The Pirates have outrighted a trio of players, per the International League transactions page. Catcher Steven Baron and infielders Corban Joseph and Jake Elmore were all dropped from the Pittsburgh 40-man roster.
It’s not at all surprising to see this group of names exiting the premises. They’re all reliable hands to have around, but not valuable enough to hold a roster spot through the offseason. Each will have the right to elect free agency, though certainly a return to the Pirates organization can’t be ruled out.
The 28-year-old Baron has enjoyed three cups of coffee in the majors but doesn’t have anything approaching a statistically significant track record at the game’s highest level. The former first-rounder will surely take up another depth spot at Triple-A entering the 2020 campaign.
Joseph received brief time with three big-league clubs last year. He’s a three-year MLB vet but still hasn’t quite cracked the century mark in total plate appearances. Soon to turn 31, he’s a .294/.362/.457 hitter in 1,710 career trips to the dish at the Triple-A level.
Both of those players are on the same general track as the 32-year-old Elmore, who has circled the block a few more times but also will be viewed by the market as a depth option. He has appeared in over two hundred MLB contests over parts of six seasons, slashing a cumulative .215/.292/.275 over 527 plate appearances.
Where’s the Pirates fans?
This is an inconsequential post unless you are one of these three guys or their families.
The Pirates ought to “outright” their owner. So long as this guy is controlling the cookie jar, the best the Pirates can do is hope to hover around .500 with hopes that a late season hot streak might get them into the second wild-card race. Guys like Roberto and Willie are up in heaven rolling their eyes at the demise of this once proud and very competitive franchise.
He owned them with 98 wins, so, you have that.
Nutting has spent money on some of his own players but Freese agent spending has been minimal to say the least.
They will spend if they have a good team to try to get into the playoffs but their period of mediocrity has not justified in his mind to add through free agency.
They need much better pitching and coaching to compete at this point.
Hopefully NH will do what he should have done last off season and add depth for competition and redundancy.They both hopefully learned a lesson this year as much of the year was an embarrassment and all were culpable.
I agree with their philosophy as I would never be a fan of tear downs because they produce terrible teams for many years with no guarantee of eventually competing.This coming year will be key for the Pirates.
All three players are in their 30’s and have not made life changing money. Not sure it’s worth chasing it as their future does not look easy? Good luck to all three. I wonder if they had to do it all over again, would they stop playing after HS?
Big-My guess is “yes” because they were able to chase their dream and play a kid’s game into their 30’s.
They may very well have made as much or more money and had more benefits than in any other line of work that they would have done.
Their careers may have opened other doors for them.Not many can say that they are ex ML players.
They are all lucky that they had the talent to be considered for ML service.