Miami Marlins shake up the pitching staff

Today brings us an interesting matchup between the Miami Marlins and the Pittsburgh Pirates. This series has already seen some exciting moments and things will hopefully just keep getting better. The team isn't sitting still and another flurry of moves has just been done. Let's get into the moves and see what they mean for the team going forward. They involve relief pitchers Brett De Geus and Xzavion Curry and starting pitcher Valente Bellozo.

The Miami Marlins make a flurry of moves to shake up the pitching.

Relief pitcher Brett De Geus has been designated for assignment. The 27 year old righty hasn't pitched for the Miami Marlins this season. He did however pitch for the team last season, pitching to a 6.35 ERA/3.34 FIP, with 6.4 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 7 games and 5.2 innings pitched. He was worth a terrible -0.1 WAR. It looks like it was decided not to give him more chances this season. My guess is that he was simply there for depth, and so he was deemed expendable. It's important to point out that he was on the "40-man roster" NOT the "active roster".

Right-handed relief pitcher Xzavion Curry is replacing De Geus on the 40-man. Curry pitched for The Fish last season, pitching to a 3.00 ERA/4.22 FIP, with 6.5 K/9 and 1.0 BB/9 in 9 games and 18.0 innings pitched. He was worth 0.5 WAR for that performance. Curry has actually been placed on the Major League roster outright, which means that someone had to be optioned down to the Minors.

So who was optioned to the Minor Leagues to make room for Xzavion Curry? None other than Valente Bellozo. Bellozo has already pitched this season and pitched to a 2.08 ERA/2.25 FIP, with 8.3 K/9 and 4.2 BB/9 in a start and 4.1 innings pitched. I expect him to be back up this season and getting more starts. I'm actually a bit surprised that he was demoted to the Minors right now, but I'm sure there's a good reason for it. We'll find out how that works out.