The Pirates have moved on from a reliever who went from bullpen anchor to liability in the span of a season. Pittsburgh designated right-hander Dennis Santana for assignment on July 23, the same day it acquired right-hander Ron Marinaccio from the San Diego Padres in exchange for international signing bonus pool money.
The Santana move opened spots on both the 26-man and 40-man rosters for Marinaccio, who was set to join the team for the series against the Cubs at PNC Park from July 24 to 26. The reshaped bullpen now carries five right-handers in Wilber Dotel, Isaac Mattson, Marinaccio, Carmen Mlodzinski and Yohan RamÃrez, alongside three lefties in Brandon Eisert, Mason Montgomery and Gregory Soto.
Santana’s 2026 numbers made the decision an easy one. He finished his Pirates run with a 6.05 ERA across 44 appearances and 41.2 innings, striking out 37 while walking 21, with a .259 average allowed and a 1.51 WHIP. The unraveling traced back to an April 27 blown save against the Cardinals at PNC Park, when he coughed up a 2-0 lead on two solo homers and a two-run hit in a 4-2 defeat. He had carried a 0.69 ERA through the first month, then posted an 8.48 mark over his next 31 outings, with the advanced metrics sliding from solid in prior years to poor across nearly every category.
His final appearance in a Pirates uniform came in a July 20 loss at Yankee Stadium, an 8-5 defeat that also featured a heated exchange with Yankees shortstop José Caballero over the pitch clock. Both benches and bullpens emptied, though no punches were thrown.
The exit is a steep fall from where Santana stood a year ago. Pittsburgh brought him back on a one-year, $3.5 million deal to avoid arbitration, a reward for a 2025 season in which he was the team’s best reliever, working to a 2.18 ERA over 70.1 innings with 60 strikeouts and a 0.87 WHIP. He had also thrived after the Pirates claimed him off waivers from the Yankees in June 2024. His departure makes him the second productive arm from that bullpen to be cut loose this year, following Justin Lawrence, whom Pittsburgh traded to the Minnesota Twins on June 1.
