Pirates announce the tragic passing of 20 year old pitcher

The news was first shared Thursday by reporter Héctor Gómez.

It is a brutal loss around a player who was still early in his baseball life. De La Paz was born on June 4, 2005, in Azua, Dominican Republic, and spent 3 seasons in the Pirates' system.

What made him stand out was the arm talent and the unusual look on the mound. De La Paz was listed as a switch-pitcher, a rare tag in pro ball, and he worked at 6-foot-4 and 180 pounds.

That kind of profile always draws attention in player development. A young pitcher who can create different angles already has scouts watching, and De La Paz also had a fastball that reportedly reached over 95 mph.

His numbers in the Dominican Summer League were still rough, which is not unusual for a teenage arm trying to find command. Over 49.0 innings, he struck out 56 hitters across 39 appearances.

The Pirates signed De La Paz as an international free agent, and his transaction history shows he was released on May 1, 2025. Career-wise, he finished with a 7.16 ERA in the minors.

That does not tell the whole story of a player like this. At 20, most of the real story sits in projection, raw stuff, and the belief that there was still time for the game to slow down for him.

Baseball loses players like this in a different way. There is no long big league track record to revisit, no packed trophy case, no finished version of the career to measure. There is only what might have been.

De La Paz's stat line showed flashes of bat-missing ability, with 10.29 strikeouts per 9 innings in his minor league career. That kind of swing-and-miss rate is usually where a young pitcher starts building hope.

He also showed up in 14 games in 2024 for DSL Pirates Black, which became the final season of his pro career. He was still trying to carve out the next step.

For the Pirates' pipeline, this is bigger than a transaction line going cold. It is a reminder that some names in a farm system never get enough time to tell the full baseball story.

Jarlen De La Paz leaves behind that unfinished story, and that is what hits hardest here. A rare arm, a young pitcher, and a career that stopped far too early.