Pirates acquire reliever Camilo Doval from Yankees

Montgomery got the call to guard a one-run advantage after Camilo Doval tossed a scoreless eighth inning. He managed to work around a one-out single from Joey Ortiz by striking out Brice Turang and Jackson Chourio to extinguish the threat. He’s likely going to take a back seat to newly acquired high-leverage veteran Luke Weaver, but could wind up vulturing the occasional save chance against lefty-heavy lineups.

The Pirates were down 9-2 in the eighth, so it didn’t really matter much that Doval surrendered a solo shot to Tyler Stephenson. Still, it’s not a great first impression as he auditions for a late-game role. Even though his groundball rate remains excellent, Doval has allowed a career-high seven homers this season. That’s one homer every six innings, compared to one every 14 innings over the course his career.

It’ll be prospects Omar Alfonzo and Luis Cruz heading to the Yankees in the deal. The 29-year-old reliever is on the move for the second consecutive trade deadline after struggling to a pedestrian 4.54 ERA, 1.41 WHIP and 39/18 K/BB ratio across 39 2/3 innings for New York. His high-leverage experience, along with a change of scenery, give him some value for the Pirates as they attempt to cobble things together at the back-end of their relief mix.

Doval had uncommon velocity tonight, hitting 102 mph on the gun on three occasions, but he gave up three singles and a double, none of them hard hit. Also, he didn’t back up home plate on the double, which was a bad look even if it didn’t affect the scoring. Doval is sporting a 6.04 ERA in 22 1/3 innings, and it’d be no surprise if the Yankees tried to move on from him at some point.

Doval gave up a walk and a single to begin the inning, and the Jays scored a run on a sac fly with one out. Daulton Varsho then hit a grounder that should have ended the game, but Doval didn’t hustle to cover first base after Ben Rice made a bad decision to go after a ball that was going to be an easy play for Jazz Chisholm Jr. However, it ended up not costing Doval, as he was able to get Kazuma Okamoto to ground out to end the game. Doval remains behind Bednar and probably Fernando Cruz in line for saves.

Doval’s cutter velocity was down 2.4 mph from last season, which is more notable because he’s slated to be a key part of the Dominican Republic’s bullpen in the WBC. He’ll probably pitch a couple of more times before leaving the Yankees.

Doval struggled after coming over to the Yankees at the trade deadline last year, posting a 4.82 ERA, 1.607 WHIP, and 22/11 K/BB ratio in 18 2/3 innings. He does have a career 3.39 ERA and 108 saves in 297 MLB games, so there is a good chance he can bounce back and be a solid late-inning reliever for the Yankees in 2026.

The Yankees gave him three runs to work with. Doval went on to retire all three guys he faced, but the runner did come around from second on a pair of groundouts. It’s Doval’s fourth straight scoreless outing. Still, he’s not making up any ground on David Bedner, who pitched scoreless ninth and 10th innings and was credited with the win tonight.

Camilo Doval opened the eighth with a two-run lead and wound up walking two, making a bad throw to second on a double-play ball and giving up an RBI single to Jose Altuve. Bednar came in with the bases loaded and one out and immediately walked Christian Walker after getting him 0-2, tying the game. However, he bounced back to strike out Yainer Diaz and Taylor Trammell. He then had an easy ninth after Trent Grisham’s homer gave the Yankees another lead. It’s Bednar’s second blown save for the Yankees, but no one will blame him for that. He’s pretty obviously the favorite for saves in the Bronx right now, at least until he messes up.

Bednar was the only one of the Yankees’ supposed big four in the pen not to have worked on back-to-back days, so he was the obvious choice to close today. However, Aaron Boone, who typically hates using relievers on three straight days, did have Camilo Doval ready to go in the ninth. Bednar remained in after getting two outs in the eighth and was left in even after a Corey Seager walk (which really should have been a strikeout) and a Marcus Semien single with two outs. Boone went to the mound at that point, but he stayed the course and Bednar struck out Adolis García and end the game. It’s probably correct to consider Bednar the favorite for saves in the Yankees pen at this point, even though Devin Williams will likely rebound once again.