lindblom pitched briefly for the Pirates this season after he was added to the 40-man roster on May 6th. He threw 10.1 innings over four appearances and had a 7.84 ERA and a 2.08 WHIP, with ten strikeouts. He was placed on the disabled list on May 20th and reported to Indianapolis for a rehab stint one week later. When that 30-day stint ended, the Pirates designated him for assignment and assigned him outright to Indianapolis. In 17 appearances in Triple-A, Lindblom had a 4.06 ERA in 37.2 innings, with 33 strikeouts and a 1.19 WHIP.
Indianapolis also announced that Starling Marte rejoined the team after spending the Triple-A All-Star break in Bradenton. Marte is eligible to join the Pirates on Tuesday.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
If I was Lindblom I really would think twice about heading to Korea!
Maybe Linblom can make extra salary blowing sober breath into that device in kang’s car so it will start.
Pirates did this guy a gigantic favor, hope things work out for him.
Maybe you all can call John and hire him as your Korea reporter so we can get an actual update on Kang and the efforts, if any, he or the Pirates are making to get his Visa issues resolved.
We give Korea Lindblom, Korea gives us Kang? Pretty please?
I’m pretty sure Josh Lindblow isn’t involved in the Visa process but to be fair, I’m not 100% certain. If you start hearing about Kang coming over we have no choice but to believe Lindblow was part of the deal.