The Pirates have announced that infielder Jung Ho Kang has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left side strain. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by Jake Elmore, whose contract was selected.
In order to open a 40-man roster spot, the Bucs shifted righty Jameson Taillon to the 60-day injured list. Taillon, who is sidelined with a flexor strain, won’t be eligible to return to the active roster until early July.
Kang is struggling in his first full season since 2016 — a layoff that occurred because of his troubling history of drinking and driving. He’s hitting just .133/.204/.300 in 98 trips to the plate this year. Kang is swinging and missing far more often than he used to. He’ll be shut down for three days and then reevaluated, per club director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk (via MLB.com’s Adam Berry, on Twitter).
It’s the first MLB action since 2016 for Elmore. The 33-year-old has a .215/.297/.280 slash in 478 career plate appearances at the game’s highest level. He has been off to rather a strong start to the year at Triple-A, though, with a .380/.444/.546 slash in 124 plate appearances.
The prodigal son is finally back in the bigs
Jake? He’s a 34th round pick!
I remember Jake in Milwaukee
Welcome back Elmore
Kang not playing provides more value. Dude sucks hard.
Well this would help explain why Joe Musgrove was pinch-hitting in the 5th inning of yesterday’s game. Kang has really been struggling, and also has looked like he’s pressing so hard that he’s making things worse and himself miserable. Maybe his injury is a blessing in disguise and can let him step away and refocus.
He’s not injured but your point is their plan.
Kang was hitting so poorly, like one of the other commenters here said, it’s more of an improvement just to have him off the roster, regardless of who replaces him.
Jake Elmore is always a good guy to have around, not to mention that he’s been hitting like Ty Cobb in triple A this year (.380/.444/.546) in 124 plate appearances so far.
Change his first name to Dung.
I don’t understand why they did not bring up Jose Ozuna to play third base against lefthanders.Perhaps he has not had enough games playing the position.He is hitting well in Indianapolis.The Pirates had Newman playing third base today.
Osuna has not played any 3B this year at Indy because KeBryan Hayes is getting almost all of the action there. I don’t think they see Osuna as a 3B long-term anyways… which stinks for him, because he’s not likely to see any time at 1B or in the OF with Pittsburgh unless a lot of injuries strike.
Thank you.The Indians listed his position as third base and I think that he played some there in spring training.I thought it good if the Pirates could give him a chance for a month to play against lefthanders while Moran sits.
He has had two ML opportunities to make it but both were somewhat abbreviated.Like the young pitchers he seems to get worse each time he gets the chance.I was hoping that he would get a thorough one to see if he can hit with some power.
I think that Kang should go to AAA and play for a month at third and second to see if he can still hit.The Pirates could use his power if it comes back.
I think that Hayes can take a back seat for a month.It will not kill his progress.He will not hit for home run power anyway,but will be a good fielder and have gap power for extra base hits.I think that he is at least a year away from contribution at the ML level though.
Osuna deserves at least one last chance to show what he can do.
jung ho needs some beer
He’s having DUI withdraws
“Forget it, Jake, this is big-league town.”
Well deserved trip to majors, has been hitting around .400 all year, got a hit last night.
I am sorry but every time I see this guy’s name I think of the Blues Brothers and Jake and Elwood and I laugh.