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Blue Jays acquire Nick Kingham from Pirates
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Thomas Williams
Jun 13, 2019, 16:43 EDT
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In a move of desperation for some pitching, the Toronto Blue Jays acquired Nick Kingham from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday afternoon.
Kingham, 27, made his major-league debut last season and it was one of the best in history. He took a perfect game all the way into the seventh inning in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, before Paul de Jong hit a single with two outs. Finishing the game with seven completed innings, which he retired his first 20 all in a row.
But since that April 29th game last season, Kingham has been not so perfect. Finishing 2018 with a total of 76 innings pitched, he held a 5.21 ERA with an 8.2 K/9 rate.
This season, he’s produced even worse results. Starting four games and appearing in 14, Kingham has a 9.87 ERA and a 8.3 K/9 through 34.2 innings. Luckily, his ERA has been somewhat misleading — carrying a 5.40 FIP in 2019, which would be better than current Jays pitchers like Elvis Luciano, Clayton Richard and certainly Edwin Jackson.
According to bWAR, Kingham has a certainly impressive -1.7 WAR through just that short time this season, but he does have only a -0.2 fWAR in 2019.
This acquisition certainly cries out the “we don’t have anyone else” slogan for the 2019 pitching staff of this team. If he stays healthy, Kingham might actually start a lot of games in the rotation.
At least he likes the Raptors so I’m sure he’ll be at the championship parade in Toronto.

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