6:35pm: Though the contract is a minor league pact, there’s a club option for the 2020 season attached to the deal, tweets Robert Murray of The Athletic. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweets that the deal comes with an $850K base salary and $250K of incentives in 2019, while the 2020 option is for a guaranteed $1.25MM with another $1.25MM worth of incentives.
2:26pm: The Pirates have agreed to a minor-league deal with righty Tom Koehler, per Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic (via Twitter). It will not include an invitation to MLB Spring Training.
The lack of a spring invite isn’t really an indication of Koehler’s ability level so much as it is a reflection of his health status. As Biertempfel notes, the 32-year-old is still on a lengthy rehab timeline after undergoing shoulder surgery in July. There’s no clear timetable for his return at this point.
This time last year, Koehler looked to be an intriguing addition to the Dodgers’ pitching staff. Long a useful but underwhelming starter, Koehler had a nice run upon moving to the bullpen and altering his pitch mix late in the 2017 campaign. He ultimately turned in a 17-inning stretch over which he racked up an 18:6 K/BB ratio and permitted only five earned runs, which prompted Los Angeles to add him on a big league deal. However, a spring shoulder injury prevented him from logging a single inning during the 2018 season.
If Koehler can get back to full health, he could be a worthwhile asset for the Bucs — likely in the bullpen at this juncture. For the time being, the focus will simply be on rebuilding physical strength and putting the shoulder injury behind him to the extent possible.
SIGN A LEGIT MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYER!!!!!!!
The Pirates are one of the biggest cheapskates in the entire MLB, it’s an extreme shame.
No….that’d be the Rays but they’re much smarter about it
The A’s might have the Rays beat on being cheap.
Well that’s a given. They even made a movie about it.
Rays just have a really bad location and cannot draw a lick in attendance. They’d look really good in Montreal
Sure….give a city a team that had already lost a team. If they’re moving it should be to a town that didn’t blow the opportunity yet.
Not true in the least. smh
Revenue sharing used to start Opening Day break even.
Seems like little interesting in building a truly championship caliber team.
Bottom line Bob and his crony Huntington are at it again. lol
Davy Jones locker here dey go lads.
Wished there was more written about this topic. Let’s find the facts. Why do MLB owners not want fans to see books? What’s there to hide??
The pirates are perinnial basement dwellers, and will be until they open the purse strings.
Absurd comment. They finished over .500 last season, an improvement on the year before. At least get a clue about the team before making a comment.
Who are you to say to tell him to get a clue? He’s not wrong. For more than 5 years, the Pirates have been in the bottom ten in payroll, and they haven’t brought in a major free agent in years. They finished over .500 last year because of the talent they’ve managed to develop. If they would just bring in two or three solid (not even great) free agents, they could contend for a wild card spot, and and maybe even the division title. Instead, management refuses to open their pocketbooks, so the biggest free agent they’ve got this year is Lonnie Chisenhall (ugh).
Erroneous on both counts!
Ivan Nova begs to differ.
So trading for Corey Dickerson is nothing? By the way, the luxury tax in baseball is a joke & always has been. The Pirates share of the maybe 2 teams per year luxury tax penalty might be $3-4 million. That gets you Chisenhall at best, while those who finished over the threshold add a JD Martinez & win the WS. Until they have revenue sharing & a hard salary tax (like the NFL, not the NBA), there will never be true competition. The Royals just went down to #30 a lot faster than they climbed to #1. Lasted about 3 years, took 10 years to get there & will take another 15 to get back.
Why aren’t more Baseball writers writing about this.
Are they afraid?
Yeah, 20 games against weakest division in baseball tell nothing to you, right?
They took $50M at least from BAMTech trade and dropped payroll drastically? Where are this money? And I’m not mentioning how much money they made for the past 3 seasons? Where are that money as well?
Why are there not more sports writers covering this topic?
Can any writer provide coverage on the money trails by Team???
Kinda a funny reaction. How I felt the last few years with the braves. This year has been a tad different for us
this made me laugh out loud while at work, thanks!
Same here!
#ReclamationNation
Can I ask how any of you would have a problem with this signing??
Koehler was a highly touted prospect who never really put it all together. He had a big arm and is a reclamation project. He has a lengthy rehab ahead of him. He likely won’t be back till June.
He was signed to a full minor league contract. He will rehab with the Pirates, get to work with Ray Searage. He wasn’t given an invite to Spring Training, so he has 0% downside, while his signing is like buying a lottery ticket. If he becomes anything at all it’s a plus for the organization.
It’s not necessarily this signing, because you’re right, this is a no-risk signing. But when your biggest signing is Lonnie Chesenhall, fans are going to have an issue.
Right, though I think the Chisenhall signing was sneakily good. I don’t see a ton of significant upgrades at ss past Machado that would be worth the price. I do think they need another starter. I’d be ok with the offseason if they signed Gio Gonzalez.
Especially since even the Reds seem to be making an effort.
Great note. Plus too many people forget that each team has to field 5-7 minor league teams. The focus should always be the mlb but you need a couple hundred players all together.
Agree. Always liked Koehler with Miami. he’s not a front line starter or anything, but the type every team needs to fill out a rotation and better at that than most IMO. he’s not that bad if u watch him enough. Good sign by the Pirates.
This normally wouldn’t be an issue but with the Pirates, who cut plenty of payroll and have black holes at infield spots and could use another veteran starter, they will claim these types of signings are filling their needs instead of actually going out to address problems. See Chisenhall, Lyles, Erik Gonzelez, there’s better players out there but they refuse to spend money for them. I get not doing a big long term deal but 1-2 year deals never hurt anyone.
That may not necessarily be he case. Just a guess, but I’d say many free agents are either looking for multi-year deals or guaranteed playing time.
The Pirates have a need at SS but they like Cole Tucker who is at most a year away. Frankly, Galvis and others aren’t that much better than who we currently have and they cost 10 times as much.
RF could use an upgrade until Polanco is healthy but CarGo may demand regular starts in RF, something the Pirates can’t offer.
Keller will be called up this year so why the rush on a veteran starter who won’t be that much better than someone already on the team.
The Bucs are cheap but they shouldn’t sign players just to sign players. That’s pointless.
I always thought that he was a pretty good pitcher who would fit in very well as your last starter or reliever.
I have no problem with this signing as long as it does not deter from getting the several healthy bona fide ML ready players that they need.
Good luck with that Buck’s
I’m beyond shocked the Pirates have made like 6 MILB deals within the past week and a half or so.
And they’re even mostly guys people have heard of, which is the really shocking part.
Most will be to fill AAA roster.
I thought big market “bulllying” wasn’t pc?
Any doubt Yanks or Red Sox in WS this year.
Baseball use to be America’s pastime.
Key word “pastime”.
J.B. Shuck, Francisco Liriano, Brandon Maurer, Vicente Campos, Tyler Lyons, and now Tom Koehler. There might be some in forgetting but they’ve signed a lot recently
quantity, not quality
Any bets on any of these players making all star game or leading Pirates to playoffs?
Playooooofffss! Playooooooofffs!
Good evening Pirate fans,
World Series, here we come!
Who?
I am a long time fan who has basically agreed with their conservative approach until this year.
They claimed that they are going for the division crown but who have they really added?
They need power desperately and they think that Kang will add what they need.
They traded their good fifth starter so they could save money only.
Koehler may very well be a good low key addition but he will not even be ready until later this year.
Most of the other players will be in AAA.
I think that at this point it is difficult to justify keeping their long term approach.Try something different for a change.Your fans deserve that hope.
I agree with you about the power but they’re also banking on Bell to regain his power stroke. Moran is capable of hitting more homers too ( just a rookie last year after all) and Dickerson has more pop than 13 hrs. Anything Kang provides is a bonus.
I see your point except they do not add significantly and hope for the best.If all things pan out to as well as they can,then fine.The Pirates do not plan for injuries and poor seasons,though,so they have no cushion.
Smaller market teams may not be able to afford a big cushion,but the Pirates learned the tough way from having a weak bench in 2014.It has been reasonably good since then.
It is too bad that Pedro Alvarez cannot play the field but he is the type of guy to add if a semi regular position is open.
I think Bell needs to show power this year as first base is where the good hitting teams have a bopper.Moran needs to hit at least twenty also.
I agree. A lot of things rely on hope for the Pirates, the team and fans. I think we’ll agree that the brass will never spend to bring in a real difference maker.
That means the difference makers, hitters and pitchers both, will have to come via the draft or trade. Player development has been a glaring weakness of the Pirates, especially when it comes to power bats/run producers.
buccos picking the scraps from the free agency carcass
Look…some of you make good points…
Others ….well …nuff said …
Wht should the pirates do?
Dump cervelli and his 11.5 mill
(Which is gonna get real now since realmuto just signed)
Go get Madison Bumgarner for 12 mill a year
Go get Machado for 30-33 million …
Do the math…. our payroll would be almost to the number when we went to game 5 with the cards …
I know i know …. we will never do it …but if we did we are an immediate contender!!
I would not dump anyone since they say they want to compete for a title this year.
If they can help the team now I would trade Cervelli because of his concussion problems.I would not give him away like they did with the serviceable fifth starter Nova.
If Machado would sign for no more than two years at $16M total then sign him.
They do not need a big ticket signing for starting pitcher.
They need another reliever.
Cole Tucker is rated highly but so was Kevin Newman.
Diaz has more upside than cervelli plus bumgarner is a legit #1 who u can get for the same money as cervelli and machado is never signing for 16mill.
Their payroll would be the same as it was in 2011…. even if they gave machado 33 million …. and i feel our bullpen is lights out kela…crick…vasquez…
Machado might think he can get $33M but maybe that is the reason that he has not signed yet.He is not as good of a hitter as Jordy Mercer.
Any catcher is a foul tip from a serious injury and Diaz has missed bunches of time over the last three years.That is one reason that it is wise to keep Stallings.
I do not think that Bumgarner is the same pitcher anymore and $12 M is a lot to pay for someone unless you know that he is at least a one or a two.I think that this is his last contract year too so that would not happen.
I think that their bullpen is good too but it needs to be deeper with the losses from last year of Kuhl and Santana.
I am very sorry.I meant to say Iglesias instead of Machado.
Please do not think that this Mendoza is going nuts.
If there ever was a year when I felt the Pirates should unload and retool, it would be this year. Look at what the rest of the division is doing. What do you realistically think our chances would be even if we beef up? EVERY other team in the division is beefing up. It was hard enough when it was just the Cards, then the Cards and Cubs. Yes, now the Cubs are on the way down because they overspent on long term contracts and their players are getting old, but look here come the Brewers and Reds.
If the Pirates had pulled the trigger after the 2015 season and kept Happ and acquired a legitimate 1B-man, then we very well could have another flag with a year on it behind the outfield seats (and a fake one under the press box). That’s what makes it so difficult to face reality here. The Pirates didn’t go for it when they should have… they sat on their hands instead and we the fans are sick of it. But statistically speaking, it makes little sense to go all out this year when you have 3-4 other teams in the division who will be contending instead of just 1 or 2.
Cubs are on the way down yes i agree…
The reds pitching is gonna hav to show me waaaaay more if they are gonna compete.
Pittsburgs pitching top to bottom is the best in the division, not many would argue that….. add just one more starter and yes if it were happ that would have been awesome…. plus add machado… the money is there ….
We cannot go back to 2015 and change anything.They had a great three year run and quite frankly a shame that St Louis had such a fine team.
I understood why they did the things that they did after 2015.It is the way of the small market teams.
The Pirates cannot control the destiny of the other four teams in their division and wait for a weak year as it has not happened this decade.They should not have to react to them.They can yonly control their own team,and have said that they want to compete this year after three mediocre years.
Your arguement could be used almost every year.And they could say that they are waiting on their young players like Cole Tucker but none of these players are sure things.
The Pirates have to make a run for it this year to show their fans that they want to win.