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Pirates Select Nick Solak

By Anthony Franco | May 16, 2025 at 5:11pm CDT

The Pirates made a move just before tonight’s game in Philadelphia, selecting second baseman/corner outfielder Nick Solak onto the big league club. Pittsburgh optioned Ji Hwan Bae to Triple-A Indianapolis to create an active roster spot, while recently-claimed utilityman Michael Helman was designated for assignment in the 40-man roster move.

Solak, 30, is back in the big leagues for the first time since 2023. The right-handed hitter only made two appearances that year, one apiece with the Braves and Tigers. He’d appeared in 35 games for Texas the year prior. His most recent regular MLB action came with the 2021 Rangers, when he suited up in 127 games and batted .242/.314/.362 with 11 home runs.

A former second-round pick by the Yankees, Solak has bounced around to various organizations over the past few seasons. He was viewed as a bat-first prospect without a clear defensive home. He hasn’t hit enough to make that work at the major league level, running a modest .252/.327/.372 slash line in nearly 1000 career plate appearances. Solak has reliably hit minor league pitching, including a .291/.379/.472 mark over parts of six Triple-A seasons.

This year is no exception. Solak is out to a massive .393/.452/.625 start through 32 games with Indianapolis. He leads the International League in average and ranks among the top four hitters (minimum 100 plate appearances) in both on-base percentage and slugging. He has connected on six homers and doubles apiece, plus one triple. He’s drawing walks at a decent 9.5% rate and has kept his strikeouts to a tidy 13.5% clip.

The Bucs are hoping he can carry a fraction of that production over against big league pitching. They’ve again had one of the sport’s weakest offenses. Solak draws into the lineup tonight at first base against Phils southpaw Ranger Suárez. The Pirates will activate lefty-hitting Spencer Horwitz either tomorrow or Sunday. Horwitz is going to be the primary first baseman, especially against righty pitching. Solak could see more playing time in left field, where neither Tommy Pham nor Alexander Canario has been effective. He’s out of options, so the Pirates could not send him back down to the minors without running him through waivers.

The move almost immediately costs Helman his roster spot. Pittsburgh had grabbed him off waivers from the Cardinals on Wednesday; he has yet to make an appearance in the organization. The 28-year-old Helman debuted with nine games for the Twins late last season. He was traded to St. Louis shortly before the start of Spring Training. Helman is out to an awful .185/.260/.292 start in Triple-A this year, but he hit .271/.350/.487 with 14 homers in 72 games at that level a year ago. Pittsburgh will likely place him back on waivers in the next few days.

@smokeymeats45 first reported that Solak was being called up.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Transactions Ji-Hwan Bae Michael Helman Nick Solak

Rockies Select Carson Palmquist
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Athletics Option Osvaldo Bido, Designate Jason Alexander For Assignment
View Comments (33)
Post a Comment

33 Comments

  1. Reynaldo's

    1 month ago

    What a waste of Paul Skenes

    5
    Reply
    • wvsteve

      1 month ago

      Solak is playing good at AAA

      1
      Reply
  2. AI GM

    1 month ago

    Will make Pirates fans happy. They wanted Lamb last year. Gorski. Nunez. Martin. Anyone who does anything in minors they get excited about.

    2
    Reply
    • Sports_Guy

      1 month ago

      Not much to get excited about in the majors

      3
      Reply
    • TJECK109

      1 month ago

      Really? You think Pirates fans are going to get excited over a 30 year old infielder who hasn’t seen the majors since 2023?

      Obviously don’t pay attention to Pirates fans

      2
      Reply
      • AI GM

        1 month ago

        I seen them all over the internet asking why Solak isn’t here. So yes I do know them.

        1
        Reply
        • TJECK109

          1 month ago

          No sir, you do not.

          1
          Reply
        • AI GM

          1 month ago

          Yes I do. Twitter. Pirates sites. Podcast. People been pounding the table for Solak.

          1
          Reply
    • smrtbusnisman04a

      4 weeks ago

      Jared Trilo flew through the minors and had a .900+ OPS at AAA. So far he hasn’t been able to figure out major league pitchers

      Reply
      • AI GM

        4 weeks ago

        And they were excited about him

        Reply
  3. Cambo

    1 month ago

    Why are they just leaving Oneil Cruz on the bench for 5 + games. IL him….

    3
    Reply
    • TheMan 3

      1 month ago

      I agree, Monday will be 10 games if Cruz doesn’t play by then
      They could have put him on the IL and brought someone else up from Indy
      A team starving for offense and they deliberately leave a player off the roster who can contribute

      4
      Reply
      • Acoss1331

        4 weeks ago

        Nutting and Cherington don’t want to start the service time clock on the young guys. That’s the only explanation I can come up with…

        Reply
    • Perksy

      1 month ago

      Terrible move. And now that it’s past 3 days they can no longer backdate.

      3
      Reply
  4. AI GM

    1 month ago

    Are they benching Canario Cruz Reynolds? Giving Pham extension? Why is Pham still here other than Cherington unwilling to admit he threw away 4m?

    Reply
    • TheMan 3

      1 month ago

      Reynolds isn’t playing tonight, but your buddy, Pham is

      1
      Reply
      • AI GM

        1 month ago

        Doing the old rest day don’t touch a bat get your head right magically come out of a slump thing. It works sometimes. I’m sure Bae Gorski Solak could have handled things for a few games. Is anyone really that worse than Pham? Pham is better than his stats but still below average.

        Reply
        • TheMan 3

          1 month ago

          I read that Reynolds’ shoulder has been bothering him which could be effecting his swing
          He’s mired with a 4 for 41 slump and probably needs rest

          2
          Reply
  5. TJECK109

    1 month ago

    If he can hit .252 in the majors this time around he will be batting cleanup by end of the month

    3
    Reply
  6. ntorsky

    1 month ago

    Hell yeah, glad smokeymeats45 is getting his big break.

    Reply
  7. Monkey’s Uncle

    4 weeks ago

    George Carlin used the following phrase to describe American elections, but it also holds true with Pirates positional player transactions: “Garbage in, garbage out”

    1
    Reply
    • Acoss1331

      4 weeks ago

      Sir, the White Sox and Rockies would like to be included as well please!

      Reply
  8. AI GM

    4 weeks ago

    “where neither Tommy Pham nor Alexander Canario has been effective.”

    Might as well have a tattoo on your head that says I know absolutely nothing about baseball.

    Brighteyes writing articles now?

    Canario has been hitting the ball better than the vast majority of hitters in baseball all year long.

    Reply
  9. AI GM

    4 weeks ago

    “Solak could see more playing time in left field, where neither Tommy Pham nor Alexander Canario has been effective.”

    I promise you they won’t be benching Canario for Solak.

    2
    Reply
    • TheMan 3

      4 weeks ago

      Canario’s 3 run homer last night is evidence that he’s hitting the ball better than Pham
      Then again so is just about everyone on this roster currently

      2
      Reply
      • AI GM

        4 weeks ago

        Tons of evidence. Just about every stat and data there is.

        Pham should have never been signed at least not for 4m and should have never played over a red hot Canario. Canario is the one that should had the over 100 at bats in April.

        1
        Reply
        • TheMan 3

          4 weeks ago

          the entire Pirate baseball world knows that Pham shouldn’t have been signed but he was and unless Ben grows a pair and dfas him we’re stuck with him

          1
          Reply
  10. The greatest 21

    4 weeks ago

    Nothing exciting about the recent moves. It’s like using duct tape to fix a sinking canoe. Cherrington is fighting for his job. He’s trying to pull other teams scubs out of a hat like his buddy Shelton did with his lineups.
    To be honest,I’d rather have Huntington. At least he knew how to put together a bullpen. And now they bring a 78 year old ex pirate manager to be a coach. Absolutely amazing how dysfunctional the organization is. And Kelly is just another Shelton.
    Take all the War and other idiotic analytics and shove them.

    1
    Reply
    • TheMan 3

      4 weeks ago

      Kelly doesn’t manage like Shelton did but he has to use the players he’s given
      The fact that they have failed to score more than 4 runs a game for 22 consecutive games says more about the hitting coach and his staff than the players
      Everyone swings uip on the pitches instead of swinging with the pitch
      Or hitting the ball in the opposite direction, they try and pull a pitch when it’s outside of the plate

      1
      Reply
      • AI GM

        4 weeks ago

        If they even had a basic understanding of analytics they wouldn’t have signed Pham and wouldn’t have played him over Canario. Organization isn’t good at anything other than losing.

        Reply
  11. leftcoaster

    4 weeks ago

    Nick Yorke be damned.

    Reply
  12. smrtbusnisman04a

    4 weeks ago

    Fans have given up and are saving their money for Steelers season

    1
    Reply
  13. Mendoza Line 215

    4 weeks ago

    What amazes me is that last year’s Pirates hitting looks like a juggernaut compared to this bunch.
    Maybe Andy Haines wasn’t so bad after all!
    Seriously though I think that it will be difficult to get any good former GM to come to Pittsburgh to work for Nutting.

    Reply

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