Astros sign Zach Duke

Jeff Luhnow strikes again! This time he has inked veteran southpaw, Zach Duke, to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. Both Alyson Footer and Zachary Levine have reported the deal via their twitter accounts here and here respectively.

A Texas native, Zach Duke was originally drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 20th round of the 2001 MLB Draft. He hasn’t put up good numbers since he has made it to the big leagues, with his best season coming in 2009 when he amassed an 11-16 record with a 4.06 era over 213 innings pitched. He was also selected to the All Star Game that year. On November 24, 2010, the Pirates traded Duke to the Diamondbacks for a player to be named later. Coincidentally, his first start as a member of the Diamondbacks came on May 28, 2011 against the Astros and Duke hit his first career home run off Bud Norris in that game. Duke will likely compete for a rotation spot in spring training. In the event he doesn’t make the rotation, Duke could serve as organizational depth at AAA Oklahoma City.  He could also be a pretty decent insurance policy in the event Wandy Rodriguezis traded. Another nifty move by Jeff Luhnow.