2:25pm: The Pirates announced that they have claimed Simón and optioned him to Triple-A Indianapolis, with Rainey designated for assignment as the corresponding move.
1:25pm: The Pirates have claimed infielder Ronny Simón off waivers from the Marlins. The latter club designated him for assignment last week. Right-hander Tanner Rainey has been designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot for Simón. Mike Rodriguez first reported that Simón would be joining the Pirates. Craig Mish of the Miami Herald reported that it would be a waiver claim. Alex Stumpf of MLB.com reported that Rainey was the corresponding move.
Simón, 25, got his first major league call just over a month ago. The Marlins selected his contract on April 20th and he stuck on the roster until he was designated for assignment on May 30th. He got into 19 games and stepped to the plate 56 times, producing a batting line of .234/.327/.277.
That was a fairly unremarkable performance from a statistical point of view but Simón got thrust into the spotlight in an unusual way. As relayed Jason Foster and Christina De Nicola of MLB.com, Simón had a nightmare game against the Padres last week. The Fish were up 6-0 on Tuesday but several errors and general defensive miscues from Simón allowed the Friars to engineer an 8-6 comeback victory.
Amid the chaotic contest, Simón was seen wiping tears from his face. After the game, he received plenty of encouraging messages from his teammates and even his opponents. Per the MLB.com story, Padres such as Manny Machado, Luis Arráez and Fernando Tatis Jr. sent supportive texts to Simón after the game. In addition to that challenging on-field experience, Simón also had to deal with getting sent into DFA limbo a few days later. However, he has quickly found a new home by landing with the Pirates.
Simón’s major league time isn’t much to go on. Presumably, the Pirates are paying more attention to his minor league work. In 2,328 minor league plate appearances, he has a .266/.341/.446 line and 108 wRC+. Before getting called up this year, he got into 15 Triple-A contests and had a massive .354/.441/.521 line in that small sample.
As of July of last year, FanGraphs considered Simón to be one of the top 20 prospects in the Rays’ system, noting that his switch-hitting and defensive versatility gave him a good shot to eventually become a utility player. He has experience at the three infield positions to the left of first base as well as the outfield corners. He’s generally been able to steal about 20-35 bases annually. The Rays didn’t give him a 40-man spot at the end of last year, which led him to sign a minors deal with the Marlins coming into 2025.
He still has a full slate of options, so the Pirates can keep him in the minors if they don’t have room at the big league level. Rainey’s DFA does open an active roster spot but the Pirates might recall a pitcher rather than playing with the pitching staff shorthanded.
Rainey, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Pirates in the offseason and was selected to the roster about a month ago. He has since tossed 7 2/3 innings over 11 appearances, allowing nine earned runs. There’s surely a bit of luck in there, especially from a 35.7% strand rate that is ridiculously low, but he also hasn’t done himself any favors by walking 16.2% of batters faced. On the positive side, his 24.3% strikeout rate and 45% ground ball rate are solid numbers.
He’ll now head into DFA limbo, which can last for as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Pirates could take five days to try to line up a trade. Rainey’s overall track record includes 197 big league innings with a 5.44 ERA. From 2019 to 2024, he logged 182 1/3 of those innings with a 4.49 ERA, 28.5% strikeout rate and 14.1% walk rate.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Another infielder???
He’ll probably go to AAA and Nick G will be coming back
also has some time in the OF so there is that.
Season saved?
Kelly blew the game yesterday by using a pitcher who averages 6 walks per 9 innings.
Rainey didn’t disappoint, he walked 2 batters and gave up a run in such a close game
My guess, this player will be sent to Indy and Gonzalez or Jack will be promoted
Jack hit his 7th homer in yesterday’s game at Indy
I guess that I’m not the only one who cringed when Rainey was brought in. He rarely does the job, unless a mop up or big lead.
Rainey walked 3.7 per 9 not 6.
Hopefully Kelly is capable of knowing who his good relievers are. Sometimes you have no choice. After so many consecutive games not everyone is available.
Borucki was warning up when Rainey was busy losing the game as was Ferguson
Kelly had other choices
Until yesterday Rainey pitched in 10 games and in 8 of those games he gave up 0 runs. Basic stat but doesn’t sound like it was that crazy of choice to pitch him. Better than a lefty who rightys put up MVP numbers against. Bednar Santana can’t pitch every game and if they are available it’s 8th 9th. Borucki lefty only. Ferguson Wentz probably should as well. Ashcraft pitched multiple innings previous day I believe. Running out of options it seems. Could have let Shugart pitch but maybe he isn’t as good multiple innings. Maybe Kelly messes up. Is it worth attacking Kelly for being on the wrong end of a Shugart Rainey decision? When they got Shugart did you say A+ or another Cherington dumpster dive?
Question should be the same as mine has been since October. Why are Williams Cherington still here? They put Rainey on roster.
you make valid points, Dream however it seems that down by 2 runs, Kelly could have used pinch hitters in lieu of say, Pham and Endy
Trying to win a game and he uses the same failed tactics that his predecessor used
Rainey has been OK in low leverage situations.
Bednar was not going to pitch because he did Fri and Sat.
Santana only pitched Sat so he was available.
Kelly should have used Shugart ,who has had one awful outing,for the seventh also.He may not have wanted to use Ashcraft but he had not pitched in at least four days.He may have thought that he had no choice but I am always leary when one of your lesser pitchers walks two guys leading off.
That makes it time to put anyone else in in a close game.
Paul said Borucki was warming up and he has not been good lately.Kelly probably wanted to ride Rainey to right hand hitters but it cost them the game and maybe Rainey’s career.
The point is that he had options,although evidently not Bednar,and by the time that he did make a change it was too late to win the game.
Pinch runners ok I suppose. You are a winner though and a die hard fan. You want to manage like it’s game 7. Seasons over. Doesn’t matter what they do. Not like they have a speedster on the bench like Bae. Canario Triolo are probably better option but what are the odds they would say score on a play that Pham Endy wouldn’t? Not good enough for Davis to put the gear. And as you seen not hits occurred for anyone to score.
Ashcraft would have been option. My guess he was a starter so they want multiple innings from him. Plan was for Rainey and lefty ready to go if it got to that point. Didn’t plan on 3 walks though.
When you have Skenes Cruz you should be able to use any arm you want without it being a disaster.
Yep, awful move. Anyone can see from a mile away he didn’t have it. Not sure how many batters he faced but I would have yanked him as soon as he reached the requirement. Or just not use him in the first place.
with an era of 7.71, this should have been a clue for not using him
Today is an off day, Kelly had better options
That’s era now. Before that it was lower. Rainey isn’t great good or even above average but Pirates don’t have enough of those. The leftys were warming up for leftys. You don’t want them for rightys. Especially Borucki. Rights hit like MVP against him.
You are micro analyzing meaningless things. Real question is why was Rainey even on the team? Why was Pham starting? Why they sign Pham instead of a good outfielder? Why is Cherington still here? Why is Williams still here? Why is Cutch the last hs impact bat we drafted? Why is Bonds the last college bat?
Who ever pitched 1 inning in a meaningless game from another wasted season of Skenes Cruz seems like a nothing burger to me. Teams got bigger problems than 1 reliever in 1 inning. It’s something to talk about so ok you say Borucki Ferguson. Lets see how long it is until they have a bad outing. Are they that superior to Rainey we will see.
I get it now.
You’re allowed to offer your opinions but everyone else isn’t
according to baseball reference his era prior to yesterdays game was 7.71
It’s over 10 now
You are looking at the overall picture and that controls.
Paul and I are looking at the details and the manager is a very important part of the overall picture.
They have lost way too many games because of poor managerial decisions.
Would it make a difference in the overall scheme of things?
No.
But these minute decisions are the ones that good managers generally get right.
Mediocre or poor ones,not so much.
They are low hanging fruit for good managers who know how to maximize the use of whatever bullpen they have been given.
Era is not always representative for relief pitchers.
I do recall though that some of his other stats are not particularly good.
One bad outing can skew the results as it has done for Shugart.
Small market teams will never be a good team without a good manager since Shelton and Cherington are right,they have to win games “ at the margins” because they cannot bury their mistakes by fine hitting.
6.14 era before yesterday according to where I looked. It could be wrong. He was much better than that era would suggest. 3.47 fip even with yesterday. Double digit k per 9. No hrs allowed all season yet. Won’t surprise me if he finds work. Won’t surprise me if he doesn’t. After not a single team claimed Tim Hill nothing these teams do surprise me.
Pauls just being a drama queen. I said it’s good to have something to talk about. Just in the grand scheme of things it’s 1 inning of one game in a lost season.
I had this big beautiful list of outfielders to sign and they signed Pham who was not on the list. Can’t get over that. The fan base was excited. Just had to get a outfielder and 1b and they would be all in. And you get Pham and a guy they never heard of who is hurt. Just killed any hope.
Paul’s just being a drama queen while Dream can’t handle being wrong
Its his way or the higheay
All’s well that ends well.
Hopefully,Kelly learned his lesson.
I think that Rainey got one out but gave up a hit and three walks.
Not a good day.
My point was though even if he would have been strapped for his better relievers bring in somebody else after the second walk.Have someone ready.
Stupid reliever use is one of the things that got Shelton fired.
I agree with you because from what I’ve seen of Kelly so far, he tends to leave relievers in too long.
The larger issue is that many of them suck, yet again. No reliever is perfect but seems like aside from Santana, everyone is prone to imploding seemingly at will. I would like to see someone groomed as the future closer/8th inning guy like Ashcraft or Moreta (status??) allowing them to trade Bednar or Santana. Or Mlod with the role that Luis Ortiz had last year.
It will be interesting to see what they do with Bednar who Is another Pittsburgh guy like Kelly that Nutting likes.
But yesterday is a perfect example as to why you need to have two sets of dependable relievers and closers to have a shutdown bullpen so that you do not have games that “ snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”
In Kelly’s defense he does not exactly have the Royals bullpen of 2015 which is the only time that a small market team has won the World Series since 1991.
They need to have a long man who can give three innings to at least keep a dependable reliever available for another day.
The key for Kelly is whether he learns from his mistakes.He may not have learned from those of Shelton.
Now Ronny has something to cry about.
Ha! Please tell me he’s related to Randall Simon.
The accent over the “O” says probably not…
Or Carly Simon
Nobody Does It Better
You’re so Vain, Mendoza
Dadum
Doubt that. He has a MLB job. Maybe. Up to him.
I still feel for what happened to him, but couldn’t resist.
Page 73…Simon, Ronny O.! He’s somebody now! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity that makes people! Things are going to start happening to him now…
Rainey’s slider was not enough to keep him in the MLs.
I give the Pirates credit for applying logic to the situation.
Burrows should go to the bullpen and Chandler should be promoted to take his place in the rotation
That makes great sense..I’m not impressed by burrows…chandler needs called up now.
Now as far as Keller is concerned. He’s pitched way better than a 1-7 record. They don’t hit for him.
I’m predicting that chandler won’t be called up until the trade deadline.
Kelly is OK with lineups,but like Shelton he mismanages the bullpen.
They are wasting Bubba’s arm if they do that.
He only has so many pitches in it.
I think that they have to give Kelly a chance to succeed so that he has a decent chance to keep his job.He is at least trying to get better.I do not know that he has ever been a manager before.
Keller is the poster boy as to why you cannot trust a pitcher’s won loss record.
With Cherington’s job on the line, finally using logic might be his only hope for coming back next season
A+ Can run. Play multiple positions. Doesn’t k much.
as opposed to Canario who never saw a pitch he didn’t want to swing at
This team needs offense not a dumpster dove hand me down
I am really surprised that he would use a roster spot on someone who is no better than the worst infielder that he has on the roster.
I understand that this guy can be easily cut,but I think that Cherington just has a predilection to collect middle infielders.
I do not think it fair to these guys to constantly churn them like they are near worthless.
Triolo can’t hit. Frazier IKF traded in 2 months. New guy can play 3b outfield they say. Did I see he is 5 7 or 5 8 or something. Gonna be a cute lil guy to watch.
Coach Canario up. He just turned 25 hasn’t played much in majors. Coach this new guy up. Nutting has provided all the resources.
Pirates have a guy who can be a good multi inning reliever or setup guy yet they still think he can start and sent him to the minors.
I agree about Carmen but they must be doing this because they actually think that he will able to cut it as a starter.He is pitching well in AAA.
One thing that we can trust the Pirates on is developing starters.
That would imply to me that they may be planning to eventually trade Keller and his high salary for the Pirates.
It is short sighted for this two month period but remember they will at least be losing Heaney at the trade deadline.
But I think that they have to get real about Burrowes after this next start unless he pleasantly surprises everyone.
They need to open up a roster spot for Bubba as every pitch that he throws in AAA is a wasted pitch.
Bubba would have been here weeks ago if anyone wanted to win ROY. That’s what I see as the hold up.
I agree.Last year they wanted to win and could not keep Skenes down or a rebellion would have happened.
It was good that they brought him up when they did and got the press that they would not have gotten if they had brought him up later.
Every pitch in AAA after the time that he was brought up would have been wasted.
The problem is now the same thing applies to Bubba only three weeks later in the season.
Yes,he could win ROY too at this point but he is no Skenes.
I say find out what they have now so that he can work any kinks out this year.
They are going to need another starter and I think that a Heaney trade now would get them a good prospect from a pitching needy team.
I dunno about the he’s no Skenes. Where he’s at he is Skenes. Number 2 prospect in baseball #1 pitcher. Good as it gets. Skenes is tuff to hang with but between Skenes and Cole he can absolutely be that.
Tanner made it rain-ey runs just about every game he pitched
decent pickup for the cost. MiLB decent run. Hits above the mendoza line he has a shot to stick.
Hitting!!? Love Hayes glove but!? Got to go ,need power at 3rd!
Defensive miscues? He sounds like a pirate already.