Pirates promote Glasnow to Indianapolis

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Pirates are promoting top prospect Tyler Glasnow to Class AAA Indianapolis.

Glasnow, a 21-year-old right-hander, has a 2.43 ERA in 12 starts this season with Class AA Altoona. He struck out 82 batters in 63 innings, held opponents to 0.3 home runs per nine innings and 5.9 hits per nine, and had a 4.32 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

The Pirates say Glasnow is scheduled to make his triple-A debut Saturday. 

“We are pleased with Tyler's development and believe he is ready for the next set of challenges in his career,” general manager Neal Huntington said in a statement. 

Glasnow missed a month because of a sprained right ankle. He made two rehab starts with short-season West Virginia and returned to the Curve rotation June 29. In his previous four starts he has a 1.80 ERA, a .149 batting average against, and 38 strikeouts compared to six walks in 25 innings. He struck out double-digit batters in his most recent two starts.

After walking at least four batters per nine innings in each of his first three professional seasons, Glasnow lowered that rate to 2.7 per nine this year. 

Glasnow spent 63 innings in Altoona; Gerrit Cole pitched 59 innings there. Cole made 13 starts in Indy before the Pirates promoted him, a total of 74 innings. He debuted in June, but was promoted to Indy later than Glasnow was. Glasnow might still not come up until next June, if everything goes well and he stays healthy and performs, because of Super 2 considerations.