Dejan Kovacevic of The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports that the Pirates have designated utility infielder Ramon Vazquez for assignment. The team has ten days to trade, release, or waive him, though Kovacevic says a release seems like a certainty. We chronicled the team's roster crunch earlier this morning.
The 33-year-old Vazquez hit just .230/.335/.279 in 239 plate appearances last year, playing all over the infield. The Pirates are still on the hook for the $2MM they promised him in 2010 as part of the two year, $4MM deal they gave him last season.
Kovacevic also mentions that Rule 5 Draft pick John Raynor and the out of options Hayden Penn have made the team's Opening Day roster, so we won't be seeing them on waivers anytime soon.
Although I am a fan of Ramon Vazquez, a cheap Ramon Vazquez, I think Pirates fans are really happy right now.
But Jack Taschner and D.J. Carrasco made the team.
Yes! I think that Taschner can be a good lefty option out of the pen, if his spring training numbers are any indication.
Generally speaking, spring training numbers aren’t an indication of anything. I don’t really like Taschner. His work against lefties has been spotty of late and he can’t get righties out for his life. I’m not sure that it’d be fair to expect anything more than a high-4’s ERA from him.
True, he isn’t really anything special and has gotten knocked around all through his big league career.
It’s a shame when a team like the Pirates with such a small payroll has to just eat 2 million dollars, but it almost had to be done as Vazquez was only wasting roster space for the Buccos.
I was awfully puzzled when Huntington gave Vazquez a multi-year deal before 2009. I had a feeling he wouldn’t survive two full years on a roster, even Pittsburgh’s.