The Pirates have claimed infielder/outfielder Michael Helman off waivers from the Cardinals, according to announcements from both clubs. There was no previous indication that the Cards had removed Helman from their 40-man roster, so their count drops to 39. The Bucs opened a 40-man spot by transferring infielder Enmanuel Valdéz to the 60-day injured list.
Helman, 29 this month, has a tiny amount of big league experience. He got 10 plate appearances with the Twins last year, collecting three hits while also striking out three times. He was traded to the Cardinals in February for cash.
His 2025 season is out to a rough start. In 73 Triple-A plate appearances, he has a .185/.260/.292 batting line and 50 wRC+, indicating he’s been 50% worse than league average. Perhaps the Cardinals felt that those poor numbers would help Helman sneak through waivers, so they quietly put him on the wire.
However, the Bucs have swooped in and grabbed him, presumably overlooking his 2025 numbers and focusing on his other seasons. Over 2023 and 2024, Helman took 480 minor league plate appearances, hitting 21 home runs and slashing .282/.356/.507 for a 121 wRC+. He still has a full slate of options, so the Pirates can keep him in the minors and see if he bounces back. If he does, he could be a versatile utility piece. He has played every position outside the battery in his minor league career.
As for Valdéz, he landed on the 10-day IL a few days ago due to left shoulder inflammation. His status is unclear but the fact that he has been quickly moved to the 60-day IL doesn’t bode well. He’s now ineligible to return until July.
Photo courtesy of Reinhold Matay, Imagn Images
A career .300 hitter at the major league level.
Doubles machine. Two out of every careeer three hits is a Double for this guy.
Trade for Coby Mayo.
Trade for Samuel Basallo
for Mitch Keller
throw in Heaney for Heston
Yes! Trade for Mayo. Need one more besides him. Reynolds terrible right now. What would Reynolds and 2 mlb ready pitchers bring?
Trade for the dead shoeless Joe and Pete rose. They couldn’t do any worse
If a west coast team had claimed him would he be Michael Best Foods?
A++
Nowhere close to being a Canario tier prospect but close to Cook who cost the Pirates a really good interested arm Reilly.
I like Helman’s chances as much as Yorke. Probably more than Cook and much more than Gorski. Not as good defensively as Peguero Cheng Triolo but could be better hitter. Valdez better hitter than all of them but not much of a defender.
Let’s see if this latest dumpster diving effort by the cheapest and most incompetent franchise in baseball will help this lackluster offense any.
How am I not surprised by this claim?
Won’t help much. His ceiling is a average player. Currently a below average player. Most likely best outcome a slightly below average player. Think Adam Frazier or what we thought Pham could do if father time didn’t get him.
Cook and especially Peguero have higher ceilings. Cheng doesn’t look to hit at all. Yorke has a nice close floor ceiling. Endy best chance of any probably.
Helman just another guy in the mix. You hope at least 1 and hopefully 2 can be useful players. It’s just a numbers game.
why do you think this? Helman is 29 years old. It is almost time for him to switch to coaching.
You can still play baseball at 29. Lots of guys do.
sure but most who are contributors in the majors play their first game at a younger age. Only 5 non-pitchers that are older than Helman had their major league debut last year. Mickey Gaspar is the only one who has appeared in the majors this year.
Who said anything about him being a contributor? Contribute to keep having losing seasons maybe.
I don’t understand the Pirates obsession with versatile fielders. They seem to want players who can play multiple positions (Triolo, Valdez, Frasier, IKF) more than player plays one position but can hit. This is why they bring up Bae rather than Suwinski when Valdez goes on the IL (not saying Suwinski can hit but he hits just as well/poorly as Bae but at least has some power). Helman seems like another utility man that probably can’t hit. Hopefully he proves me wrong.
He’s almost 30 years older and it took him until he was 28 to get a taste of major league hitting
He’s just another disappointment in a long list of disappointments under this current General Manager’s regime
I have zero faith he will help this organization in the majors
If they could hit they wouldn’t have been DFA.
Pirates probably aren’t targeting players who can play multiple positions. They got Valdez for bat only. He doesn’t really play any positions you just put him somewhere. Pham Canario Cutch don’t play infield. Santana Choi 1b dh only. If guys can play multiple positions is just a bonus. And if you are a bench player who can’t hit you better be able to play multiple positions.
If they can trade for mayo to play first base, helman at 2nd. Then brownie can say a Helman mayo double playo
Brownie is who needs to go…
It is Cherington’s credo to obtain new players or move existing players to numerous positions.
None of these players can hit.
But he can cover all positions that way.
This obsession with using Triolo is questionable. Hayes who went 2-4 last night including a triple is sitting in place of Triolo at 3rd base
Frazier batting first followed by Cutch
And ( thankfully ) Pham isn’t in the lineup again
Still, against Holmes, it should be another double digit strikeout performance and maybe a few runs
This offense stinks
what good is covering all positions if they can’t hit?
Mendoza Line 215;
1. Have you noticed that although a small sample size, the Pirates are playing better with Oniel Cruz out?
2. At this point the FO is totally lost and grasping at anything. The owner should put them out of their misery and send them home. But then he’d have to pay their contracts as well as any new hires. The man can’t do anything right.
The owner is paying Shelton’s contract but backfilled his position with the bench coach. Kicking Cherington to the curb and replacing him with one of the asst. GM would be frugal, but not necessarily making the shituation worse.
They backfilled Shelton with his bench coach and have yet to fill that vacancy. Nor have they filled the game plan coordinator spot that is vacant due to a firing.
First time manager with no bench coach is sure to bring success
BENCH COACH?! WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ BENCH COACH!
You’re right, not filling these positions won’t bring success. It reminds me of the times when they don’t have a full 40-man roster, just so they can save a few dollars
Oh no!!!!! How can they expect to play without a bench coach!!!!!!!!
it’s not the point
Saving money by not having a bench coach seems to be the issue with this cheap ownership
What’s a Pirates mid season replacement bench coach cost? A good bench makes what 150k 200 maybe. We’re talking under 100k here. They gave Pham 4m when they could have got a much better outfielder for half that. What’s a 100 grand. They just didn’t rush into it or Kelly doesn’t care about having one.
Samuel-I am fairly impressed with Cruz in centerfield this year.He is still raw out there but he has a great arm especially for a center fielder.
He has finally matured as a hitter too.He is taking more pitches,and still hitting the ball hard.
I think that he should be batting third as his 8 home runs lead the team and many have led off the game with of course no one on base.
Hopefully he has stopped dogging it on the basepaths.
If he keeps this up through they may very well be offering him a new multi year contract.
The newness of the new manager and getting rid of Shelton are more responsible for them playing better.
.185 at AAA and we add him to 40 man instead of Solak whose batting .382.
Solak has a better chance of hitting at the MLB level than this guy.
They have control over Solak but he is a known quantity and they may want to see if he keeps this up.
He is the type of guy to stash at AAA for a recall later in the season after the trade deadline.
Batting average this early is irrelevant maybe irrelevant all together but certainly this early it is.
April 24th Canario avg .077 Reynolds .262
May 14th Canario .210 Reynolds .194
AAA is irrelevant. Only thing that matters is what will they do at MLB.
What really matters new guy on 40 man Solak isn’t.
No need to worry about either because there is no playing time available. Who are you benching?
To get him with the franchise he had to be added to 40 man.
Canario end of April .074 average. No one seen that turnaround coming!!!!!!
At least no human. Maybe some super advanced form of AI could have seen it?
Mark Canha March 31st to May 1st .357 batting average.
May 2nd to 14th .150
Both irrelevant. Only thing that matters is what he will do moving forward. Except for the Pirates who could have really really used that .357 until Horowitz got back and Canha would be the perfect platoon with him!!!!!!!
Member Poll
What’s more impressive?
A. My Joey Bart turnaround prediction.
B. My Grandal turnaround prediction.
C. My Tim Hill turnaround prediction.
D. My Canario turnaround prediction.
E. All of them are equally remarkable.
F. For F off you arrogant A hole.
You obviously have a bromance with Canario, Dream. You mention him in just about every one of your comments about this offense.
He’s lights out better than Pham who hasn’t been in the lineup for the last 3 games.
Reynolds should be benched for a game or 2. He’s 2 for his last 46 plate appearances
Kudos to Gorski and ( cough cough) Triolo for providing the offense in last night’s game and beating former Buc Clay Holmes
Lastly, last night’s game was Cruz’ 5th without playing. If he’s injured too badly, put him on the IL, retroactive to last Sunday and bring up a player. Their offense isn’t good enough to waste a roster spot for 10 days
Canario 11 for last 38 .314 batting average.
Next prediction. Bright eyes will be in next article telling us how great Canario is after telling us how bad he was in previous weeks. Dudes always wrong and late to the party.
Pittsburgh media will be all over Canario as well. You will be hearing about that .314 batting average a lot.
He’s been good all season and you will just be hearing about it now.
Not really a bromance. I just seen every Pirates fan wanting this guy off the team. I always liked him as a prospect and was like is he really this bad? From what I seen of him as a Pirate he looked good. I dug into some data and video and he wasn’t just good but great. Then I got after them. Not the fans. Fans just look at batting average and when you see .074 no wonder they want rid of the guy. But Pirates management office should have known better. They just found the winning lottery ticket and threw it away so they could keep playing Pham.
They are playing Pham because he was decent hitter and a good fielder and to see if he starts being a good hitter.
This may be the year that he ages into being a poor hitter.
The biggest reason though is that he was a free agent that they will not be releasing soon.
There may be something wrong with Reynolds but he needs to sit for a couple of games.
Triolo has never been known for his hitting.
His fielding is sweet and highly usable at any position.
If he does not get better at hitting a few weeks at AAA could help him.
He is a major league player though,and probably has the best fundamentals in the field of any Pirate.
And who would they have to replace him with?
Yorke is the only one who comes to mind.
By the way Paul,how about that Bae bunt yesterday?Perfectly placed.Hague’s doing?
They played Pham because they are stupid. Only losers like Pirates do this. Backup qb comes in and is great the starter shouldn’t get his job back. You ride the hot player. Doesn’t matter what plan you had. Or that you gave him 4m. You play the better player.
Pham bat data is down. Age finally got him. That’s a risk you take signing older players. Carlos Santana could have went at any time. Teams just keep betting this isn’t the year. You hope to win but if nkt move on.
Who knew that Bae could lay down such a beautiful bunt?
I wonder whether it is coincidence that it happens when Shelton is gone.
One thing that you cannot teach is speed and Bae is truly a water bug out there.
He has also has become a decent center fielder.
I hope the Pirates can bring out the best in Helman.
They played Pham because they are stupid. Only losers like Pirates do this. Backup qb comes in and is great the starter shouldn’t get his job back. You ride the hot player. Doesn’t matter what plan you had. Or that you gave him 4m. You play the better player.
Pham bat data is down. Age finally got him. That’s a risk you take signing older players. Carlos Santana could have went at any time. Teams just keep betting this isn’t the year. You hope to win but if nkt move on.
He will gradually play less but I believe that Nutting expects any of the free agents making more than nominal money to play.
My guess is that Cherington has no choice.Otherwise he is admitting failure.