The Pirates announced six minor league deals to reporters today, with Justice delos Santos of MLB.com among those to relay them on Twitter. They include the previously reported deals for catcher Tyler Heineman, as well as right-handers Tyler Chatwood and Nate Webb. Also included in the announcement are three left-handers: Daniel Zamora, Rob Zastryzny and Ángel Perdomo.
Zamora, 30 in April, will be returning to his original organization, as he was drafted by the Pirates in 2015. He was later traded to the Mets and made his major league debut with them. He’s seen scattered MLB action in recent years, reaching the big in 2018, 2019 and 2021, logging 22 innings with a 4.50 ERA. He signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers for 2022, tossing 63 Triple-A innings with a 3.86 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate, 9.8% walk rate and 41.6% ground ball rate.
Zastryzny, 31 in March, pitched for the Cubs from 2016 to 2018 but didn’t make it to the big leagues in the three subsequent seasons. He returned in 2022, making one appearance for the Mets and three for the Angels after a waiver claim. He spent most of the year in Triple-A between the two organizations, throwing 55 1/3 innings with a 3.42 ERA, 28.2% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate. He was non-tendered by the Halos in November.
Perdomo, 29 in May, made 22 appearances with the Brewers over 2020 and 2021 but struggled to the tune of an 8.24 ERA. The Rays claimed him off waivers from the Brewers in July but neither team called him up to the big leagues. He ended up throwing 34 innings in the minors between the two clubs, posting a 1.85 ERA while striking out an incredible 40.3% of batters faced but walking 12.9% of them.
These three southpaws will give the Bucs an extra layer of depth in terms of left-handed relief. Right now, the club only has two lefties on their 40-man roster in Jarlín García and Jose Hernandez, the latter of those two being a recent Rule 5 draftee from the Dodgers. If any of this group separates themselves from the pack, there could be a role for them. All three of them have limited service time, meaning they could be retained cheaply for future seasons if they crack the roster. However, they are all out of options, meaning they can’t easily be sent back down to the minors afterwards.
Good moves in Scrabble but they will still be fighting Reds for fourth.
They did get fourth this year boy.
I thought they were tied for fourth in 2022.
I think the Pirates have a much better starting rotation than the Reds . But hard to see them winning more than 70 games.
No Pirates we’re better because of division wins or win streak I think.
Wins against there division
Just jealous you guys have Ji-Man.
Trumbo-If you are an Angels fan we will trade you him even up for Trout.
Ji-Man, that new SS of yours that throws 100 across the diamond, and 3 of your best pitchers and he’s yours.
I was hoping that you would take Ji Man alone,but we will throw in our manager and hitting coach on the side.We will even throw in cash( not talking Dave here) to make it an even trade.
If you do not take this final offer I am going to wish you a happy holiday season.
How long do I have to think it over?
Times up,but the last sentiment still applies.
So Trout for Cruz, Contreras, Keller, and Brubaker. Deal.
And Ji-Man…
Dave and Trumbo-You guys just want to pick the Pirates clean for one guy.
This would truly be a Trumbo JUMBO deal and we are not doing it if you don’t take our manager and hitting coach and throw in $1B of Steve Cohen’s money to make it a three way deal.
We’ll throw a group of racing pierogies in to sweeten the deal. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen them
“You guys just wanna pick the Pirates clean” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
It sounds so awful and under handed when you put it like that…We have our own coaches we need to off load as it is!
Trumbo-We cannot commit to including the racing pierogies but Tiredolddude,TheMan3, and I will commit to being “walking” pierogies if that will sweeten the deal.
Sign over the rights to the Pierogies so we can license them out to a network for 200mil and get them their own Sunday talk show. We got a deal?
I’ll agree to that, Mendoza!
Trumbo-The Man has signed on and Tiredolddude can be persuaded to do so.You are a good man to guarantee us $1M each even if we do not pass the physical like Correa did not.Then we split the $200 M up four ways.
Just to be clear though we are the “walking pierogies” ,not the “racing pierogies,and depending on the libations served,may also have to serve as the “crawling pierogies” at the finish line.
If a drug test is required, I probably won’t pass
My thoughts exactly.
The pre season dumpster diving by the Pirates, continues
Talking bout shipping Reynolds to their Big League Club ( The Yankees ) while pocketing the luxury tax money and signing the usual Cannon Fodder. Yep, This is Major League. Isn’t there someone in this town with some cash that can buy this team and start over?
Uncle-I think it a better solution if the Yankees purchased the Pirates and three other small market teams and the Dodgers so with the other four and they could use them for a farm system of mostly ML players.
Mark Cuban addressed this idea 2 or 3 years ago in a long interview with the PG. The interview, spurred by calls for him to come home and buy the team, essentially put to rest the idea that he had any desire to buy the Pirates and that Nutting would be crazy to sell the team, given MLB’s financial platform.
Thanks to revenue sharing and national television and local TV money, the Nutting group makes a nice profit
That said, I again will thank @YourDreamGM for an enlightening give-and-take at the end of the Brubaker thread that changed my entire latitude about the Pirates
I would think that if his view that the Pirates are emulating TB and Cleveland is accurate—and I do believe it is—-, the moves in this article make perfect sense.
Paul-Actually,no.These are all good signings with nothing to lose.
This three pack may very well provide one good relief pitcher.Sometimes these guys figure it out late and become a good relief pitcher for a few years.
The Pirates need left-handed relief for sure and with these they may at least get one.
This lot of three may be the best that BC gets this off season.None are taking a 40 man roster space now,and he certainly has room in the minor leagues.
Isn’t there anyone in this town who has some cash to buy this team and start over? That Luxury Tax money must be really enticing especially since Cohen has lost his mind. Should be worth 1 yacht, 2 Houses and 12 players who make a million bucks a year. Nice.
There’s people with money to buy the pirates. Problem is that you can’t force nutting to sell. Only MLBs owners could probably force nutting to sell. I’m not sticking up for Nutting. But I’m America you can’t force a business to sell unless it’s proven that they aren’t functioning within the law.
Besides Nuttings making money. I can’t stand the guy, but what can you do?
Another thing I’m not saying the pirates should sign an Aaron judge or any of these other ridiculous contracts. What I want the pirates to do is PAY their home grown players. Then you can see them contending. Anyways Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s to everyone. Stay safe.
I couldn’t agree with this anymore. I don’t care about the monster free agent signings that are going down. If this team could lock up their good players, they’d be a World Series contender right now.
Agree 100%. I always give the “small market” argument short shrift, but there is no way that any small market team can afford the big free agents.
And unfortunately, when a Pirate excels on the field, the clock begins ticking as to when the team won’t be able to afford him anymore
You can only hope they stock the minor leagues well and consistently develop the kids so they can simply continue to “reload”
I’m hopeful that’s where the team is right now
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, as well
You are so right about this! It’s disgusting. I’m sure you, like I have, saw Reynolds blossom into what he is and your first thought is “well, I wonder what he will bring in a trade?” I hate it. I’m 40, and whenever I think about Reds Wild Card game, I still get the same chills I got that day. The CUETO chants still get me. I just want them to be good again. I’m tired of rooting for a team that has this “understandably so” reputation as being a AAAA team for others. And a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you! I’m a long time lurker and your posts are always ones I agree with. I felt like today was the day I make my presence felt. Haha.
Nutting’s children don’t want anything to do with the Pirates so I imagine he’ll sell them at some point. Nutting’s 65 I think and with me being 67, it’s doubtful I’ll see another owner
Quit talking logically Mendoza Line 215, it goes way over the head of Yankees fans.
Scott-Unfortunately,each team has some of them.
I know they’re good pick ups, but it wouldn’t be me if I initially applauded these invitations
Paul-Not saying that they are good by themselves,but I consider them to be like AA prospects,it takes three to make one ML player who is reasonably decent.And by signing them to minor league contracts they do not have to waste any of the roster players.
I think that BC,like DreamGM,likes Underwood so much that he does not want to part with him or they would have added Garcia by now to the roster.
The Pirates are in big trouble if any of these slobs crack the major league roster
The Pirates are in big trouble anyway, Derek the Daily Change in the lineup is the manager and worthless hitting coach Haines is there to show the guys how to strike out often
I agree..Shelton is the biggest reason that the young team is not progressing as scheduled. I had to laugh when they said that RED Skelton win his hundredth games as a manager.
AND it only took him 2 and a half years.
As much as I didn’t like Clint hurdle. I’d take him back in a heartbeat.
Buuba- I wouldn’t.Clint was good up to the last year and a half when he became awful.He seemed to have lost all enthusiasm.He was a good find,and did a good job when they were good.But he is never mentioned for new jobs and he probably is not interested anymore anyway.
Hurdle took the fall for Huntington’s failures as GM
Hurdle was a player’s manager
This is exactly right. I get that they couldn’t afford contracts anymore but scouting and player development was in the toilet during Huntington’s last few years. How do you re-load when you have no bullets
Clint did some odd things now and then. They all do
I haven’t been impressed by Shelton so far but here is another guy who was biding time as they minor leagues stocked up and got experience. I’m hoping that there is a concern for winning now, that they don’t need to tank anymore
Paul- Hurdle was worn out at the end.Nutting should never have given them both four year contracts.
NH was a good GM except for two very important reasons.His scouting and development teams were mediocre at best and that is a killer for a small market team.
I think that that was one of the big reasons that Hurdle was worn out,and the fact that they did not progress during the 2013-2015 period in the playoffs more than what they did.
I’d love to see them play all the youngsters, instead of the older journeyman that they had last year. And that goes for the pitching staff. They made strides last year with the young starters. I’m excited about them. But they need to get brubaker out, and don’t employ another tradable at the deadline veteran pitcher. The bullpen can use veterans. Relief pitchers, there are the exceptions, don’t usually have a long-term sustainable career. Stay with the youngsters and PAY them
@buuba ho tep they did that last year and majority of the prospects struggled at the big league level. Most were stuck like they were in tar upon reaching the big leagues. This included Oneil Cruz. At this point, anything that gives the Pirates an extra win or two over last season, is a +++ in my book. My expectations haven’t changed any since last year. No more than 50 wins. This club is still looking for an identity and veterans leadership. Plus the development of these young kids has been an embarrassment to the organization.
The last prospect the Pirates developed that became an elite player was Andrew McCutchen. Neil Walker was also developed well
In comparison, our #1 draft pick in 2014 was Cole Tucker so not only does our player development bad, so are our scouts
Gamel is gone and of course our “ favorite “ utility player, Josh Van Meter and Yoshi are both gone.
Newman and Reynolds would be the only players older than 26, but with Newman also gone, their position players are all young
@theman that is what I was driving at without saying it directly. The whole organization is an embarrassment to the game of baseball. Longer Nutting holds onto the Pirates, harder it is for them to keep a fan base in Pittsburgh. It’s been 22 years of Nutting and the penny pinch bs. When will MLB owners and commissioner step in like they did with the Expos?
outside the box and controversial. Dodgers might be looking to dump salary. Pirates can afford to take on some salary if they get something valuable in return… high/mid prospects near mlb ready being a headline.
I wouldn’t mind the pirates taking on some dodger salary if the prospect return was worth it.
Taylor being the easiest to muster with a recently reinstated pitcher we won’t name being a controversial one. no one wants to touch him, but his work out routine could really help. as long as others on the team don’t fall into the controversy. Also assuming he continues to do well.. a contender might get desperate for help at the deadline.
Could make a huge difference in 2024 outlook if they can keep that pitcher out of the news.
Dodgers dumping 30m in salary could allow them to make some bigger moves if they have any in mind.. Dodgers would have to pick up some of the payroll who and how much I don’t know.
Obviously the dodgers would need something in return. a Mid/lower prospect or few depending on who they are. maybe a comp pick… pirates have a second round one if i recall correctly.
PR would probably be good in LA but bad in Pitt… pirates are used to that though.
If a team is looking for an interesting minor league signing, I would consider either Mallax Smith or Mel Rojas Jr.