One of the National League’s best left-handed set-up men just two seasons ago is among four nonroster invitees to spring training, the Pittsburgh Pirates announced Friday.
Former St. Louis Cardinals reliever Tyler Lyons was invited to the Pirates’ major-league camp, which begins the week prior to Lyons’ 31st birthday. Lyons has a 4.20 ERA over 147 career appearances for St. Louis over the past six seasons.
Lyons had a 2.83 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 68 strikeouts in 54 innings for the Cardinals in 2017, but his performance fell off last season when he had an 8.64 ERA and 24 hits allowed in 16 2/3 innings over 27 games before being designated for assignment in late July.
Lyons is a candidate to fill a role in what stands now as a top-heavy 2019 Pirates bullpen. So, perhaps, is another of Friday’s invitees, Roberto Gomez. The righty made San Francisco’s opening-day roster last season but made only five appearances (7.71 ERA) over two stints with the Giants in addition to four outings (8.44 ERA) in 2017.
Also announced were the invitations to spring training for catcher Steven Baron and outfielder Patrick Kivlehan.
Baron, 28 spent most of 2018 with Triple-A Memphis in the Cardinals organization. Kivlehan, 29, hit 20 home runs last season split between Double-A and Triple-A. He has appeared in 132 games in the majors over parts of the past three seasons.
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Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris at cadamski@tribweb.com or via Twitter @C_AdamskiTrib.
