When the Pittsburgh Pirates swung the Gerrit Cole trade with the Houston Astros in January 2018, one of the players they got in return was reliever Michael Feliz. After a strong start to the 2018 season, Feliz imploded toward the end of May and never recovered.
When the dust settled on Feliz’s 2018 season, he owned a 5.66 ERA, 4.13 FIP, 10.6% walk rate, and a 25.4% strikeout rate. These struggles put Feliz behind the eight ball when it came to cracking the team’s Opening Day bullpen. As a result, he started the 2019 season at Triple-A Indianapolis.