Meet the Pirates' Rule 5 Draft pick

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In mid-October, general manager Ben Cherington expressed a desire to add swing-and-miss to the bullpen. Jose Hernandez, a flamethrowing southpaw whom the Pirates selected in the Rule 5 Draft from the Dodgers, fits that bill.

“[He’s an] athlete who we’ve seen really recent improvement on and improvement with,” Cherington said. “Given the athleticism, we think there may be more. Excited to work with him.”

Hernandez’s archetype as a reliever is familiar enough: a dominating fastball, lots of strikeouts, lots of walks.

Across 206 career innings in the Minor Leagues, Hernandez has accumulated 231 strikeouts, or 10.1 per nine innings. Hernandez’s command requires work, his career 4.2 walks per nine innings in the Minors being far from ideal.

Hernandez’s bread and butter is his fastball, a four-seamer that gained velocity as the summer went along and frequently touched triple digits. That degree of heat is a welcome addition to Pittsburgh’s bullpen, which didn’t feature many arms that could really light up the radar gun.
In 2022, Pirates relievers combined to throw 89 pitches that were 98 mph or faster, the sixth-fewest in baseball. Velocity isn’t everything, but adding Hernandez helps further diversify Pittsburgh’s bullpen.

Along with the fastball, Hernandez features a slider that sits in the mid-to-high 80s. Hernandez will mix in a changeup as well, but he’s predominantly a fastball-slider pitcher.

With David Bednar, Colin Holderman, Yerry De Los Santos and Robert Stephenson in the mix, Hernandez, who hasn't made his Major League debut, will likely begin next season in a low-leverage role.