The Pirates announced that right-hander Justin Lawrence has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Fellow righty Colin Holderman has been optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis in a corresponding active roster move. The 40-man roster had a couple of vacancies and the count moves from 38 to 39 with this transaction. Alex Stumpf of MLB.com reported the moves prior to the official announcement.
Lawrence, 30, was claimed off waivers from the Rockies in March. He tossed 11 1/3 innings for the Bucs, allowing just one earned run, before elbow inflammation put him on the 15-day IL in late April. He was quickly transferred to the 60-day IL in early May, suggesting the club didn’t expect him back before July. While he has missed most of the season, he has gotten healthy in time to perhaps log a few more innings before the winter arrives.
Prior to being claimed by the Pirates, he had spent his entire career with the Rockies. He gave Colorado 194 innings with a 5.43 earned run average, 21.3% strikeout rate, 12.5% walk rate and 50.9% round ball rate. The Rockies put him on waivers in March, when the Bucs decided to grab him, perhaps hoping that his upper-90s velocity could translate to better results away from Coors Field. The initial results were encouraging but the injury got in the way.
Lawrence qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player last offseason. He and the Rockies agreed to a salary of $975K. The Bucs will have to decide whether or not to tender him a contract for 2026. Since he has missed most of the season, he won’t be in line for a massive raise. He is out of options and therefore can’t be easily sent down to the minors.
Photo courtesy of Albert Cesare, Imagn Images
Holderman was equally as inefficient as Ramirez and neither should be invited back next season
Ramirez is out of options and couldn’t be sent back to Indy without first going through waivers
Now on to the pathetic offense
Cruz has 4 hits in his last 50 plate appearances, Reynolds is 0 for his last 15 plate appearances, Davis has struck out 13 times in his last 15 plate appearances
Now that they won’t finish with a .500 record, I foresee them winning no more than 5 more games the rest of the season
For BTC who has me muted but will read me anyways. Clean house from scouting? The scouting that drafted KG at #9? SH at #6? That got Skenes over Crews? Bold move there. Horowitz is special and Pirates must keep him at all cost. Can’t get rid of Maz either. Been there forever and puts in good hard work. They have a lot of good people in scouting. Development is fair game but has actually improved recently.
Kelly is manager in 2026 unless Nutting changes his mind in next few months. I haven’t heard anything about Cherington but whomever the gm is Kelly is the manager.
how about #1 pick Henry Davis?
Or trading for Cruz?
Cherington has had some success in drafting pitchers and a few position players but he’s really not done much to make this team better
Cruz was one of the greatest trades in baseball history. A top 100 prospect for 2 months of a reliever. Cherington had nothing to do with it.
Davis was a great #1. A handful of guys were worthy and Davis was the only 1 willing to sign cheap enough that they could get Bubba. It’s like they got 2 #1 picks in same draft.
Heck you are going to make me change my mind. That 2021 draft was a master class on what to do in a draft without a clear #1 player. Combine that with KG SH. So what if he kept Shelton too long or gave away Priester. He has drafted awesome. Extend Cherington!!!!!!!
yeah Cruz’ .200 batting average was a steal for the Bucs
BC is an unmitigated disaster as a GM. He needed to be fired with Shelton after last season.
BN cleared out the basement. Now it’s time to clean out the rest of the house. Bye bye Cherington and Travis Williams.
Man 3…you echo my same thoughts. They need to clean house from management to scouting. Evaluate what little offense they have. The pitching is well set. Unfortunately they will have to trade a Keller or Ashcroft, to get some bats. Only 2 pitchers are untouchable. Skenes and chandler. I just don’t want cherrington to be the one to make trades. And I’ll say it again,to bring Kelly back will be a major mistake. Let’s face it they will not sign a major hitting free agent. Has to be done by trades.
Scouting was cleaned out. The Scouting Director in there now, I think his name is Horowitz?, is doing a great job, as evidenced by the last couple drafts.
Lawrence has very good stuff when he can control it. Which unfortunately was almost never his last year or so with the Rockies.
One thing ticks me off. Im not a fan of starting a runner on 2nd base in extra innings. It takes away from managers making moves. Not that Kelly is astute at maneuvering. First thing that needs to be done is to get thst runner to 3rd. Kelly somehow neglects this. Actually a lot of teams forgot how to bunt. Thats why he needs to go.
Ben Cherington fired is the only move I want to see. It’s all up to Nick Yorke.
I’ve never been a fan of letting your players participate in the home run derby. Cruz is toast for this year.
Just for kicks I asked AI about affordable players the Bucs could trade for and it mentioned, among others, Luis Arraez and Ramon’Laureano…both offer more contact and higher OBP…who knows though.
I was hoping the Bucs would make it to the WS in my lifetime…but it seems really far away.
They made it three times in my lifetime but at 70, I will have to reminisce about the 79 season as they will never return again in my lifetime
And reminisce about the 71 series. Steve Blass and Roberto Clemente. Bruce Kison and Jose Pagan. Al Oliver and Bob Robertson.
The 70s was an unparalleled decade for Pittsburgh sports.
City of Champions
You asked the wrong AI. Arraez is a free agent so can’t be traded. Nothing but a slow dh singles hitter so wouldn’t move the needle. Better off with Horwitz Cutch and get someone else with that $.
Laureano likely won’t be traded as SD will want to contender again. Even if he was the Pirates wouldn’t trade for him. If Pirates had him they would have traded him at deadline. Extend or trade.
Bob Nutting is too stupid to get a team to world series but always hope he gets lucky with a hiring and Pirates get a top 5 gm.
I like a good conspiracy theory but in the 10 games Cruz played after hr derby.
Oneil Cruz batted .306 with 11 hits, a homer, 7 RBIs and 4 runs scored in 10 games between July 18, 2025 and July 28, 2025
what has he done since, other than recording his 162 strikeout in tonight’s game
162 in only 123 games
I don’t care at all about since. Pirates development has failed to develop many players pretty much 99 percent of them to their potential. It’s not the hr derby fault.
I have been saying this for most of the year.
They should trade Cruz.
Get as much as you can for him.
He does not want to play here.
He is lazy.
He cannot play CF.
His casual play hurts the team and they have finally figured out not to let him hit against lefthanders.
Other than firing Cherington and or Nutting selling the team this is the best thing that could happen to the Pirates.
in today’s game, Cruz thought he hit a homer and went into his home run trot then after realizing it didn’t go well the wall he had to hustle to get into second base for a double.
Kelly rested Chutch who drove in the winning run in last night’s game and used Reynolds as the DH.
Reynolds went 0 for 5.
If anyone needs a rest it’s Reynolds
Hebner- You have a chance to see that if you are quite bright for a 12 year old.
JL has a nice ceiling and a solid floor. So cheap they better tender him if elbow is looking healthy.
That is what they want to find out this year but his AAA stats do not look good.
Adam Frazier is batting .273 with the Royals and Hayes is batting .282 with the Reds
The players we received back in those trades, one is out for the season and Delvany has struck out 6 times in his last 8 plate appearances including once in tonight’s game, with no outs and 2 runners in scoring position
Frazier hitting .120 in September Cherington sold high
You aren’t supposed to get good players for Frazier Hayes.
then Ben succeeded because he didn’t get good hitters for those guys
Why he needs to not only be brought back but extended! Even Paul agrees that Cherington made successful trades!
I was going to fire Cherington (again because I already fired him for trading Priester and not firing Shelton) unless Yorke had a ops above 700. But now that Paul has reminded me of these successful trades and drafts I want Cherington extended!
I cannot criticize the drafts but his trades have been bad and that is an extremely important fact of being a good GM.
AI-Actually no.Frazier looks good in comparison.
Devanney is hitting 100.
AI..I dont have you muted. Get over yourself
You did. It’s obvious when you mute someone. Why I can’t reply to you. The reply option disappears when someone mutes you. The only time it disappears. Not complaining. In fact I prefer people to mute me. Just saying though you did.
A+ Reinstate