To make room on the 40-man roster the Pirates have
unconditionally released minor league outfielder Kevin Thompson. Pittsburgh will make a corresponding move on the 25 -man
roster when Bautista officially joins the club.
"It's another low risk - with the potential to have a medium to high upside," Pirates GM Neal Huntington said. "Denny Bautista is a big physical right-hander with plus arm strength. Our scouts have seen a plus breaking ball at times and we've seen a plus third pitch from him at times. The struggle obviously has been consistency throwing strikes and it's our thought that he's a nice addition. He's an upgrade over what we currently have and if we can reach him and help him throw more strikes we may have a guy who can be pitching in the middle or pitching toward the back end.
Bautista, 27, began the 2008 season with the Tigers and went 0-1 with a 3.32 ERA (19.0ip/7er) and 10 strikeouts in 16 relief
appearances before being designated for assignment on June 20. Bautista held hitters to a .231 batting average against
(1 -for-6 ) and just one home run, including a .143 average against lefties (3-for-21). He was scored upon just once in his
first 10 appearances (10.1ip/1er) through April 2 .
The right-handed reliever has spent parts of five seasons in the big leagues with Baltimore, Kansas City, Colorado and Detroit
since being signed by Florida as a non-drafted free agent on April 11, 2000. In 30 career relief appearances (3 .2ip) in
the major leagues he has surrendered a total of just three home runs.
During Bautista’s minor league career, he was tabbed as the third-best prospect in the Marlins organization following the
2001 campaign by Baseball America. In 2003 he was named to the World Teamfor the Futures Game during All-Star week
held at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. During that same season, he was tabbed by Baseball America as the fifth-best prospect
in the Baltimore Orioles system and the ninth-best prospect in the Florida State League. One year later while playing in the
Kansas City organization, he was named the second-best prospect in the Royals farm system and the fifth-best prospect in
the Texas League by Baseball America.
Kevin Thompson underwent successful surgery on his left hand Tuesday and will likely miss the remainder of the season.