A Jaden Woods Call-Up Should Be On The Pirates Radar
The Pittsburgh Pirates’ bullpen has struggled for over a month. While the bullpen market should start picking up over the next few weeks, the Pirates will have to find improvement from within. Noah Murdock is one minor league reliever we mentioned as someone to keep an eye on, but another bullpen arm the Pirates should consider giving the call to MLB is left-hander Jaden Woods.
The Pirates drafted Woods out of the University of Georgia in the seventh round of the 2023 draft. The left-hander is having his best season yet. Don’t be fooled by his 4.11 ERA between Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis. Woods is striking out nearly 40% of the batters he has faced with a 37.2% K%. He has only allowed two home runs over 30.1 innings of work and has a 51.5% ground ball rate. Woods’ 10.9% walk rate is about average; however, he has cut down on free passes significantly as the season has gone on. Over the last month, his BB% is just 5.8%.
His ERA is inflated by a .377 batting average on balls in play. Woods’ BABIP in the month of June is an unsustainable .467 mark. He has both a strong 2.75 FIP and 2.69 xFIP. The former is the eighth best among minor league relievers, while the latter currently leads all minor league bullpen pitchers (min. 30 IP).
Woods primarily uses two pitches. His two-seamer is his fastball variant. He sits at 95 MPH with the offering and has maxed out at 97.5 MPH at Triple-A. His go-to breaking pitch is a slider that clocks in around 83 MPH. He’ll occasionally flip in an upper-80s change-up, although he has only thrown five since reaching Triple-A. Woods’ above-average extension also makes his velocity play up. His arm angle is also similar to that of fellow Pirates’ lefty reliever, Evan Sisk.
Another reason the Pirates should call up Woods is that they will eventually need to add him to their 40-man roster. The left-hander is Rule 5 draft eligible. His performance and above-average stuff would make him one of the first players taken in the draft if he were left available. The Pirates can add him to their roster in December or now, and have him help their current bullpen.
The Pirates should try anything they can before the market starts to heat up. Call players up, move roles around, do whatever it takes to try and find some stability in the bullpen. That means that promoting Jaden Woods to see what he has should be on the table. Woods is one of the best minor league relievers in their farm system right now, and could help right the ship.
