After being released by the Pirates earlier this week, the Astros signed Fernando Nieve to a minor league contract. Astros.com’s Brian McTaggart had the story first.
The Astros lost Nieve off waivers to the New York Mets in 2009, the Mets got some decent spot starts out of Nieve that year, but he completely imploded as a setup reliever in 2010, and was unceremoniously booted from the roster after giving up 10 home runs in just 42 innings.
Nieve had latched on with the Pirates, but he’d been released after allowing 17 hits in just 7 2/3rd innings in spring training. The Astros likely won’t be placing Nieve on the MLB roster any time soon, and he’ll probably wind up being depth at Oklahoma City as the Astros see if they can re-discover the promise in his arm. Nieve was the Astros’ third ranked prospect according to Baseball America in 2007.