Ernesto Frieri accepted a demotion to Triple-A after being designated for assignment last month, but now the Pirates have released the 28-year-old reliever.
Frieri came into this season with a lifetime 2.76 ERA and 315 strikeouts in 231 innings, including 37 saves as the Angels’ closer last year, but he was quickly stripped of ninth-inning duties and then traded to the Pirates for Jason Grilli in a change-of-scenery swap.
It worked for Grilli, who has a 2.28 ERA for the Angels, but Frieri was even worse for the Pirates and has a 7.34 ERA overall this season.
Based on his secondary numbers Frieri seems like a strong bounceback candidate for 2015, but it’ll be interesting to see if any teams are willing to offer him more than an incentive-laden one-year deal as a free agent.