Shelton sees some positives in Priester's short stint with Pirates
PITTSBURGH - Cary-Grove High School grad Quinn Priester made his MLB debut with the Pirates on July 17. After six starts, he's now back at Triple A Indianapolis.
Before Thursday's game against the Cubs, Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton, another suburban native from Warren High School in Gurnee, talked about Priester's progress. The right-hander was a first-round pick, No. 18 overall, in 2019.
"We were very grateful to get an opportunity to bring him up," Shelton said. "I think the big-league game showed him there's things he needs to adjust and work on. But we like the stuff and we think he's an important part of what we're doing moving forward."
Priester's stat line with the Pirates was a 2-2 record and 9.10 ERA, with 7.2 strikeouts per nine innings. Nothing necessarily qualified as a solid start, but he did beat San Diego and Philadelphia.
"There are some adjustments that we will have to continue to make, but the big-league game showed him that," Shelton said. "So we just work on it now."
Thompson returns:
Before Thursday's game, the Cubs recalled pitcher Keegan Thompson from Triple A Iowa and sent down Michael Rucker.
Thompson figured to be a key piece in the Cubs' bullpen this season, especially after posting a 1.80 ERA in April.
But he hit a rough stretch, went down to Iowa and struggled there, had some back issues, but seems to be approaching his old form.
"Things kind of snowballed on him and he started to struggle, but I've been really impressed with how he's kind of owned those struggles and how he's worked his way back," Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. "I still think he has some steps along the way to get back to the best version of himself, but he looks good right now and I'm proud of the way he attacked his issues."
You look familiar:
The Pirates starting pitcher on Thursday, left-hander Rob Zastryzny, worked just one inning, but it was a significant outing. Zastryzny was a Cubs' second-round draft pick in 2013 out of Missouri. This was the second start of his career, the first was for the Cubs at Pittsburgh during the final week of the 2016 season. He threw 4 innings and the game ended in a 1-1 tie.
During his time with the Cubs, Zastryzny worked two innings with David Ross as his catcher.
"Yeah, I've yelled at him in the locker room, I've done a lot of things," Ross joked before the game.
A more recent ex-Cub, Alfonso Rivas, started at first base for the Pirates.
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