Pirates All 40: Joey Wentz Makes the Most of Brief Audition

This is one in a series of stories breaking down members of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 40-man roster.

A September 2024 waiver claim, left-handed reliever Joey Wentz appeared in eight games for the Pirates down the stretch last season.

After struggling to a 5.37 ERA in 55.1 innings for the Detroit Tigers, Wentz finished his year on a high note, allowing just two runs in 12 innings with Pittsburgh, both of which came in his first two appearances. From there, Wentz finished the year on a nine inning (six appearance) shutout streak.

Wentz stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 220 pounds, a 27-year-old whose four pitch mix allows him to serve as a long reliever rather than just entering the game for an inning at a time.

He knows how to miss bats, posting an 80th percentile whiff rate in 2024 while also limiting opponents’ exit velocity (71st percentile) and the hand-in-hand hard-hit percentage (73rd percentile).

Wentz throws some form of fastball more than 68 percent of the time, primarily relying on a four-seamer that averages 93.7 miles per hour and a change of pace cutter that sits in the mid-80s.

Also on the table are a changeup and a curveball, with his breaking pitches performing far better than his offspeed ones.

Wentz performed admirably in his brief stint with the Pirates last season, and it’ll be interesting to see if they want to see more of him moving forward: if his late season addition served as a sort of tryout, it’s hard to argue with a 1.50 ERA.