Nicolo Pinazzi has taken a long, winding road from Milan to the Angels’ Double-A bullpen, and this season the left-hander has turned it into one of the Minor Leagues’ finest relief stories. The 26-year-old finished his climb through three Angels affiliates with Rocket City, carrying a historic scoreless run into the Southern League Championship Series, which opens Sunday.
Key takeaways
- Pinazzi went from May 21 through Sept. 4 without allowing an earned run, covering 43 innings in 31 outings across three levels.
- His streak is the longest Minor League earned-run-free stretch since 2016 and the longest by a left-handed pitcher since 2007.
- Across four levels, he posted a 0.84 ERA with 103 strikeouts in 64 innings over 48 appearances.
- The Milan native relies heavily on a pitch he calls a “bullet slider,” throwing it roughly 70 percent of the time.
- After being released by three clubs in three months during 2024, he rebuilt his career in Idaho Falls and signed with the Angels on Dec. 15, 2025.
A bullpen weapon finds his lane
Pinazzi’s 31-game run without an earned run stretched from late May into early September. During those 43 frames, he struck out 76 hitters, held opponents to a .169 average and posted a 1.05 WHIP. By season’s end, he had worked at four levels in his first full professional campaign after earlier Minor League stops in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
His complete line: 48 relief appearances, 64 innings, a 0.84 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, .200 opponents’ average, 103 strikeouts and 33 walks. Those totals worked out to a 38.9 percent strikeout rate and a 26.4 percent strikeout-minus-walk rate. He also made one appearance with Triple-A Salt Lake on May 3, firing two hitless innings.
The adjustment began with his four-seam fastball. Pinazzi said getting the pitch higher in the strike zone for strikes changed the shape of his outings, because it forced hitters to account for the upper part of the zone before he went to his secondary stuff. As the results mounted, he stopped trying to be overly fine and concentrated on attacking hitters. His personal reminder, he said, is to pitch as though “my head is on fire.”
His signature offering is the hard-breaking pitch he prefers to label a bullet slider rather than a cutter. Pinazzi said that calling it a cutter affects how he throws it, while the slider identity lets him commit to the pitch. It has become his go-to weapon, one he trusts in the zone and leans on for about seven of every 10 pitches.
The lefty also carries a four-seamer with both cut and carry but little run, plus a curveball that can show slurve-like movement. He has worked to shape the breaking ball more vertically against right-handed hitters and give it more sweep against lefties. The old two-seam fastball has nearly vanished from the repertoire; Pinazzi joked that he uses it about once a month, and that it rarely ends well.
His season-high velocity reached 97.3 mph, and he has no interest in trading the relief role for a starter’s workload. Pinazzi likes the bullpen’s atmosphere and the mandate to arrive throwing at maximum effort. He said he takes the mound wanting to reach 105 mph in his mind, with a future as a setup man—or, as he put it in Italian, “magari,” a closer—very much the goal.
From Italy, through the releases, to Rocket City
Baseball was never the easy path for Pinazzi. His father played amateur ball in Italy, but Pinazzi grew up in a country where soccer dominates youth sports. After high school, his parents gave him an unusual graduation gift: registration, travel and lodging for a college showcase in Arizona.
He arrived without much expectation. Pinazzi knew he had a hard fastball and a big curve, but viewed the American trip largely as a chance to travel and enjoy himself. Over those 10 days, though, scouts saw a fastball above 90 mph and the breaking ball. Junior-college opportunities followed, then a Minor League offer from Cincinnati. He chose the Reds, a decision he said changed the course of his life just before the pandemic complicated everything.
There was no immediate rise through the Reds system. After portions of three seasons without sustained results, Cincinnati released him in the spring of 2024. He received brief opportunities with the American Association’s Kansas City Monarchs and Gary SouthShore RailCats, only to be released by each club shortly after arriving. In his telling, three teams cut him loose within three months.
Pinazzi answered by changing his body and his pitching. He focused on strength work, added muscle and developed a new offering before joining the Idaho Falls Chukars of the Pioneer League, an MLB Partner League. There, he first reached 95 mph. He returned to Idaho Falls in 2025 and struck out 42 hitters in 31 innings across 29 appearances, helping the Chukars reach the Pioneer Baseball League Championship Series. Idaho Falls lost the deciding game of that best-of-five set.
He said he barely spent time in the weight room during his Reds years and had once been the weakest player around. Idaho Falls changed that, giving him a stronger baseball body and a supportive environment that included manager Troy Percival and pitching coach Bob Milacki.
Then came the familiar connection. The scout who had helped sign Pinazzi out of Arizona for the Reds had moved to the Angels and reached out after the 2025 season. Pinazzi signed his Angels Minor League contract on Dec. 15, 2025.
For a pitcher who had been cut loose repeatedly only a year earlier, the turnaround has been built on more than a sharper slider and added velocity. Pinazzi credited the people who stayed in his corner when the route looked closed. Idaho Falls gave him the reason to keep playing, he said, and the Angels gave him another door into affiliated baseball. Now, with Rocket City still playing deep into September, he has made sure the opportunity counts.
