The Pirates brought back a right fielder Brandon Bidois from Triple-A Indianapolis and optioned to a righty Cam Sanders back to Indy in his place. Bidois was already on the 40-man roster, so no corresponding move was necessary. Bidois will join the Pittsburgh bullpen and make his major league debut for the first time taking the mound. The Bucs also fielded a catcher Joey Bart on the list of 10 days injured with an infection in the left foot and remembered Andy Rodriguez in parallel movement.
Bidois, 24, had been signed by the country from Australia in 2019. He’s sporting an unimpressive 7.20 ERA in 15 frames at Triple-A this season but has been held to a .371 average on balls in play despite holding opponents to 87.9 mph, a weak exit average and even a weak 2% velocity. Bidois hasn’t done himself any favors by striking out 12.9% of his opponents, but his 32.9% strikeout rate is very good and his power is impressive.
The Aussie-born righty is very active in the seamer/slider combination, sitting at 96.5 mph with the former and 85.9 mph with the latter. He’ll match the all-time low 90s but only throw that at an 8.6% clip this year. Bidois sports a very solid 13.8% swinging strike rate — about three points north of the major league average — and has attracted a chase with nearly one out of every three pitches he’s thrown outside the strike zone.
While this year’s results aren’t spectacular, the underlying signs are encouraging – as was Bidois’s 2025 campaign which was a success. He threw 61 innings at four minor league levels last year and posted a 0.74 ERA with a 30% strikeout rate and an 11.7% walk rate. That includes 13 shutout frames in Triple-A.
Pittsburgh’s bullpen has been a middle-of-the-pack unit for the season as a whole, sitting 17th in the majors with a 4.14 earned run average. However, the past few weeks have been difficult. Over the past 14 days, the Pirates’ pitchers have coughed up 29 earned runs in 36 2/3 innings (7.12 ERA). After striking out nearly a quarter of the opponents in the first five weeks of the season, they have only managed to strike out 17.8% of the batters they have faced in the last two weeks. Sanders, who gave up six runs in five innings in a difficult season, contributed to the frustration of the bullpen for manager Don Kelly.
