Diamondbacks poach Pirates director of pitching development, Jeremy Bleich

The Diamondbacks are hiring Jeremy Bleich, who had been the Pirates' director of pitching development, for a front office role.

BY ALEX WEINER

Dec 9, 2025, 2:46 PM Updated: Dec 10, 2025, 12:21 pm

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The Arizona Diamondbacks are hiring former Pittsburgh Pirates director of pitching development Jeremy Bleich for a role in the front office, a team source confirmed to Arizona Sports on Tuesday.

Bleich will join the club as an assistant general manager under GM Mike Hazen.

The former pitcher spent the last six seasons with the Pirates, filling roles on the major league staff as an assistant pitching coach and eventually moving into pitching development.

According to a press release from February, Bleich was made in charge of Pittsburgh’s pitching skill development, philosophies, coaching development and innovation.

He pitched in the minor leagues from 2008-19, making two major league appearances and competing at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 for Team Israel.

The Pirates have three pitchers ranked in MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects, coming off a year in which the club finished with the seventh-best ERA at 3.76. Three of Pittsburgh’s top four prospects are pitchers, as the organization has had success recently in developing arms beyond superstar Paul Skenes.

The Diamondbacks have not experienced the same fortune. Ryne Nelson, Brandon Pfaadt and Justin Martinez have been recent standouts, but general manager Mike Hazen told AZCentral.com’s Nick Piecoro earlier this season the organization would alter its pitching development strategy.

The Diamondbacks have the fourth-worst ERA in baseball over the past half-decade, and their most consistent starters have been external additions in Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly. The club has spent big dollars on free agent pitchers to lackluster results in that span due to the need to fill the rotation.

Arizona added eight pitching prospects at the trade deadline last July to deepen the farm system.

Bringing in Bleich provides an outside voice to help lead those philosophy changes, and improving the pitching pipeline would be a game-changer.

Alex Weiner D-backs reporter and ArizonaSports.com editor

Alex Weiner is the Arizona Diamondbacks beat reporter for Arizona Sports and serves as a web editor for the station. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Alex moved to Arizona in 2017 to attend Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of… Read more

Comments

Grumpy Old Man 8 months ago

It blows my mind...

...how so many people think that a career 5.13 ERA pitcher is a standout.

...he was one of the nine worst starting pitcher in the MLB...he was joined by Gallen for this dubious honor. E-Rod didn't pitched enough innings but he had the ERA to have earned this dubious honor. When you have 3 starting pitchers that were in the group of the 9 worst starting pitchers...that is a problem...stop sugarcoating it and get pitchers that can pitch!

...who a MLB team gave a $45M - 5 year contract to career 5.13 ERA pitcher.

One of the reasons why I really enjoyed watching the Suns this season is because of the low expectations that were set.by the media especially by Mr. Olson.

After last year, 8-9 record by the Cardinals, the expectations that were sold to the fans by the media that they were going to be a playoff team this year. There was one individual between 10 and 2 who thought that the Cardinals were going to win their division and etc.

The media needs to stop selling the hopium and kool-aid to the fans and be honest with the fans...maybe the owners will do the right things to have a winning local professional sport teams.

Grumpy Old Man 8 months ago

On the Bickley & Marotta radio show in September, when they compared the stats of Pfaadt to E-Rod, one comment that was made that Pfaadt hasn't been hurt compared to E-Rod which cause the criticism to be directed to E-Rod than Pfaadt who is the worst starting pitcher on the Dback staff per his ERA.

Who cares if he can pitch regularly if he gives up more runs than the Dbacks score per game on average.

Grumpy Old Man 8 months ago

In September, on the Bickley & Marotta radio show, they compared the stats of Pfaadt to E-Rod since E-Rod joined the Dbacks...and E-Rod had the better pitching stats and the consensus on E-Rod is that he sucks!!!

One interesting stat that came out of the comparison between E-Rod and Pfaadt was that the Dbacks scored more runs when Pfaadt was pitching than E-Rod.

For the 2025 season, the Dbacks averaged around 4.88 runs per game ranking them ahead of most teams. However, when Pfaadt gave up 5.25 runs per game...it is kinda hard to win.

It blows my mind how so many people think that a career 5.13 ERA pitcher that was one of the nine worst starting pitcher in the MLB is an asset to a MLB baseball team. What blows my mind is that the Dbacks gave a $45M - 5 year contract to career 5.13 ERA pitcher.

Diamondbacks poach Pirates director of pitching development, Jeremy Bleich

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