April 15: The Pirates officially placed Rodriguez on the IL today and recalled right-hander Chase Shugart in a corresponding move.
April 14: The Pirates are likely to place first baseman/catcher Endy Rodriguez on the 10-day injured list, manager Derek Shelton told reporters (including Kevin Gorman of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review). The 24-year-old sustained a laceration on his right index finger that required multiple stitches.
Rodriguez suffered the injury in the first inning of tonight’s win over Washington. He was behind the plate when Paul Skenes spiked a curveball that hit James Wood in the foot. The ball skipped off Wood’s foot and struck Rodriguez in his throwing hand. Henry Davis stepped in to finish the game.
The Bucs are already carrying three catchers on the active roster. They recalled Davis over the weekend while starter Joey Bart is day-to-day with back soreness. If Bart is expected back within a day or two, they could get by without bringing up another catcher. It’d be trickier if Bart isn’t available for now even as an emergency option. They don’t have any other catchers on the 40-man roster after trading Jason Delay to Atlanta a couple weeks back. Abrahan Gutierrez, who has never appeared in the majors, is the top option in Triple-A.
Rodriguez has played more first base than catcher through the season’s first two weeks. Tonight was his fifth start behind the dish. He has logged nine starts at first base. There’s a clearer path to playing time at the latter position with Spencer Horwitz beginning the season on the injured list. Rodriguez hasn’t come close to meeting the higher offensive bar at first base. He’s hitting .178 without a home run over 50 plate appearances. Pittsburgh had gotten a .146/.216/.225 slash out of the position entering play tonight (though Enmanuel Valdez’s strong game today will boost those numbers).
If the corresponding roster move is at catcher, Valdez would probably get the bulk of the first base reps. That’d push Adam Frazier back in to second base while potentially creating a little extra playing time in right field for Alexander Canario and/or Jack Suwinski. The Pirates have staggered Andrew McCutchen’s playing time in right, as they’re limited to using Bryan Reynolds at designated hitter because of an ongoing triceps issue.
First baseman Billy Cook is on optional assignment in Triple-A, but he’s out to a .143/.244/.200 start through 11 games. Non-roster corner infielder Malcom Nuñez has gotten out to a better start (.278/.290/.528), while former Phillies first baseman Darick Hall has had a similarly cold stretch as Cook (.241/.333/.276) to begin the season. The 40-man roster is at capacity.
The majority of the players in this article shouldn’t even be remotely close to a major league field.
Careful, Andromedon, or you’ll get the analytics geniuses here telling you that you shouldn’t believe what you actually see.
They have one legit player here in Cutch. Let that sink in for a minute.
They had all winter to surround a good starting staff (at the time) with a couple good, affordable bats in free agency. They did nothing
Cue the one poster here who keeps wanting us to believe Nutting is losing money. What a joke this is
Reynolds isn’t legit?
Reynolds is a good player. He’s an average outfielder, at best.
I said the majority, not all of them.
Yes George.. ANALytics is the ruination of sports. Devised by nerds who didn’t have the athletic capability to play sports.
And the MORON picks his lineups using ANALytics. Cruz leading off Reynolds second. Unbelievable
Yes George is reacting to a stupid comment. Next.
come on George, they traded a legitimate pitcher for a first baseman who has been injured since February and still hasn’t played this season
Yep. But Horwitz seems to have a number of folks who believe he’s the next Lou Gehrig.
Just another comment about Reynolds: are we sure we didn’t sign Haines as his personal hitting coach?
I have to wonder about guys like him and Keller. Both signed extensions and at the time, both talked about wanting to be a part of the rebirth here. I’m sure both could have hooked onto better teams and wonder what they’d say now. The train wreck of the offseason here should have told both that the only rebirth would come in the financial bottom lines of their owner
But then, Nutting is losing money, right?
James Wood Is mentioned and he seems legit
Yeah, Cutch is a bum and should retire
Somebody needs to learn the definition of “majority”.
someone needs to learn sarcasm
Have Nutting open his checkbook and bring Delay back. The only problem is the Braves will probably ask twice as much as they paid.
Gonna get buried before 50 games if things don’t change! No hitting before last night! Hitting has to continue,so far it doesn’t look like it will be a regular thing.
Ben isn’t replacing Endy ( who went on the IL today) with another position player,,Shuggart is coming back up
Leave it to a. worthless GM to forego bringing up a hitter on a team that lacks any semblance of offense, and choosing a pitcher instead
Holy F. The Pirates are terrible.
No s*** sherlock
Guy is probably on the IL because he’s so terrible at his job. 47 wRC+ means you belong in double-A.
I mean it HAS only been 3 weeks. Not that I’m high on Endy Rodriguez though
I agree
The only positive aspect of Endy is that he is a switch hitter
If he could only hit on one side of the plate, he’d be better than what we currently have at as a backup catcher
Pirates sound like a mash hospital.
every team has injuries, the Pirates problem is that they don’t have the depth to replace injured players in the minors
The Pirates problem is that the injured players aren’t very good and the depth is worse.
Lifelong Pirates fan here. People who were talking up Endy the past few years as some great future catcher for the organization have their blinders on. He is a below average player who doesn’t really look like he has what it takes to make it in the MLB. Davis stinks as well. The pirates have screwed around way to long with catching prospects. Even pulling Neil Walker out of his catching draft pick natural position and moving him to the infield. Pirates development is terrible.
Walker made it work because he was a true athlete. Change-overs like his don’t work well too often
Player development is horrible. But let’s finally agree that their scouting department is equally awful. How can it be that not one position player who has come through the farm system in the Cherington era shown any major league ability?
I agree. The pirates only legit position player is Reynolds. Cruz is Gregory Polanco Part 2 and is so overrated by the Pittsburgh fan base. Hayes is always one play away from getting injured. Henry Davis was a terrible draft pick at #1 overall. The list is endless.
Polanco at least worked extremely hard to improve his play. He just couldn’t. Cruz seems incredibly lazy
I like Reynolds, but would he be a star anywhere else? I’m not sure he even starts in most outfields
And to me, yeah, I get that Hayes has a balky back. But he’s the biggest bust signing here in years
I like to compare Elly de la Cruz to Oneil Cruz.
Oneil Cruz has a stronger SS arm, better exit velocity at the plate and very well could be faster.
All this said, Oneil lacks baseball sense/instincts and Elly has great instincts.
Cruz lacks discipline, either self awareness or by the manager
Elly is charismatic, smart, and an excellent baseball player. Oneil has all the tools in the world, but he’s just too stupid.
I don’t think he’s stupid, more like entitled and lazy
Walker didn’t have the arm to catch and suffered recurring back problems
Had he remained at the catcher position, his career would have been over sooner than expected
Good thing they had Davis to call up. Oh wait he will be non tendered this offseason.
Davis has been screwed up by management and the coaches.He may have been overrated but those in the know know that the Pirates got him under slot price and got Chandler also because of it.They also needed a catcher badly at that point.
If he and Suwinski do not improve their hitting they will be traded but will not bring much back.
how much time will they give these players before pulling the plug?
As soon as their minor league options run out.
Mets-That may generally be true but each of these two guys have proven nothing over the last year plus.
Suwinski struck out on a ball in the dirt for the last out today.
Henry has improved as a catcher but he has to work so hard at doing it that I think that it affects his hitting adversely.
If they trade either while they still have minor league options they can get a decent young unproven player for each.
It does not take a rocket scientist to know that the Pirates do not develop young talent unless they are pitchers.
The rest of the league knows that too.
And it will never get better under Shelton and Cherington.They have had over five years to improve.
It won’t happen.
Trade him for Baty.
That would work for Baty and the pirates. The Mets have no where to give Davis a shot.
Maybe they can just use playground rules and share the other team’s catcher each game. Have a universal catcher who catches bother pitchers. It worked in backyard football growing up having a universal QB playing for both teams … there was only one kid who could actually throw the football haha. Kinda like the pirates where they don’t have a catcher.
Last night was a prime example of why you need a true 1B. Not saying Skenes throws to first were perfect but a true 1B knows how to go to the ball if it’s off line.
Pirates just think they can throw anyone at that spot and be fine. Just truly disturbing the neglect that position has had under GMBC
both times Valdez tried to tag the base runner before he had the ball in his glove
Skenes’ throws weren’t perfect but an experienced first baseman would have made better efforts
His play at 2nd base when he botched the double play was like that on Saturday
Maybe he should go play catch with someone
I like Valdez but mostly because he hustles.
He is a utility man at best but I do not know the position that he can play well.
I do not think that even a decent team can rely on him to play anywhere regularly.
Hopefully,he will start hitting.Otherwise,he will not last long.
Even on the Pirates.
The problem is that IKF and Triolo are the utility men for the Pirates,and both are reasonably good at it.
But IKF should not be a starting shortstop.
Pirates are loaded with utility players and waiting for the market to come to them..
IKF claimed that newly hired hitting coach having come from Toronto helped him become a better hitter.
I wonder how bad he was before that makes him think he’s a better hitter now
TJ- Cherington is notoriously bad at this.It goes back to when he put Tucker and Hoy in the outfield during games when they had never played there before.Anybody who has ever played baseball knows that infielders and outfielders have two separate skill sets.Few are really good at both.
They did this to Davis too but were too stupid to give him experience there first.
I believe that 76 games is the rebuild maximum win total for this management team.
A good owner would have figured that out over a year ago.
Not good guys! Changes need to be make to shake up lineup. Swap some players,do something.
The something that many of us realized over two years ago is to fire Shelton.
IKF is the emergency catcher if needed
I kept trying to tell people that don’t know much baseball…
My hope for retaining the same lineup in tonight’s game has been dashed
Cutch is sitting in favor of Suwinski
I just don’t understand why giving one of your most valuable players a rest in favor of a player who doesn’t belong on the major league roster
I had hoped Jack would turn it around this year but he’s been a major disappointment
Paul-What you have failed to learn after all of these years is that Shelton puts everyone’s name in a hat and draws them out.They bat in the order that he draws them.
I heard Shelton’s pregame chat on the radio a couple days ago & he used the phrase “mix & match” about 5 times. At least Hurdle could run a set line-up out every day; Shelton changes things up (aka mix & match) everyday. Until he is told or fired that he’s never mixed & matched to come up with a winning line-up, he’ll keep on doing it. Definition of insanity is doing the same thing over & over & expecting better results. Shelton is insane! And I just proved it.
Endy for Joey Lucchesi doesn’t look like much of anything for either team. Draw.
Lucchesi (edited).
for some unknown reason, management is high on Endy, trading him is unlikely to happen
My opinion, he hasn’t shown much of anything at the plate or his throwing arm
He looked good in 2022 and 2023 in the minor leagues.
So has Davis.
I had real hopes for Endy because I thought that he was a good catcher but I am not so sure of that either.
But he has never hit well enough to play first base,and he never will.
They are screwing with him like they did with Davis.
Cherington may have a negative WAR as general manager.
In Jack’s first plate appearance he hit a weak dribbler back to the pitcher and on an outside pitch
But yeah sit Cutch, he needs to get a day off
I can’t watch this game anymore tonight
4 innings, an infield hit and 5 strikeouts
The pathetic Pirates are back!
Anemic. Uninterested.
10K’s. 4 hits. Suwinski had two of them
Highest average in the lineup was .250
Everyone else hovering around Mendoza territory
I’m still trying to understand how some thought this team would contend. Or even be around .500.
The question I always ask never gets answered: where are the hits going to come from?
Cue the Nutting apologist. It’s all because he’s losing so much money
and the most consistent player they have was given his scheduled day off in last night’s game
That being Cutch
Paul- When have they left?
I would have thought that Shelton would have used the same lineup that scored 10 runs the night before but who am I kidding?
He changes lineups like I change my underwear.
Daily
Another thing, Davis needs to learn how to take walk when its being given to him
He struck out twice on pitches 3 feet off of the plate
As the young season turns out to be the start of a disaster, I’m wondering how long this fiasco will continue.
There were heard grumblings by Nutting that he wasn’t happy. Well nutterbutter, it’s all you’re own fault. You are the owner, the teams bank. Yet you don’t want to make any free agent deposits. You think the fans will come to the best ball park in the majors, to see bobbleheads or free fireworks. We want at least a competive team. We want a fiery manager who isn’t a MORON. We want a GM who has the freedom to sign quality free agents. We need for you to either open the bank or sell the team. We know the only way you lose control of the deam, is when you are gone. Rumors have it that you’re children don’t want the pirates.
And to the analytics nuts…there is maybe some hope for you people yet! MAYBE
It burns my rear that Shelton refuses to use guys on the bench in tight games when base runners are at a minimum
Chang’s speed could have been used to either attempt to bunt for a hit or as a pinch runner when there was a runner on base already
Cutch draws more than his share of walks, wasn’t used either
A team struggling to get men on base or scoring runs, Shelton never goes beyond his comfort zone
He is an incompetent manager
Shelton the MORON is too dumb to be stupid
Can we use that phrase? “Too dumb to be stupid.”
10 runs,0 last night! Don’t think there is anyway to put 5 or6 game winning streak. Looks like so far we had a better team last year! That’s…… Don’t have word to describe!
the word I think of when talking about how bad this team is, collectively
losers
Push Frazier back to 2B? He has played 14 games at 2B…and ZERO at 1B! Valdez has been getting the bulk at 1B with Endy. The stats are in the player baseball.ref link!
Frazier played in left field the other day and while I like him, he doesn’t have the same swing as he did earlier in his career and should be a utility player not a starter
To think they don’t have a competent 2nd baseman in the minors to promote is a laughable statement towards the poor development system in this organization
Bae was once considered a good prospect but he’s shown he can’t hit major league pitching
Incompetence runs rampant in this organization
Hey kiddies, it’s lineup change #14 for tonight’s game
Hayes is leading off and with Triolo activated, he will be playing at second base
The question I have, will they score a run or two, strike out in double digits ( they’ve accomplished this feat in 11 games so far this season, and will Shelton mismanage the game
I guess Shelton wants to see how many strikeouts Jack can get in today’s, maybe he can match the 4 he had last night
Since he’s in lineup again