History Is Repeating Itself With Former White Sox Pitcher

During his tenure with the Chicago White Sox, left-handed pitcher Brandon Eisert was always a tough player to figure out.

After being claimed off waivers in February 2025, Eisert posted a 4.39 ERA over 72 appearances out of the White Sox bullpen last season. He failed to make the Opening Day roster in 2026, but quickly earned an opportunity and spent most of the regular season in the big leagues before being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates alongside Jacob Gonzalez on July 11.

Eisert had his promising stretches. He could go a month while providing good production out of the bullpen. And the underlying metrics, if you were to dive into his profile on Baseball Savant, always worked in his favor.

For a while, that was enough to keep White Sox fans invested. Now that he's been traded to Pittsburgh, we're starting to see history repeat itself.

Just before Eisert was traded, I advocated for the White Sox to send him down and give another pitcher a chance in the bullpen. I can't say there were too many White Sox fans mourning Eisert's involvement in the trade. Any negativity surrounding the deal had to do with Gonzalez. Moving on from Eisert could have been viewed as addition by subtraction, and getting something in return made it even better.

Even so, Pirates fans were intrigued by what Eisert could bring to their struggling bullpen.

One look at those underlying metrics through an optimistic lens, and you can see the potential for a productive pitcher, even if the MLB results haven't been there. It's the same thing White Sox fans went through over the last two years: waiting for Eisert to come around until it reached a point where they had no choice but to accept reality.

In five games with the Pirates so far, Brandon Eisert has pitched 3.2 innings with a 12.27 ERA and a 2.46 WHIP.

On July 18 against the Cleveland Guardians, Eisert allowed three earned runs in 0.2 innings. That erased a 3-0 Pirates lead and ultimately resulted in a 5-3 loss.

On Wednesday, July 22, Eisert completed 0.2 innings against the New York Yankees, allowing one walk, two hits, and two earned runs while taking the loss in a 2-0 defeat. Pittsburgh's pitching staff had kept the Yankees off the scoreboard until Eisert entered the ballgame.

That performance brought his season ERA up to 6.68 over 30 appearances between the White Sox and Pirates. His career ERA since the start of 2024 sits at 5.03 over 105 MLB appearances.

You can look at the Savant profile all you want. You can see a whiff rate, strikeout rate, and chase rate that are all above average, but the production speaks for itself. It's been a bit ironic to watch Pirates fans have the same debate among themselves that White Sox fans had for more than a year.

Ultimately, there's a reason the White Sox were comfortable letting Eisert go, and there's a reason the numbers are what they are. It may take some time for the Pirates to learn that, but it reflects a nice job by the White Sox of knowing their personnel and recognizing when the juice is no longer worth the squeeze.

In his current form, Brandon Eisert is not a quality MLB relief pitcher, and the Pirates are learning that in real time, the same way the White Sox did.