Led by 23-year-old right-handed phenom Paul Skenes, who has posted the lowest ERA in major league history for any pitcher with at least 55 starts at 1.96, the Pittsburgh Pirates have one of the top starting rotations in baseball. This year the team won only 71 games and finished dead last in the National League Central, yet Pirates starters had the sixth-best ERA in the game (3.71).
Four of the five teams above them made the playoffs.
But even as general manager Ben Cherington goes about the difficult business of trying to turn his team into at least a playoff contender, he clearly believes that the Pirates organization can never have enough pitching depth. To that end, the Pirates made a low-key signing of an unusual pitcher, which was announced on the MiLB.com transaction page last week.
The Pirates announced that they had signed a right-handed pitcher out of Venezuela, 18-year-old Mervin Maiz. Not much is known about Maiz, apart from his distinctive physique. Standing 6-foot-7, the same height as Milwaukee Brewers flamethrower Jason Misiorowski, Maiz would immediately rank among the top 20 tallest pitchers in the major leagues, were he to reach that level.
But what really makes the Venezuelan teenager distinctive is that according to Pirates historian John Dreker — author of several books on the club — his weight is listed at a wispy 165 pounds.
According to the National Institutes of Health Body Mass Index calculator, those dimensions give Maiz a BMI of 18.6. Any BMI of 18.5 or lower is considered underweight.
Little other information about Maiz was available as of Sunday, but the Pirates appear to have finalized his contract on Dec. 5, 10 days in advance of this year’s international signing period.
On Jan. 15, the first day of the signing period, the Pirates signed 23 international prospects, reportedly exhausting their entire pool of $6.9 million. The Pirates appear to have made no trades during the season that would have added to their bonus pool cash.
But international prospects signed with bonuses of under $10,000 do not count against the allocated bonus pool, which would seem to indicate that Maiz received a bonus in the sub-five figure range.
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