The Pirates announced today that they have selected the contract of right-hander Yohan Ramírez. Infielder Jared Triolo was optioned to to Triple-A Indianapolis as the corresponding active roster move. First baseman/outfielder Matt Gorski was designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot.
Ramírez, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Pirates in the offseason. He recently opted out of that deal but was quickly re-signed. He’s having a strong season, with a 3.19 earned run average over 31 Triple-A innings. His 29.3% strikeout rate and 52.7% ground ball rate are both strong marks, while his 8.6% walk rate is around par.
His previous big league work has been passable. Over the previous five seasons, he threw a combined 169 innings for various clubs with a 4.58 ERA, 22.8% strikeout rate, 11.3% walk rate and 44.6% ground ball rate.
With his strong results in the minors this year, the Bucs have called him up to see if he can carry it forward at the major league level. He is out of options but could be retained beyond this season via arbitration if he can hang onto his roster spot until season’s end. The Pirates are going to be sellers at the deadline and could move relievers such as David Bednar, Dennis Santana or Caleb Ferguson in the coming weeks, opening opportunities for others. It’s also possible Ramírez himself garners some trade interest if he looks good in the coming weeks.
Gorski, 27, has shown some pop and some speed in his career but also with a penchant for strikeouts. Last year, he hit 23 home runs at the Triple-A level and stole 15 bases but also got punched out at a 28.6% pace.
Despite that yellow flag, the Bucs gave him a major league tryout, selecting his contract in late April. In 42 big league plate appearances, he struck out 16 times, a 38.1% rate. His batting line was .195/.214/.390. He was optioned to the minors in the middle of May. Shortly after getting optioned, he landed on the minor league injured list and hasn’t played in a game since May 23rd. Injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers so he will either be traded or released within the next week.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
wow they sent Triolo down, it’s about time. excellent glove terrible bat.
I don’t believe either Triolo or Gorski are really gonna make any difference or impact as MLB players but I’d prefer the Bucs just dfa Triolo instead of Gorski. Neither will likely hit enough to be MLB regulars but Gorski has power and can reasonably play the outfield or first base which are positions of need, whereas Triolo is basically just insurance for trading away Hayes or Kiner-Falefa at the deadline as another no bat, good defense guy.
My favorite MLBTR picture!!
Considering Horowitz can’t hit lefties and when there’s a lefty starter, Triolo was inserted in the lineup, though he can’t hit anything thrown, whether lefty or righty, who does Kelly use against lefties at first base?
I don’t object to Triolo going to Indy, but a position player should have taken his place
Their offense stinks and the last thing they needed especially this close to the AS break, is a pitcher
I think this was largely because Suwinski came up when Shuggart went on the IL.
Suwinski doesn’t play first base
I know. I was responding to this: “I don’t object to Triolo going to Indy, but a position player should have taken his place.”
Hopefully Jack hits better than Triolo.
Jack was brought up on Monday and played in that night’s game going 0-4 having shown that he hasn’t changed by being called out on strikes twice
TheMan 3
How many chances are they going to give Suwinski? Maybe it is time to DFA him also.
Haines tried to make him more of a contact hitter last year and it’s apparent that he’s not ever going to be one
Chances? They have a tendency to bring up Suwinski and then not play him regularly so he loses his eye.
The same eye that never took his bat off of his shoulder and struck out on 4 pitches?
That was my question. Who’s playing 1st against righties? Oh wait I thought Reynolds was supposed to get games there???? Maybe front office forgot about that as well
Mlb1225 once said that when Horowitz returned from the IL earlier this year the offense would improve substantially
I would say that he was wrong
Oh yea he went on and on about Horwitz’s incredible bat vs RHP and LHP. I said he had one lucky month last year when he got to hit in front of the hottest hitter in the league.
I figured he’d have an OPS around .680-.700. He’s currently at .623. The only “upside” is that Horwitz was acquired for a guy who literally bet on himself and is no longer in baseball.
TheMan 3
I guess Horowitz is going to have to learn to hit lefties.
I feel like there has to be an issue organizationally that causes all these guys to become such lousy hitters. Obviously they aren’t star caliber but Triolo, Suwinski, Hayes, Davis, Cruz, Reynolds, etc all have been capable hitters for a stretch but they all fell off badly.
I feel like teams do a great job figuring out our hitters and they get exposed. Adjustments are never made
As a team they’ve only hit 64 homers
They are worse this year than last season
Maybe Haines wasn’t the problem
I read that Cherington said that he isn’t concerned about who he drafts because the Bucs have a good player development system
I felt like throwing up when I read that
That shows how out of touch he really is.
He is too much of a nerd and not well rounded enough to live in reality.
Where is our Friday Chat that i am paying for???
Why are you asking that question here?
Good luck, Mr. Gorsky
Don’t get it. Gorski is a better player than Canario, and would have given them more than Pham until Pham’s current hot streak. And could play 1st base besides. This team rarely makes sense.
They’re the same player. Add Suwinski in as well. Power but strike out too much.
Canario actually the best because he is the youngest with highest ceiling and isn’t a platoon only.
Canario is too much of a free swinger just like the rest of this team.
There’s a valid reason why they are 2nd in the league in strikeouts
Stupid move guy had legit power! Crazy!!
Agreed
All 30 teams are stupid then because they all passed on him. Power is useless when you can’t hit the ball.
Please trade Reynolds. Three strikeouts again today. Reynolds is exhibit A of the dangers small markets face in signing long term contracts. Five more years for a player putting up a negative WAR eating up a large portion of their payroll. Lots of posters want Hayes gone, but Hayes at least saves lots of runs and has a positive WAR. Reynolds isn’t contributing this year.
Of course, if the Pirates ever traded Reynolds he suddenly start hitting .300 and thirty home runs.
Nutting can save a lot of $ and replace him with minimum wage Canario who has a positive war.
This is a very sad time to be a Pirates fan.
The doomsayers said that they would lose 100 games again like 2020,21,and 22 and maybe they will be correct.
The team has absolutely no power hitters even with Cruz and that is what has been beating them lately.
What a woeful job that ownership and management has done and a lot of this is on the hitters or lack thereof too.
I do not know what the answer is at this point as I do not see any improvement and am tired of trying to find some.
It is just not worth the interest anymore.
it’s been a sad time to be a Pirate fan since Cherington became General Manager
6 years of less than mediocre and losing
Tauchman Hays have a .840 ops. Cost 7 million total. Take away Pham Ferguson and sign them and you had 2 .840 ops hitters in your lineup. That’s a lot better lineup. Or kept Ferguson and just spent 3 million more. Nutting is cheap but 3 million more sounds doable. Or not signed Heaney for 5. Ashcraft Mlod Bubba Barco any one of them could have taken his place.
I noticed that Kelly gives everyone a day off except Reynolds.
If any player needs to sit it’s him
Buuba- Actually I disagree.
I always admired Moe as the smart Stooge and as he could even only occasionally get Curly and Larry going in the right direction he could have done a better job than Cherington.
I believe Curly died very young at 36 of a stroke
I liked Shemp too.
She was bred in old Kentucky but she’s just a crumb up here.
Larry has a house where he used to live dedicated to him near South Street where all the hippies meet in Philadelphia.
I stand corrected
If only the owner could suffer the same fate and soon
not sure I told you, I lived in Delaware County for a number of years before moving to Florida, Mendoza
I live in Concordville.
Where did you live in Delco?
If I was Skenes, I would demand either a better offense through trades or demand a trade for himself
TheMan 3
I remember Curt Schilling blasting the Phillies about 25 years ago to either spend more money or trade him. They sure spend money now.
Maybe Skenes has to speak out during the offseason. It can’t hurt, and maybe it will help.
Shouldn’t all the starting pitchers demand the same?
I agree that all should but Skenes is the only pitcher that isn’t available for a trade this deadline.
They are down by 6 runs in the third and the lackluster offense doesn’t even have one hit yet
They are losing to a bullpen session by the Twins.
After this season everyone in management from the GM down to the bat boys should lose their jobs
your thinking of Marlon Byrd as the outfielder
Hurdle took the fall after Huntington was fired and should have been allowed to return as manager
Hurdle was fired before Huntington. Hurdle should have been fired a year or two earlier as he was mismanaging the team. The team lacked fire and Hurdle couldn’t give it to them. His time had come and gone. Could they have hired a better replacement? Probably, but Huntington was fired a week or so later and hiring a manager was put on the back burner until a GM was hired
Funny, fans were screaming for Huntington to make a trade as the Pirates were marginally in the race, not willing to accept that the Pirates window was gone. I remember posters complaining about him not making a trade. He panicked and made a really bad trade.
I think that Hurdle just gave up because he would have been frustrated being in the same division as the only team better than the Pirates for a three year period and also because he saw the window of competing disappear.
He was a good manager for the Pirates and had his first two teams before that three year window actually doing quite well for the first 60-70% of the seasons.
Nutting had a chance to hire Tito Francona but his lack of urgency and knowledge of the sport doomed the Pirates to start with Shelton.
I could see this team compete with the Rockies the rest of the year for the worst in baseball.
Cherington can’t be gone soon enough.
By the way,the Pirates all time are at 500 for the first time in 100 years.
if General Managers felt pressure from fans to make trades, Cherington would have traded away the farm by now
and the following year, after signing a contract with Colorado, Morneau won the NL batting title
And JHay finished second
Morneau was interesting.He hit well for the Pirates but only had like three rbis.
I think that he was out of baseball after the year after he won the batting title.
Morneau didn’t even hit a homer during his time with the Bucs and he was a good power hitter for the Twins
He and Joe Maurer were the hope of the Twins and they were both very good but they never could quite get them over the top.
Every day wasted on not building a team around the starters is ridiculous. Davis has failed, Heaney and Santana should be traded along with Henry. Pittsburgh deserves better ⚾ from the Pirates organization.
Every player on a one year contract will be traded
Heaney, IKF, Pham, and Ferguson
Not sure if they can get anything for Frazier, he’s also on a one year deal
Biggest disappointment this half
Reynolds and Bart
Doubt they get anything for Pham either. None of the expiring contract players will bring back enough to improve this team. I’d like to see them trade Keller, Bednar, Santana, and Hayes at least. Bring in some ML ready players. They obviously won’t sign any free agents that will help. Actually starting to get on the trade Skenes bandwagon. That’s really the only way they can improve the offense.
The way that Pham is hitting and iKF and Heaney are going downhill along with Frazier not playing they may get more for Pham than the others.
Ferguson should get a decent prospect.
Pham is hitting so well that he hasn’t been in the lineup the last two games.
Kelly has given Cruz the game pff though
Was Cruz given the day off to rest up for the HR derby? I am not surprised by any of the moves that are made.
It wouldn’t surprise me.
And your point about Reynolds is well taken.Give him a rest sometimes.He clearly needs it.
Pham is the last guy who you want to sit.
I like Kelly but his lineups have started resembling those of Shelton.
Total Clownshow
After 7 innings the losers are down by 9 runs and only have 3 hits
Jack hit a homer though which is a good sign that he might be back to his former form. He also didn’t strike out against a lefty
I remember a few years ago asking how every player in a game lineup day. after day could all be in a slump at the same time
Is it contagious? Is this becoming a tradition?
By the way, Reynolds is batting 059 in the month of July going 3 for 35 with 18 strikeouts
Kelly has indeed become Shelton’s clone especially in terms of writing the lineups
Whoever has 2 hits in the previous game then bats lead off in the next game
Horowitz had 2 hits in Friday’s game then batted lead off Saturday
Pham who had 2 hits Friday didn’t play because Kelly can’t give Reynolds a day off
Cruz should be in the #3 hole and Gonzalez should be in the #4 spot
Hayes is so bad that being in the #5 spot, they don’t have enough competition offensively to bat him anywhere else
Cherington will be gone.
Kelly will be if he has a losing record.
I hope that Nutting is smart enough to keep the entire pitching coach staff.
He probably isn’t.
It is sad that the apex of six years is a 76-86 record under Shelton.
if he has a losing record?
8 losses in a row is tough to come back from no matter who the manager is.
Kelly could match Shelton’s 10 game losing streak if they lose the next two scheduled games
Kelly seems to have acquired this Shelton tendency.
It is worse than sad that Hayes is batting fifth.
I stand corrected ( again), Pham is in the lineup and just hit his 4th homer of the season
Then showed a lack of hustle on a grounder that the first baseman bobbled. Need the ghost of Billy Martin to step in here.
Kelly, like Shelton doesn’t believe in discipline or else Pham would have been pulled and replaced with Canario.But that’s probably why players liked them both
Can get away with laziness
Another no decision for Keller, at least they didn’t pin another undeserved loss on him.
True, but unfortunately one of our pitchers will saddled with the loss unless they suddenly learn how to hit