Pirates Select OF Josh Palacios; DFA RHP Chase De Jong

A source has confirmed to Pittsburgh Baseball Now that the Pittsburgh Pirates are promoting OF, Josh Palacios from Triple-A Indianapolis. To make room on the 40-man, the Pirates are DFA’ing RHP, Chase De Jong.

Palacios started the year in Double-A, but he’s been on an absolute tear since getting the call to Triple-A. In his last week’s worth of games (26 at-bats), Palacios is slashing .462/.482/.577 with an OPS of 1.058.

Palacios on the year is slashing .368/.433/.598 with an OPS of 1.031. In addition, Palacios has hit four homers, drove in 22, and has four stolen bases.

De Jong has not been able to put things together this year for the Pirates, and if you look at the underlying data from 2022, it’s of no shock.

Every single pitch he has is getting hit for a high average. The lowest opposing average is against his four-seam, and even that is at a .286.

De Jong is allowing an average exit velocity of 96 mph on his four-seam and a whopping 98.5 on his curveball.