The Phillies announced that they have acquired right-hander Chase Shugart from the Pirates. Pittsburgh receives minor league infielder Francisco Loreto in return. The Bucs had designated Shugart for assignment last week to open a 40-man spot for Ryan O’Hearn. Philly had a 40-man vacancy but their roster is now full.
Shugart, 29, has tossed 53 2/3 innings in his career. The majority of that was with the Pirates in 2025, plus a brief stint with the Red Sox in 2024. Combined, he has allowed 3.52 earned runs per nine with an 18% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate. He has averaged around 95 miles per hour with his four-seamer and sinker while also throwing a cutter, sweeper and changeup.
He has flashed a bit more upside in the minors. Last year, for instance, he tossed 20 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 1.74 ERA. He struck out 25.3% of opponents, limited walks to a 7.6% clip and induced grounders on 54.7% of balls in play. He still has an option remaining, so the Phils can shuttle him between Philly and Triple-A Lehigh Valley throughout the 2026 season. If he still has a roster spot at the end of the season, he can be retained into the future via arbitration.
In order to add that depth, Philly is parting with a prospect. Loreto, 18, was part of Philadelphia’s international signing class in 2024. Initially listed as a catcher when he signed out of Venezuela, he primarily played third base in 2025. He spent last year in the Florida Complex League and slashed .237/.332/.396. He doesn’t appear on top prospect lists but the Pirates are likely pleased just to get a lottery ticket as the return for a guy they had already bumped off the roster.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
The poverty Phillies settling for the Pirates castaways.
Gar.
He pitched quite well for you last year
He didn’t pitch well. If he did they would have kept him.
Three bad outings out of 35 games.
whip of 1.11
I’ll take that result any time.
You are trying to predict the future on statistics that may or may not do so.
He has an option.
Dombrowski is just a lot smarter than Cherington.
It’s called small sample size good luck not pitching well.
It’s called actual results not what some bot puts out.
Pirate might settle for Bohm as a Phillies castaway at 3B.
Settle? I’d be thrilled if they even did that. I think they’ll settle for the guys we have in-house.
I’d rather they target Moncada or Renfigo as free agents…probably cheaper, similar output, and don’t cost any players in return.
If they’re going the trade route, I’d hope they’d go for years of control since there’s no one even remotely in the pipeline…Shaw, Mayo, and Jung would be at the top of my list.
Agreed. The guys they have in-house include Triolo and Nick but nothing on the cusp in the pipeline. They need one more hitter, at least. I’d love Bohm. I’d love the guys you’ve listed I’d love Suarez
But they can’t stand pat
Moncada will give you some solid production and defense while he’s on the field. How long that will be, that’s the gamble.
I really do feel like Rengifo will have a bounce-back season, things were very off with the Angels team this past year.
Jung hasn’t had a good season in awhile
Brannigan?
@blaine I wouldn’t mind either of those. May I suggest adding Royce Lewis? Perfect buy-low candidate.
I guess he would be remotely in the pipeline. He’ll be 25 when the season starts and hasn’t done well past high-A yet…maybe he puts it together? I dunno.
I look at Termarr Johnson and think…yeah, he probably won’t live up to his original hype, but I think he’ll be solid. With Brannigan, I’m not as confident.
I wouldn’t mind them giving branningan a look but only if it’s as depth this year. I think they should be looking for a proven bat and not a hopeful prospect at third. I like him but right now I think the focus should be “real” players.
He has evidently been hurt parts of the last couple of years which may well have played into lesser results.
He seems to have some decent power for a middle infielder and that probably shows some promise for Pirates management.
It was a fun month or so when they were actually active. They seem to be back to normal, wait for mid February and snipe this year’s Michael A Taylor mode.
we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors
True, and at this point it probably makes sense to wait to see what shakes free after the bigger dominos fall that are out of the Pirates shopping range. Just want to see some more signings I can squint at and convince myself the needle is moving rather than what they’ve done the past few years where they’ve filled spots with half warm bodies.
When Loreto gets here, then we’ll make a run.
Maybe Shugart isn’t as bad as some folks on here have claimed? Still I like how the Pirates are now in a position where it’s getting tougher to dfa players because the roster isn’t bad.
Agreed. I haven’t understood why folks think we need another bullpen arm. By my count it seems we have:
Starters: Skenes, Keller, Ashcraft, Chandler, and as yet unsigned lefty starter
Bullpen: Soto, Santana, Montgomery, Mlod, Matson, Nicolas, Lawrence, Sisk (not to mention Ramirez who could make the roster but likely will be in AAA to start)
I guess we could move Sisk but I don’t know that we’ll get someone all that better. Shuggart was a good arm but couldn’t make our bullpen. I’m encouraged.
Ramirez is out of options
Sandlot-There are two answers to your first sentence.
Depth and injuries.Shugart has an option left.Very valuable.
Why did Cherington not dfa a first baseman for O’Hearn?
What are they doing with Valdez?Does he have a place on the roster now?I do not think that he has options left,and where would he play even if he did?
The saying “you cannot have enough pitching” is maybe 100 years old but it is even more true now with all of the arm injuries.
And Ramirez may be thought of as having a high ceiling but Cherington thought that Contreras did too and how did that turn out?
The problem is that we just don’t have the depth in hitting to have this make sense. We do have depth in pitching. Before the O’Hearn signing, we had 18 position players on our 40-man, 22 pitchers.
We used exactly 30 pitchers last year (not counting that time Triolo pitched an inning) in a season that saw one of the guys we were most counting on to give us innings go down with a season-ending injury. This seems somewhat typical since in 2024 we used 31, 2023 we used 30, and in 2022 we used 35. The saying “you can never have enough pitching” is true only up to a point–a team (or least the Pirates, since I haven’t looked at other teams) really only uses about 35ish unique pitchers in a season, and of those, it’s really only 20ish that see more than 10 innings in a year. Last year it was 21 unique pitchers with over 10 innings pitched (2024 it was 19, 2023 it was 24, and in 2022 it was 21).
So, you can make an argument that we should have kept Shuggart because he’s better than Ramirez (though I’d say that this is a very marginal comparison, Shugart has a lower WHIP but seems to rely more on secondary pitches than his fastball so maybe there’s a concern there?). I think the argument that we need to keep all pitching because we might need to use it, though, is not entirely recognizing how much we need bats. Now, the bats we have are not enough so I hope that the next bat we sign will result in someone being DFAed but I’d rather that be Suwinski than Valdez. I like his potential upside and positional flexibility than keeping another 5th outfielder who can’t hit.
You view Shugart in the same way as several others.
I do not know what the fascination is with Valdez.They do not have a place for him,and he has not produced in any of the three years in the ML’s.
He is one of the players along with a couple of pitchers who could easily have been dfa’ed.
Valdez had a lot of positive data in small sample last year. But only a 1b and doesn’t hit well enough for there. Would have great for the 2020 21 22 23 24 pirates. Rather keep Jack as he can play outfield and well above average. Only if they can get power walks out of him again.
With the exception of Suwinski who for some unknown reason, still has a roster spot
I thought Jack was off the 40 🙁
Posting #JackOffThe40Man on Pirates articles until he’s DFA’d.
My guess (and hope) is that they’re waiting until after ST to DFA Suwinski to see if he clears waivers and can be stashed in AAA. People like Griffin aren’t on the 40-man so if he breaks out at ST and actually earns a roster spot (my hope) then they’ll DFA Suwinski at that point, at which point teams will be far less likely to add him to their roster. He’s not a terrible depth piece to have at AAA if we can keep him.
The key is Password.
If he really shines in ST they may very well keep him.
He and Mangum would be the spare outfielders with no room for Jack.
If equal,they will keep Jack as he is cheap potential power.
If they dfa him he will be chosen very quickly no matter when they do it.
It could be the best thing for him to get a new start.
I’d love to see Password make the 26-man. He’s already on the 40-man though, so no corresponding move would need to be made to add him to the roster. Griffin would need to be added to the 40-man and that’s where I think you could see if Suwinski DFAed. I don’t imagine him being traded (in part because I imagine that the Pirates have already tried trading him and teams haven’t been interested) and I also don’t think he’d be claimed or seek free agency at that point because I don’t see any teams taking up his contract or offering him more money than he’s making with the Pirates given his track record, so I think they’ll try stashing him in the minors at that point. Not sure though. Either way, I agree–I don’t think Suwinski makes the roster after ST.
Shugart is an okay middle reliever, but the Pirates already have a fairly deep bullpen, added guys like Brandan Bidois to the 40-man roster, and could probably find someone similar on the FA market. I’m okay DFA’ing him for O’Hearn.
Hole-They had plenty of players who could have and should have been dfa’ed before Shugart,
I am surprised that they could not have gotten a higher rated minor leaguer for him.
He will fit in well with the Phillies and make the ML team out of spring training.
Cherington has done nothing for a month but hopefully this could be a precursor to getting Bohm at least maybe for Joey Bart as the Phillies need at least a backup catcher.The trade would also tell Realmuto that they are not going more than two or three years with his contract.
Cherington had a one month peak in the atmosphere of the Dombrowskis of the world but he has dipped back into doing what he does best,make stupid trades.
I thought this was kind of surprising too as Schugart looked pretty decent last year but yes, this is the Pirates
With Arenado traded maybe there is some movement starting up.
He’s an okay fit, but I don’t see him having a strong chance of making it out of ST with the MLB club. Even after trading Strahm, the bullpen is largely set between Duran, Kerkering, Keller, Alvarado, Banks, Bowlan, and Rule 5 pickup Zach McCambley, and doesn’t seem like some massive step up from any of our other 40-man roster depth guys. I also don’t know what you were expecting to get from a 29-year-old middle reliever with a strikeout-walk percentage of 7.7%.
And a whip of 1.11 through 35 games.
With one option left.
That player that the Pirates received probably has a 5% chance of making the ML’s in a good system developing hitting.
On the Pirates it is probably 1%.
Some guys do not need fancy stats to be reasonably good ML pitchers.
Maybe he does not make the team out of ST but as he has an option left and provides good depth for even as good of a team as the Phillies.
Look at some of the lower level relievers that the Phillies had last year and tell me that he is not better.
A 1.11 WHIP in 35 games and 45 innings for a reliever doesn’t move me much. It’s okay, but it’s not even enough playing time to qualify. Yes, there are some pitchers that can play better than their perpherials, but that’s typically true for starters, not relievers who are very volatile. And I’m not even looking at an advanced metric, just strikeout rate minus walk rate, which is pretty simple and has a strong corelation to future performance than past ERA does.
Don’t get me wrong. I think he’d be better than Jordan Romano, Carlos Hernandez, Jose Ruiz, and Joe Ross. They were frustrating to watch lats year. But that’s setting the bar below ground level. I think we already had a half-dozen relievers who are on Shugart’s caliber before we acquired him.
I think he’s an okay fit as a depth reliever, but expecting something more than a lotto ticket prospect for a depth reliever is pretty unreasonable.
He is nothing more than a depth ML reliever.
He also has an option which is valuable for a reliever.
He is the type of pitcher who can do at least a decent job bobbing back and forth between the MLs and minors.
The guys that you mentioned have had at least some success in the MLs but did not show much last year.
Cherington probably got the most that he could for him but they could just as much received money.
My point in a previous article to this one is that the Pirates had several players that should have been dfa’ed before him.It has not been a long time since they would be bringing up AAA pitchers later in the season who should have stayed there as the Pirates had no pitching depth.
Dombrowski is smart enough to know that you can never have too much pitching.
I mean, let’s not act like the Pirates don’t have a ton of pitching depth after getting rid of Shugart. They added six pitchers to the 40-man roster this offseason, two of which have ML experience. They’ve also signed four to minor league deals, three of whom have also played at the ML level. Shugart might be okay depth, but depth is easily interchangable for a team who’s been able to consistently find solid relievers like the Pirates.
Shugart is absolutely nothing. Fortunate a team who didn’t want to make a bigger trade or sign someone or wait for someone better to get dfa had a open 40 man spot. Guy has a fake era and fans get excited. He throws 95 and doesn’t strike anyone out. Maybe Philly has the answer for more velocity. Or more likely gets him to be groundball guy. Previous coach couldn’t get anything out of him. New coach obviously must not see a path of significant improvement. If you can’t improve someone move on. Are will be dozens of better options available if you choose. Pirates don’t need to do anything with their bullpen. It looks good.
Jack Valdez reliever reclamation projects can easily be dfa if need be. No reason to do so when you have a Shugart to dump.
Jack can come back with better coaching than Haines and Cherington.
Valdez has no place on the Pirates any more with Ohearn on the team.
Option is very important to have.
Plenty of pitchers lower on the totem pole on the Pirates.
Dombrowski bagged a pitcher for nothing that is better than the lower level ones that he had last year.
And you said the exact same thing about Andujar and Stratton.
He may have been wrong about Andujar, but he wasn’t particularly wrong on Stratton unless he has some unexpected breakout next year. He was used for like 16 innings after the Pirates traded him.
Refresh all our memories. What all exactly I say about Andujar Stratton again? I don’t remember bashing them.
Andujar had under 700 ops in 2024 which is absolutely awful for a dh poor defensive outfielder. Did better in 2025 playing in a minor league park but still below average for a dh and it was a minor league park. Did awesome in a micro sample size extremely lucky hitter park. His free agent contract will tell you what teams think of him. Weak platoon dh. I don’t remember bashing him though. He’s a guy who provides a role. Pirates didn’t think much of him holding him in minors when he was doing good. Don’t know why they didn’t call him up but not big loss. I imagine they could afford him if they wanted him.
Stratton Quintana for Oviedo is one of the winningest trades in Pirates history. I’m sure I did like it at that time because it was a no brainer win the second it was made. Don’t remember saying Stratton was awful or anything of the such though.
But post what wrong thing I said. It doesn’t happen or at least not often. If it did happen having to go back to 2022 sounds about right.
I think he means Hunter Stratton, not Chris Stratton. Hunter pitched in 12 games with 16.1 innings.
Don’t remember saying anything that memorable about Hunter either. What’s there to say? He’s a reliever on a losing team. Losing teams should and do trade relievers any chance they get. Relievers are easily replaced. Can’t imagine saying anything worth remembering on such a common trade.
These guys are easily tricked by a impossible to sustain babip hr rate small sample size etc and get all worked up.
Stratton and Shugart fall in the same catergory for me. They’re unremarkably fine, but that’s all you can really say about them.
But Stratton has pitched for three years albeit with relatively limited innings but pitched very well.
Take away the few inning for the Pirates last year and his career era is around 3.00.
I put him in the same category as Shugart.
They may not be able to play for the best pitching rich teams but are very serviceable for all but the best.
And they should have been kept because there were several other options to dfa on the Pirates.
You basically said that Andujar was easily replaceable.
No one here said that he was an all star,but several of us wanted to keep him.Even Shelton said that he was a good rbi guy.
Cherington replaced Andujar with Oliveras and de la Cruz.
Enough said on that.
The Pirates were not a good enough team at that point to disregard a decent ML hitter.
Hunter Stratton is another decent ML pitcher and you basically had no problem with designating him either.
My point is that both of these pitchers are good depth with options.Their strikeout rates and other statistics do not scream to keep them,but they have been successful albeit in short stretches and only in the middle innings.
And Shugart is not garbage.
But my main point is to keep them until you have no other players to dfa unless those other players show real potential.
The 40 man roster is still not better than average.That time has still not come to get rid of decent players.Let them screw up first before you consider it or produce consistently good players from your system.
With Cherington around it may never happen.
MLB- And I agree with you there.
I just think that there were several others that could have been dfa’ed.
Several might be an overstatement. Maybe like Valdez, Suwinski, and Sanders are the only ones that would have been less valuable to the Pirates than Shugart. Even then, I think it’s debatable and I think they’re all on the same caliber as Shugart.
Who would you rather dfa?
This is still a useless conversation. There are dozens of reasons to not like how Ben Cherington has done things. Chase Shugart and Hunter Stratton probably aren’t one of them.
Andujar was easily replaced. A below 700 ops even below 800 for a poor defender is easily replaced. Just because the Pirates weren’t able to doesn’t change the fact. Pirates have failed to do a lot of easy things. All they had to do was get a Grichuk Hays Tauchman Canha Refsnyder type.
I don’t recall demanding for his release, just didn’t cry over his lost.
Won’t cry over a Shugart either. He’s just a guy. Yes easily replaced. With guys like Isaac Mattson Dennis Santana Justin Lawrence just available free Shugart is absolutely nothing. When teams just give away a Tim Hill for free in the middle of the season why worry over a Shugart. Better pitchers will be dfa this season. From getting a Sisk in a nothing trade to a Montgomery as a secondary piece in a trade to a Soto for 7 or 8 million why worry about a below average Shugart. Dodgers got maybe the best reliever on the planet for what 3 years 60 some million. Between 20 million a year and Shugart there are a ton of relievers. It’s nothing to worry about. Unless the Pirates off season is finished even if you dfa someone else he was going to get dfa anyways so now later what’s it matter. Now at least you had a team in position to trade for him.
Shugart was nothing but luck.
Valdez can at least play second. Depending on what the left side of the infield looks like at the end of the offseason, I could see DFAing him but if they don’t end up getting anyone and we have to rely on Triolo and Gonzalez on the left side of the infield, I could see Valdez being the backup for Lowe (or trying him out at third). I know Horwitz has also played 2nd but I could quicker see Valdez be a backup 3B than Horwitz (not to mention Yorke who I’ve all but given up on). I’d be very unhappy if this is the actual plan and will be the result of failing to upgrade anything at the left side. But I don’t see the wisdom in getting rid of a backup plan for the current starters of Gonzo and Triolo without having anyone else to go to.
Harbin or Valdez
Valdez has not played third and cannot play SS.
Yorke has not been given a full chance.A few at bats here and there do not constitute a chance.
Yorke can play third but not second.Both Triolo and Gonzalez can play second.
Triolo and Gonzalez can back each other up and Yorke can play third in case of an injury.
Valdez is the odd man out.
If Lowe gets hurt Horowitz can move there and Ohearn can play first with the spare outfielder playing more.
I thought Yorke least worst position was allegedly 2b. Unlikely to hit enough to worry about. Horwitz Valdez can be placed at 2b but playing their I dunno.
They need to get a 3b. Triolo SS. I don’t want to see Valdez Gonzales Yorke starting anywhere.
My bad.Senior moment.I meant to say that Yorke cannot play shortstop.He has played second base fairly frequently.
I still think that their best bet and most reasonable one would be getting Bohm for one year for Joey Bart and then signing Jonah Heim.
A weak platoon dh who can be placed at c for a everyday 3b sounds pretty far off. Philly better off just signing someone.
Phillies never have been high on Bohm and this would be a $16M salary dump with the penalty.
They could fill the position internally but they may not want to do so unless they sign Bichette.
It could also serve as a spur to Realmuto to get real as I think that he may want a four year contract.
The Phillies sign their 45th left handed reliever in the last two weeks. The old through a pan of spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks strategy.
Throw
Shugart is a righty, though he does bat left handed…
Shugart is RHer.
I hope his nickname is Shugart Daddy.
I trust Hall of Famer Dombrowski……I think Kerkering may be moved in a deal. Not saying they should, but if they are in on Bichette, then something has to give payroll wise. Moving Stott / Bohm with Kerkering might get them a better return. Catcher?
Idk what the ask on Quero is, but you’d have to assume he or Jeffers are targets.
Philly-Kerkering just has to managed properly in the playoffs.Thompson used him in high leverage situations in his rookie year against the DBacks and that was a real mistake.
You saw what happened last year.
Hopefully Don Mattingly will eliminate these stupid decisions in the playoffs.
Kerkering will never be a closer,he does not have the gumption for it,but he is a good pitcher if used to his strengths.
Dave = low risk, high reward moves
I think Bucs are waiting to see if Phils sign Bo ! They may trade for Bohm. He’s not a superstar but good overall 3B ! Jung would be OK too & a lot cheaper & under control. They need a 3B. Sign Quintana to rotation & maybe 1 more OF
I think that they need a good right handed reliever also.
They have a number of fairly good relievers but I think that there is regression coming for several of them like Mattson.
And Soto is not good enough to close if something happens to Santana.