The Pirates and infielder Davis Wendzel have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The Boras Corporation client gets an invite to big league spring training and would make $850K if in the majors.
Wendzel, 29 in May, has a limited minor league track record to this point. He appeared in 27 games with the Rangers in 2024. He didn’t do much to impress in that time, putting up a .128/.163/.234 line in 49 plate appearances.
He’s been much better in a greater sample of playing time in the minors. Over the past three years, he has taken 1,240 trips to the plate on the farm, mostly at the Triple-A level. His 12.1% walk rate and 20% strikeout rate were both good figures and he hit 51 home runs. His combined .248/.355/.444 line in that time translated to a 105 wRC+. He also provides defensive versatility, having spent time at all four infield spots as well as left field.
The Rangers designated him for assignment in July of 2024. He was then sent to the Reds for cash. Cincinnati outrighted him a few weeks later. He spent 2025 at Triple-A Louisville as non-roster depth. He had a decent season but never got called up. He became a minor league free agent at season’s end, which allowed the Pirates to scoop him up.
The Pirates have very little settled in their infield, apart from Spencer Horwitz having first base spoken for. Prospect Konnor Griffin could take over the shortstop job in 2026 but still hasn’t played at the Triple-A level yet. Putting Griffin aside, the Pirates have a cluster of infielders including Jared Triolo, Nick Yorke, Nick Gonzales, Tsung-Che Cheng and Enmanuel Valdéz. Yorke and Cheng are still lacking in big league experience. The other three have a few seasons in the majors but have been light-hitting utility types thus far.
There’s still time to add and the Pirates have been connected to many free agents this winter but without getting anything done. Time will tell how that plays out but there’s no harm in adding some non-roster depth. If Wendzel can earn a roster spot, he has a couple of options and less than a season of service time, so he can provide roster flexibility and cheap control for multiple years.
Photo courtesy of Reggie Hildred, Imagn Images
Fire cherrington NOW
Silly goose comment. All teams need minor league depth.
Every team does this. Practically universal.
The issue is most of those teams have major league depth
Hes total garbage.
It’s a minor league deal, and he kind of looks like Nic Cage in Con Air, so there’s really no reason to get upset
Even Jared Triolo needs a backup.
He’s going from his job at the mall at Wetzels Pretzels to a minor league deal with the Pirates. Definitely one of the odd balls jobs a player had before getting back into baseball.
“Wendzels Pretzels”
Touchè sir. Touchè.
Didn’t even think of that.
He was advised not to give up his offseason job.
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Get your World Series tickets now & give everyone in the front offices long extensions!
Josh VanMeter
This year’s guy who signs a minor-league deal but spends way more time on the 26-man roster than you’d like.
These are the kinds of guys you hope never to see on the ML roster, usually brought in to keep someone you REALLY don’t want to see on the roster from being brought up if there is an injury.
I imagine this signing will trigger many more calls to fire our GM, as if Cherington almost had Kyle Tucker signed for 5 years at $1 million per season, then told Kyle to scram because Davis Wendzel is available.
It’s hilarious at this point
Every year it’s the same BS, only this year, they got national figures like Passan and Olney to believe they were gonna open up the wallet.
Ah, but still tep months before Nutting’s annual “Losing is not acceptable” speech in Bradenton.
Maybe they’ll surprise us, but this is the kind of move they usually make
These signings are akin to a school district lining up substitute cafeteria workers and janitors. The qualifications are low, and you might just find someone worth hiring full-time. You’re advocating that the “school” ignore that need and just rely on the elementary students to clean up after themselves if the custodian falls ill.
At the same time, every school district is looking for a superintendent. Fox Chapel, Upper St. Clair and Pine-Richland all have openings, as does Leechburg, Jeanette and Monessen. Leechburg could hire the best superintendent money can buy while laying off half their teaching staff and keeping the lights turned off three days a week.
So while Leechburg is out looking for the best superintendent it can afford, you’re mad because the school board filled other open positions that have nothing to do with the superintendent.
Your homework is to find me any example from Pirates’ history where signing minor league depth (NRIs, specifically) prevented them from adding to their major league roster. Have you also been railing on the Cubs for signing Hoby Milner and some retread 34-year-old from Japan this year while failing to land any of their big targets?
The hilarious part to me is that I could set my watch to the interval between these kinds of stories and your (often misguided) griping. You’d think you’d understand a depth signing by now, or are you honked off that Cherington hasn’t caught lightning in a bottle with one of these signings? I mean, that could be a legit complaint – given the sheer number of guys churning through the Pirates’ system – that they’d find a position player who isn’t awful, despite their best efforts to get the second coming of Mark Mathias.
Is that what I’m advocating? Really?
At the outset, I found it ironic that you bring up school districts as an analogy, having worked as a teacher and coach for 35 years. Please know that I am now off the clock and you’ll need to hire someone who can aid you with your reading for comprehension deficiencies.
I have to thank you for the poor assumptions. How silly of me to think I’d left such pubescent thinking behind
You offer a poor analogy regarding school districts, of course. In fact, it’s the analogy of a child. If a district was to continually find success in stocking its janitorial and cafeteria staff ranks while failing to address teacher and administrator ability to push student achievement ahead, one would have to wonder just who is doing the hiring. One would wonder about the superintendent and the school board.
Stakeholders would bemoan years of failure that take into account results in standardized tests.
Please, try to follow along so you can provide more thoughtful analogies and critiques in the future, instead of something one might find on the men’s room wall
The issue is not depth signings of 2025 but rather, six years of such signings. It’s the norm here. There is no evidence that ownership or the front office has had any desire to bring at the very least “decent” players here who may cost them a little more. Instead, and despite claims of being “spenders” this off season, it’s more signings like these. That’s the issue. It’s always been the issue. Maybe you’re new here or maybe, again, reading for depth isn’t your thing
May I suggest that since I bother you, that you mute me. And thanks for starting my day reminiscing about reading the papers of 15 year olds
Pirates and Twins in a fierce competition over signing minor league free agents
Pirates sure do love those sub .200 hitters.
Didn’t you hear, batting average doesn’t matter anymore. /s
More accurately, they sure do seem to gravitate to players with horrible bat-to-ball skills who will only hit it hard if it can be a grounder right at an infielder, preferably for a double play in the only inning during the game where the team threatens to score.
Can you strike out against a guy who hardly ever strikes anyone out, in a situation where even hitting the ball 2 mph would score a run? Yes.
Can you go 3-4 with a couple of doubles in a game we’re losing by 8 runs by the third inning? Yes.
Any chance you can destroy AAA pitching to the point where the fanbase demands we purchase your contract, and if so, can you guarantee that you’ll suck at the plate and on the field if you do get called up? Yes.
Welcome to the Pirates.
Minors deal with a spring invite. It’s a see what you got deal.
They’re just doing this to build a relationship with Scott Boras so they get someone else on a mega deal. (Pure cope. They will sign a 36 year old OF and call it a day).
Other than the FAs they can’t or won’t afford, you gotta think that what they have in the minors are as talented as the rest of the FA market. I d rather see them figure out their development problem and play young guys like Griffin, Valdéz this year before they are ruined in the minors. Too many players seem to have regressed on the farm. Skenes spent minimal time in the minors as an example of what could be avoided by bringing good players up quickly. What’s to lose?
Well stated. And given the fact that Cherington hasn’t produced one position player of impact coming through the farm, it’s hard to see light at the end of the tunnel, even if Griffin pans out. One or two guys can’t turn around this franchise and given all of the losing, you’d have hoped that at the very least they were developing kids in the minors
But that hasn’t been the case
I can’t see them signing anyone and truthfully, never could. But given their limited resources of talent—save for Keller and perhaps Cruz, if anyone is willing to take a chance on him—it’s hard to see them improving a great deal in ‘26
Griffin, yes, he should be better than any NRI, probably even now. Would the negatives (Super 2, potentially hampering his long-term development) outweigh breaking camp with Griffin? That’s always a gamble, and the Pirates tend to play it safe.
As for Valdez, I’m not yet convinced, after seeing him a few times in Altoona. Even an untrained eye can spot the difference between Griffin and Termarr vs. Valdez without knowing who they were. Valdez is probably the 4th best OF on the 40-man at this point, but that’s not really a compliment to him as much as an indictment on the Pirates’ depth. This year should go a long way toward showing whether Valdez is another Mason Martin or a guy with legit MLB talent.
Griffin should be given the opportunity (a legitimate one, akin to Jared Jones) to make the team, Valdez still needs at least a few AAA at bats (look at his numbers from July 2025 when he was first promoted to AA) to put himself in a spot to get called up.
I wouldn’t say players get ruined in the minors, “exposed for what they are” is probably more accurate..
Huge sibling
How many never was former 1st round picks do the mighty buccos have now? If theres anyone who can get the most out of him, its Big Ben. 🤣🤣🤣