3–28-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
Following a dramatic walkoff that Pirates fans are all too familiar with, there’s always another game. Another chance for your team to show they aren’t completely hopeless, and the Pirates get that chance today as they’ll face Connor Gillispie.
Drafted in the 9th round in 2019 by the Baltimore Orioles, Gillispie’s development was stunted due to the pandemic and struggled to succeed in the Orioles system, posting a 4.00 ERA over 313 innings split between starter and reliever with the organization.
He was plucked by the Cleveland Guardians in the minor league phase of the 2023 Rule 5 Draft and spent most the 2024 season with their AAA affiliate before making his MLB debut on August 4th.
Despite posting a 2.25 ERA over 8 innings, Gillispie was DFA’d in the offseason, briefly signing with the Atlanta Braves before being cut and catching on with the Marlins.
Gillispie doesn’t have raw “stuff” and relies primarily on his low-90s rising fastball at the top of the zone with his secondaries including a cutter and changeup in the high-80s and a low-80s slider.
One of the big issues that has been a struggle for Gillispie is control as he walked 10.1% of batters in AAA last season before issuing 5 free passes in the aforementioned 8 innings pitched in MLB.
Another issue for the rookie 27-year old is that when he does command his pitches, they are usually hit pretty hard.
His average exit velocity last year (albeit in a small sample size) was 90.3 MPH, which is almost the equivalent of Alec Bohm (90.4 average EV).
Bucs batters will want to exhibit patience today, take walks and look for the mistake pitches up in the zone but biggest thing moving forward is limiting mistakes on both sides of the ball.
Steel City Pirates 