The Pirates announced that infielder Alika Williams has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding move for left-hander Tim Mayza, whose one-year deal with the club is now official.
Williams, 26 in March, has been with the Pirates for about a year and a half. The Bucs traded Robert Stephenson to the Rays in June of 2023, getting Williams in return and adding him to their 40-man roster in July. He has appeared in 83 big leagues games and stepped to the plate 208 times, producing a tepid batting line of .202/.257/.271. His 5.8% walk rate and 27.4% strikeout rate have both been subpar.
As one would expect, his minor league production has been better than that. Over the past three years, he received 934 plate appearances on the farm. His 11.1% walk rate and 18.5% strikeout rate in that span are both strong numbers. His combined batting line of .268/.357/.413 translated to a 107 wRC+. He spent significant time at both middle infield positions, as well as some time at third base.
Unfortunately, those solid minor league numbers weren’t enough to keep his roster spot with the Pirates. Perhaps that’s due to the lack of major league impact or a somewhat crowded cluster of middle infield options in Pittsburgh. Even with moving Oneil Cruz to center field, the Bucs have Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Jared Triolo, Nick Gonzales, Nick Yorke, Enmanuel Valdéz, Adam Frazier, Tsung-Che Cheng and Liover Peguero as viable middle infielders on the 40-man. Even first baseman Spencer Horwitz can play second base a bit. Prospect Termarr Johnson isn’t yet on the roster but is getting close to the majors regardless.
The Bucs will now have at most a week of DFA limbo to figure out what’s next for Williams, whether that’s a trade or some fate on waivers. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any trade possibilities would need to be explored in the next five days. Williams still has options and could appeal to clubs looking for infield depth.
Oh my God.
Finally.
White Sox
Still can’t believe the Rays of all teams thought this was guy worth a first round pick on
Another San Diego kid, close proximity to a lot of ex-MLB talent.
Alika would be a poor name for a ship.
Alika sounds like the name of a Disney movie character.
Allrighty, settle down.
Alika would be a good term on an Italian Ice commercial
it’s about time
Finally we are freed
next to go, Derek Shelton
If only, TheMan 3. If only.
Who you bringing in?
1. By all accounts, there was zero conversation with Beaver County native and boyhood Bucco fan, Mr. Francona.
Unforgivable.
2. ANYONE can do the pi$$ poor job Shelton does.
Unfair criticism here. He’s young still and his fielding is exceptional which wasn’t even noted in the write up. He also had a strong year hitting in AAA last year also not mentioned.
There is upside still with Alika; and of all those mentioned names only Peguero is a legitimate SS.
I’m not arguing against the dfa just putting a little support Alikas way.
He is/was the best defensive infielder on the team. Someone will get him and their defense will
take a strong upgrade.
Can’t hit with any power. Came from a good strength program. Rays were extremely confident to think they could improve him. Pirates even more so but they did get him t add a lil bit weight.
Peguero probably just as good now. Drastically improved last year. He can’t hit either but it’s in him.
Nah. Both Hayes and Triolo better defensively.
Neither play SS. When Williams was in the lineup, a ground ball to SS was an OUT. No drama, no holding your breath to see if he makes the play. That is huge for any team.
A manager can sacrifice some defense for strong hitters at 1B, 3B, Lf, Rf.but not SS.
Offese wins games, defense wins championships.
He is gone from the Pirates, but I sense he will end up on a team looking for a Championship.
In that regard, he’d be a good late inning defensive replacement for a good team. Here in Pittsburgh, he’s just a luxury item
you make it sound like he didn’t commit any errors
He did and in very few games
But only as a late inning replacement who hopefully doesn’t get to bat. This is one thing that burns me about the Bucs, late inning defensive replacements. I’d rather have lumber on the bench than some guy who probably makes less errors than the regular starter.
Yeah, he’s a good glove. Fair point
But he’s another guy who has come up from the farm, shown nothing with the bat, and has been involved with the revolving door of guys with similar stories. Kind of incredible that they have a farm system full of guys who can’t hit
ExactlyThis team was near the bottom in runs scored last year and they need to improve on that if they want to win
He wasn’t really a farm guy though. He was a product of the Rays system. And to be fair to Alika he hit extremely well in the minors AFTER the trade to the Bucs.
Our hitters have done fine in the minors for the most part except for Siani. Davis destroyed MiLB pitchers. NickG has a 900 OPS in the minor leagues. It’s just that MLB pitchers are way better than the minor leaguers.
Yeah well, that was the point, wasn’t it? They have a revolving door of guys who hit well in the minors but really flatline at the MLB level. The Pirates farm isn’t alone in this, of course. They just seem unable to have anyone these days who can hit for high average or for big power numbers
Henry Davis hit well in the minors too.
That doesn’t always translate into hitting major league pitching
Just noticed tonight that a name dropped by many here—Grichuk—has re-signed with the Dbacks
No idea when the super fans here will wake up to realize this is the worst franchise in all of MLB but you can add his name to the many “wishlist dropouts” that didn’t make it to Pittsburgh.
It’s hilarious
I still believe Ben won’t be trading for a right fielder because he is hoping for a resurgence from Jack. And if that fails, the season will be over and it won’t matter because profits are more important than winning and it will be time for another rebuild
Dream is right about how poorly the player development system has performed here. I would add—and he would disagree—that the scouting department has been equally as bad, whether the discussion entails kids for the draft or prospects they trade for. On these points alone, Cherington should go
But like Huntington before him, I refuse to believe this is a guy who suddenly forgot how to build a team. We’ll never know the guardrails that have been thrown up around GMs here but I suspect they are extremely confining in a financial sense
The problem here is the owner
Tsung-Che Cheng, Billy Cook, Adam Frazier, Nick Gonzales, Spencer Horwitz, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Liover Peguero, Jared Triolo, Enmanuel Valdez, Nick Yorke, Ji Hwan Bae and even Endy Rodriguez, who are all on the 40 man roster, all had time at second base. Termarr Johnson is on the way and even non roster invitee Nick Solak has time at second. 14 people overall. I’m expecting a seismic defensive shift.
Sorry, they outlawed the shift last offseason.
They must have missed the memo.
Would a Cade Marlowe for Alika make sense?
A box of baseballs for Alika sounds fair.
Massive overpay.
Where’s Tired been? He changed his name last year so many times I never knew when he was posting
He’s around somewhere. Saw him telling someone that his plan was to change names monthly, just to agitate others
he never agitated me, I looked forward to his comments
He tells me he looks forward to yours, too. And you weren’t the intended target of agitation. “Bright eyes”. Just who is “Bright eyes?”
Bright Eyes, from what I remember, is another poster who is under the self proclaimed impression, of knowing everything.
Tired and Dream would get on his case when he’d ssy something that didn’t make sense
Yes, TheMan3, I know. I was being sarcastic. Bright Eyes is a legend in his own mind
Horowitz > Alonso
We don’t need tired Paul. I wouldn’t get too attached to Bueno Cook either. Sing it with me Paul… Just the 2 of us……
Internet hooligan/prankster is more my bag
Agitating the comfortable. Must’ve been something I learned in journalism school. Hmmm
As for becoming attached, I already have my hands full. Chicks dig me, what can I say?
Nothing like a suave, olive skinned geezer who can whisper “Yo quiero Taco Bell”
About time. Rays won another trade
Unrelated but the fools that run the Pirates let another RF (Grichuk) sign elsewhere for 5 million. I’ve been following the Bucs since 1966 but I may be done. Adding 1 more good player would help but these idiots including their cheap billionaire owner is afraid to spend a few million to give fans a little more hope. TOTALLY disgusted , wasting the window they have with Skenes & the rest
Very disappointing. Still Canha Pillar Verdugo but Grichuk was my guy.
#JackIsBack2025
And they’ll sign none of them because they believe the best—cough—-cheapest way is to give the Suwinski/Davis resurrection tour a shot