Pirates set to call up Cam Sanders for bullpen depth from Triple-A Indy

The Pirates turned to Cam Sanders again Friday, recalling the 29-year-old right-hander from Triple-A Indianapolis and optioning veteran José Urquidy back to Indy as they kept reshaping a bullpen that has not settled early in the season. Sanders is being asked to cover innings, not just occupy a roster spot, and that makes this more consequential than a routine shuttle move.

Pittsburgh’s relief corps entered the day with a 3.54 ERA and a 25.6 percent strikeout rate, numbers that suggest the group has missed consistency even when the strikeouts have come. The earlier recall of Evan Sisk underscored the same point: the Pirates are looking for live arms who can bridge the middle innings while the back end sorts itself out. Sanders fits that search as a right-handed reliever who stands 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds and has already shown the club he can handle more than one frame.

That familiarity matters. Sanders made his major league debut for Pittsburgh on Aug. 5, 2025, and threw two scoreless innings against the Giants at PNC Park. MLB.com lists him with six career big-league appearances and an 8.10 ERA, a reminder that the Pirates are not handing him a late-game job so much as giving him another chance to prove he can survive in the majors as a multi-inning option. His age adds to the intrigue. Born Dec. 9, 1996, in Thibodaux, Louisiana, he is not a fresh-faced prospect, but a late-arriving arm whose window is opening because the club needs help now.

His Triple-A work gave Pittsburgh a reason to keep watching. Sanders posted a 3.00 ERA in limited innings for Indianapolis, and MiLB listed him at 0-0 with a 4.50 ERA in five games over 4.0 innings, a sample small enough to leave room for interpretation. Even so, the Pirates have seen enough to keep moving him up the ladder, especially after a 2025 MLB.com story noted the mechanical adjustment that had him pitching from the third-base side of the rubber to sharpen the path of his breaking ball to the strike zone.

Sanders also brings a familiar baseball lineage. His father, Scott Sanders, pitched in the majors from 1993 through 1999, and Cam Sanders has now reached the point where Pittsburgh is asking whether the family name comes with a real bullpen solution. If he can turn this call-up into stable middle-innings work, it could become more than emergency depth.