Pirates add lefty starter Andrew Heaney to rotation
The Pittsburgh Pirates added a World Series champion left-handed pitcher to their starting rotation by signing veteran Andrew Heaney to a one-year contract, pending physical, a source confirmed to TribLive.
Heaney, 33, is 51-62 with a 4.45 ERA and 1.27 WHIP in 185 career starts over 11 seasons.
The 6-foot-2, 200-pounder spent the past two seasons with the Texas Rangers, winning a career-best 10 games and throwing a team-high 151 strikeouts in 28 starts when they won the World Series in 2023.
He finished 13th among American League pitchers (minimum 140 innings) in strikeouts per nine innings (9.22) and 19th in strikeout percentage (23.6%).
Heaney went 5-14 with a 4.28 ERA and 159 strikeouts in 31 starts for the Rangers last year.
Heaney is one of four left-handers in the majors to record 150-plus strikeouts in each of the last two seasons, along with Yusei Kikuchi, Framber Valdez and MacKenzie Gore. Heaney also is one of just five lefties to throw at least 145 innings in each of the last two seasons, along with Valdez, Kikuchi, Patrick Corbin and JP Sears.
Heaney has a five-pitch repertoire but relies heavily on three, throwing a four-seam fastball half the time and mixing a slider and changeup. He also sprinkles in a curveball and a sinker.
Heaney joins a rotation that returns All-Stars in right-handers Paul Skenes and Mitch Keller, along with Jared Jones and lefty Bailey Falter. The competition also includes Johan Oviedo, who is returning after missing last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.