{"id":526628,"date":"2026-01-18T18:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/526628\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T18:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:01:16","slug":"todays-yankees-birthday-michael-pineda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/526628\/","title":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s Yankees Birthday: Michael Pineda"},"content":{"rendered":"

For today\u2019s birthday boy, we have ourselves an interesting, injury-riddled, and often controversial character to dive into. Michael Pineda, once acquired by the Yankees in a fairly high-profile deal, looked to be a major part of the New York rotation through the early-mid 2010s.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t quite work out that way, as injuries and trouble both on and off the field got in the way more often than not for the big right-hander. He still had his moments in pinstripes and elsewhere, but his career certainly didn\u2019t pan out the way he or his clubs likely hoped it would.<\/p>\n

Michael Francisco Pineda
Born: January 18, 1989 (Yaguate, Dominican Republic)
Yankees Tenure: 2012-17<\/p>\n

Born in the Dominican Republic and signing for $35,000 with the Seattle Mariners at just 16 years old, Pineda was an intimidating presence on the mound from the get-go. At 6-foot-7 and 280 pounds, the hurler signed his first contract late in 2005 and was loaded full of potential coming up through the ranks.<\/p>\n

The man known as \u201cBig Mike\u201d made his MLB debut with Seattle in April 2011. He had just placed 16th on Baseball America\u2019s preseason Top 100 Prospects list, with the outlet noting:<\/p>\n

Pineda has the size, stuff and control to pitch at the top of a rotation. He throws a crisp fastball that sits at 93-97 mph and gets as high as 101 with explosive life and occasional heavy sink. He tightened and added more tilt to his quality slider this year, though he can still get under it occasionally, causing it to flatten out. He also did a better job of selling his upper-80s changeup with the same arm speed as his fastball, keeping it down and getting hitters to chase it. Pineda throws all three pitches from the same three-quarter arm slot. With his velocity, high-effort delivery and unusual arm action, it\u2019s surprising how well he throws strikes.<\/p>\n

Pineda pitched six frames of solid ball in his first outing, kicking off what was a very solid rookie campaign. That year, he tossed 171 innings across 28 starts with a more than respectable 3.74 ERA and 3.42 FIP. His first half was even better, as he completed at least six innings in 15 of his first 17 starts, managing a 2.58 ERA along the way. He was rewarded with an All-Star selection in his inaugural campaign, and received some down-ballot love with Rookie of the Year Award votes.<\/p>\n

Expectations were high, and Pineda delivered a rookie season to warrant it.<\/p>\n

While Pineda was doing his thing, the Yankees had a young catcher looking the part of a budding star as well. Jes\u00fas Montero<\/a> was considered among MLB\u2019s very best prospects, just behind the likes of Mike Trout and Bryce. Then in 18 games at the end of 2011, he notched a 163 OPS+, hit some big homers, and seemed to be a part of the team\u2019s future. In the offseason following the 2011 campagin, the Yankees sent Montero and pitcher Hector Noes\u00ed to Seattle, with the primary return being Pineda<\/a>. It was a potential-for-potential and youth-for-youth deal, a type of deal that isn\u2019t all that common. It is safe to say that neither side played out the way the clubs likely anticipated in the end, but Pineda was officially a Yankee.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the pitcher and his new club, the trouble started almost immediately. At the end of his first spring training with New York, Pineda complained of shoulder tightness, beginning what was a long road back to a big league mound. What began as a tendinitis diagnosis turned into a torn labrum and season-ending surgery for the Yankees\u2019 new hurler.<\/p>\n

Pineda wasn\u2019t ready for the beginning of the 2013 season, but the Yankees were optimistic he\u2019d be a part of their season. After an extensive rehab assignment in the minors, Pineda seemed close, before being pulled from a game with more shoulder tightness. Once again, it turned into another completely lost season for the big righty.<\/p>\n

Finally, after spending two entire years on the shelf, Pineda appeared ready to go to begin the 2014 campaign. He won a spot in the rotation, and actually turned in some excellent work across 76.1 innings. He posted a 1.89 ERA (204 ERA+) in some of the best baseball of his career, but he couldn\u2019t help but find himself in injury (and other) trouble. The drama began in a start against the Red Sox in April, his second against the storied rival. After suspicion in the first, Boston manager John Farrell alerted the umpiring crew of potential pine tar on Pineda. It was smeared on his neck \u2014 not the most subtle smudge in the world \u2014 and Pineda was promptly ejected from that game.<\/p>\n

\"BOSTON<\/a><\/p>\n

BOSTON – APRIL 23: home plate umpire Gerry Davis checks the neck area of New York Yankees starting pitcher Michael Pineda in the second inning for pine tar. Action and reaction as the Boston Red Sox take on the New York Yankees in the second of a three game series at Fenway Park on April 23, 2014. (Photo by Barry Chin\/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) Boston Globe via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Over the next two seasons, Pineda was able to maintain his health to a much greater degree and remain in the rotation for longer stretches.<\/p>\n

Between the 2015 and \u201816 seasons, the righty made 59 starts and worked over 330 total innings. He was far from a game-changing starter, but he was generally out there every fifth day as a roughly league-average arm \u2014 and at the very least, one who didn\u2019t aggravate fans by walking the ballpark (his command might\u2019ve been uneven at times, but his control never really wavered given his career 2.0 BB\/9). And Pineda could still show flashes of his raw talent, like his May 2015 start against the Orioles, when he struck out 16 batters across seven innings of work. That tied a Yankees franchise record for the most in a single game by a righty pitcher, matching none other than \u201990s ace David Cone:<\/p>\n

Despite the high expectations Pineda established for himself headed into New York, there is still something to be said for someone who can pitch fine innings when it\u2019s their turn. Pineda was able to do that for stretches at least, though the injuries and occasional trouble were clearly difficult for him to overcome throughout his career.<\/p>\n

Pineda continued on roughly the same track in the 2017 season, providing solid value for the Yankees. But, in mid-July, it was discovered that the righty had a torn ligament in his elbow, and would require Tommy John surgery, as he\u2019d once again be hitting the shelf for an extended period. This marked the end of his time in New York, but not for his MLB career.<\/p>\n

After returning from elbow surgery in 2019, Pineda pitched some solid innings over the course of three seasons with the Twins (once interrupted by a PED suspension) though never pitching more than 146 frames in any of them. His final season came in 2022, when he tossed 46.2 underwhelming innings for the Tigers.<\/p>\n

It was a rocky road at times for Pineda with the Yankees and elsewhere, in what was ultimately a disappointing career given how it started. That being said, he did have his moments of displaying tremendous talent, he just had plenty of trouble staying on the field one way or another.<\/p>\n

See more of the \u201cYankees Birthday of the Day\u201d series here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For today\u2019s birthday boy, we have ourselves an interesting, injury-riddled, and often controversial character to dive into. Michael…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,4,1690,62,2548,2547,142,38397],"class_list":{"0":"post-526628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-yankees","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkyankees","14":"tag-yankees","15":"tag-yankees-history"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115917415838559713","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}