Quick Hits: Cardinals, Pirates, Angels, Jurrjens

So far, the Cardinals haven’t benefited from the offseason trade that sent David Freese and Fernando Salas to the Angels for Peter Bourjos and Randal Grichuk, Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. Grichuk played well at the Triple-A level before being promoted, but his ability to make contact remains cause for concern, Miklasz argues. Meanwhile, Peter Bourjos has struggled, and so has Matt Carpenter, which means the Cardinals haven’t gotten the third base upgrade they hoped for, either. Here are more notes from around the big leagues.

• Pirates GM Neal Huntington denies a recent rumor that his team is still seeking a first baseman despite recently trading for Ike Davis, Bucs Dugout’s David Manel reports. “I typically hate to comment on any specific rumor, but it sounds like somebody, somewhere is trying to create a market,” Huntington says. The Bucs currently have Davis and Gaby Sanchez platooning at first.
• The Angels’ bullpen struggles might lead one to think that they’ll have to go out-of-house for an upgrade, but the answer to their problem might lie in the minors, writes Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times.  “It’s funny, but right now, our primary weakness at the major league level is our primary strength at the minor league level,” says GM Jerry Dipoto. “We have some really nice bullpen arms in the system, and that’s fortunate.”
• Jair Jurrjens is looking to make a comeback after having knee surgery last fall, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman tweets. He is currently throwing 90 MPH. After posting a 2.96 ERA with 5.3 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 152 innings with the Braves in 2011, Jurrjens has struggled badly in the big leagues. He spent most of 2013 with the Orioles’ and Tigers’ Triple-A affiliates in Norfolk and Toledo, respectively.

Zach Links contributed to this post.