The Pirates announced they’ve designated right-hander Roddery Muñoz for assignment. Pittsburgh needed a 40-man roster spot after finalizing their signing of first baseman Rowdy Tellez and trade pickup of Edward Olivares from Kansas City.
Pittsburgh claimed Muñoz off waivers from the Nationals two weeks ago. Washington had snagged him off waivers from the Braves in July. Muñoz has yet to appear in a major league game. While he was briefly added to the MLB roster in Atlanta, his number was never called. He struggled in the upper minors this year, combining for a 5.42 ERA through 78 innings in the Braves and Nats systems.
He punched out 23% of opponents but walked a massive 15% of batters faced. Prospect evaluators have credited the 23-year-old with a mid-upper 90s fastball and a promising slider. He needs to take a significant step forward with his strike-throwing to carve out a big league bullpen spot. The Pirates will have a week to trade Muñoz or attempt to slip him through waivers.
3 Pirates stories in a row. Has to be a record.
Cherington said they were going to be active!
Pipe dream, this is his version of active.
Classic
Don’t get too excited, they’re just getting the numbers up artificially so they can shotgun articles when Yamamoto signs with the Yanks!
Dodgers, sorry.
Yeah, that’s who I suspect is chief competition for the Yankees, honestly. I’m 50/50 on which one. I give the edge to the Yankees out of reliable, objective statistical measures, like a mixture of hope and fandom.
Honestly,as a Yankees fan, I’m more worried about history repeating itself. I think Boston is gonna push up until the end for him. Dice K all over again. Hopefully if he signs with Boston, the Yanks don’t over pay for “the other Japanese pitcher” again. Imanaga and Igawa are both lefties, too.
Keep the Japanese mega contracts coming if thats what it takes to bring Yankee Clipper out of exile.
The Yankees have Judge and still haven’t won a WS which I find hilarious
I would rather have a team with young players and a low payroll than a team that is overpaid and can’t make it to the big one
Yeah, hilarious is not the term to describe my feelings on the past decade of aged, overpaid, underperforming players that Cashman has put in the roster. The problem is that they tried to blend small market economics/roster construction with a big market payroll, and it failed spectacularly, because they simply don’t have the expertise to do it.
Unless Cashman can spend limitlessly, he cannot overcome his deficiencies. I do give him credit this year, as I think the Soto trade was worth it and he’s been averse to doing those types of trades.
Damn, I was all ready to start signing up members for the Roddery Club.
Don’t understand the Olivares trade for the Pirates. They need a bigger bat than that for RF.
Then you’re in the right place! The pirate head scratchers club… this is where we come to scratch
They aren’t looking for a big bat. Just a cheap one. They will win 70 games and people will think they are in the edge of contention. What a joke.
Except that they wok 76 games last year and will improve next year
Pirates finished the season 28-26. Part if that was luck because the rotation was held together with duct tape. But 1/3 of the season is a winning record. Over a whole season that would translate to 84-78, and just making or just outside of the playoffs. They really underperformed against the Cubs. However were competitive against most, if not all of the rest of the NL. It’s not too much of a stretch to think they’re close.
Grump- Sorry to tell you,but the Pirates could very well go downhill next year.The mediocre pitchers that BC depended upon to sign and did well will all be gone.He will have only the bottom of the barrel left due to the demand of starting pitchers and the ridiculous guarantees that they are getting,
Who is to say that any of the hitters will progress due to being coached by Haines.Hayes has lost his hitting guru in Nunnaly.Reynolds lost his touch once he got the contract,
They may very well start the year with two proven starters,and what happens if one gets hurt?
How will Cutch do at 38?How will Davis do at the very important position that he has no ML experience at?How good will Cruz be?They have a lot of second basemen and shortstops but how good are any of them?
Hope springs eternal when even The Man thinks that they will improve.
But will they?
I’d call it 50/50 improve/fall back. I’d like to see some professional coverage that’s not overly optimistic, like the team’s writers, or overly pessimistic, like the ones who do the lists for MLB Network.
I liked Wacha and Flaherty as bounce back pitchers.The former got two years though which is iffy and the latter got $14M which is too much.
These are the type of pitchers that they need to move forward.
I do not think that you can depend on the young guys.
Hopefully they will seriously improve the roster and I am not talking just signing Cutch,
If they do then they have a chance to improve.
Maybe the Braves can get Roddery back!
@braves83. After all the moves AA has been making I can see him grabbing Roddery again.