The Pirates sent outfielder Cal Mitchell outright to Triple-A Indianapolis this afternoon, tweets Justice delos Santos of MLB.com. He cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week.
Mitchell and Yohan Ramirez were each DFA last Friday. Ramirez was claimed by the White Sox this afternoon. Mitchell went unclaimed and will stick in the organization. Since this is his first career outright and he has under three years of major league service, he doesn’t have the ability to decline the assignment.
A second round pick in 2017, Mitchell attracted some prospect attention throughout his time in Pittsburgh’s system. He performed reasonably well through Double-A before raking at a .339/.391/.547 clip in 63 Triple-A contests a year ago. That earned him a major league look in late May, but Mitchell didn’t found much success against big league pitching.
Over 232 trips to the dish, the lefty-swinging outfielder put up a .226/.286/.349 line. As a result, Mitchell has spent almost all of 2023 in Indianapolis. He hasn’t recaptured last year’s success at that level. He’s hitting .264/.338/.426 while striking out at a lofty 29.3% clip through 300 plate appearances. That eventually squeezed him off the roster.
Mitchell will try to work his way back onto the 40-man over the last month of the season. He’d qualify for minor league free agency at the beginning of the offseason if the Bucs don’t reselect his contract.
Hard to believe that one of the rebuilding teams wouldn’t take a chance on claiming Mitchell. What would they have to lose?
The Bucs are in perpetual rebuilding mode so it surprises me that they kept the likes of Rivas over someone with more potential
I think that’s where Cruz will end up, but Rivas is literally the only real 1st baseman on the 40-man after trades of Choi/Santana.
Cruz isn’t going from SS to 1B. If they move him, which I don’t think they will, he’s far more likely to play RF.
Cruz wants to play SS and before being injured he was playing well enough to stick there. Unless the broken ankle causes a long-term mobility issue, don’t expect Pirates to move him.
Agree with regard to him handling SS before his injury, but I think his bum ankle WILL hamper him in the short term, and mid to long term he’ll lose mobility with age anyway. First base keeps him involved as an infielder and his wingspan would be a huge asset.
The Bucs have plenty of RF candidates, but as I said originally, nobody with the ground ball skills plus bat to play 1st.
I don’t put much stock in the idea that a good defender is wasted at first (as we saw last year with the Pirates).
BC just knows he’s going to discover the next Justin Turner. It’s exhausting watching them recycle other team’s trash.
Mitchell’s “potential” is dubious at best: he’s not a particularly strong fielder, he could only hit pitcher’s mistakes and he was not especially fast. If I were Cal, I’d dial up and Jordan Luplow to find out how to scratch out a career as a mediocre journeyman.
Rivas is what he is, but he’s also literally the only player in the entire organization who can reasonably play first base.
Mitchell was outstanding in AAA last year but not much better than average this year.
He does not bring enough to the table otherwise to play in the ML’s without impressing but I thought that outfielder poor teams would take a chance on him.
I am surprised that he will automatically become a minor league free agent at the end of this year but it may have to do with the number of years that he has been in the minor leagues.