February 11: Pittsburgh officially announced Urquidy’s one-year deal on Wednesday evening. Jones was placed on the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move. He’ll miss at least the first two months of the regular season but could be back before the All-Star Break as he rehabs from the elbow procedure. Pittsburgh will need to make another 40-man roster move — likely designating someone for assignment — once they finalize their agreement with DH Marcell Ozuna.
February 5: The Pirates and right-hander José Urquidy are reportedly in agreement on a one-year, $1.5MM contract. Urquidy, an Octagon client, can boost that salary further via incentives.
Pittsburgh generated headlines yesterday when they jumped in as a late entrant in the Framber Valdez bidding before he ultimately went to the Tigers last night. They’ll still add a former Astros hurler to reunite with new pitching coach Bill Murphy, though on a much smaller scale. Murphy coached Urquidy with Houston from 2021-24.
From 2021-22, Urquidy was an unheralded but quality member of the Houston rotation, starting 48 games and pitching to a solid 3.81 ERA with a 20.3% strikeout rate and a tiny 5.2% walk rate. Injuries began to slow him down in 2023. He missed three months with a shoulder injury that season, and his entire 2024 campaign was wiped out by an elbow injury that ultimately required Tommy John surgery over the summer. The 2025 season had been scheduled to be Urquidy’s final year of club control, so the Astros unsurprisingly cut him loose following the season.
Urquidy latched on with the Tigers on a one-year, $1MM contract that included a 2026 club option valued at $4MM. He returned from the injured list in September but pitched only 2 1/3 innings in the majors before consenting to be optioned. He pitched well in the minors last year (2.91 ERA, 22.2 K%, 6.2 BB% in 21 2/3 frames) but was hit hard in his small big league sample. The Tigers opted to decline their 2026 option and send Urquidy back to the open market.
With the injury troubles ostensibly behind him, Urquidy heads to the Pirates as an interesting buy-low candidate with some upside. Because he favors a changeup as his go-to offspeed pitch, he has substantial reverse splits in his career. Lefties have posted an awful .203/.257/.362 slash against him, whereas righties — with some help from the short left-field porch in Houston — have tagged him for a .267/.314/.468 batting line. Moving from one of the best environments for right-handed home runs to perhaps the worst in MLB will surely benefit his skill set.
Exactly what role the Pirates have in store for Urquidy, who turns 31 in May, remains to be seen. The Bucs are as deep as nearly any team in the sport when it comes to starting pitching but seem to add a low-cost veteran around this time of the offseason every year. In the past, that’s meant short-term pickups of Tyler Anderson, Jose Quintana, Martín Pérez and Andrew Heaney. Urquidy isn’t a lefty like that quartet but still seems to meet general manager Ben Cherington’s annual bargain starter quota.
Reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes will, of course, be the Pirates’ Opening Day starter. He’ll be followed in some order by veteran Mitch Keller and young flamethrowers Bubba Chandler and Braxton Ashcraft, both of whom impressed as rookies in 2025. Urquidy will join a competition for the fifth spot that includes Carmen Mlodzinski, Hunter Barco, Thomas Harrington and Jared Jones, who’ll be returning from 2024 Tommy John surgery. Mlodzinski fared better as a reliever than a starter last season, so this move could push him to the ‘pen. If Urquidy is outshined by Jones, Barco or Harrington in camp, he could open the season in a swingman capacity.
Will Sammon of The Athletic first reported that the sides had an agreement. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported that it was a $1.5MM base with incentives.
Not the former Astros pitcher they were hoping for
Ken must have just assumed it was Valdez
This is about as good an upside pickup as they could get. Perfect park for him to pitch in.
Oh this could be a sneaky good signing for pitt
He seems a little old to be playing for Pitt. But the Pirates are basically a college team, so it’s valid.
5 million for a pitcher who hasn’t pitched a full season since ’22 and probably should have signed a minor league deal is not that sneaky. Shows the Pirates are going to give it a ride with Skenes. Hope they play well. Been watching Bream cross home plate for too long. Need some new stories
Good replacement for one of our arms. Time to trade Keller for that bat they’re looking to get from the Mets, Bo!
I hate the Pirates..
Why? That’s like hating the slow kid.
Because ive been stuck following them for the last few decades, and they say they’re in on 30 mil AAV guys, then sign guys for 1.5 mil
While this may be true, you have to accept reality that the big AAV guys don’t want to play there.
Because the Pirates offer equal or less money. They aren’t going to win any tiebreakers with their performance the last 40+ years.
The 30 million aav guys are signing for 40
Listen it wasn’t the pirates who leaked out their interest. It was his agent. Don’t yiu understand thst a few hours later he signed with the tigers. It was a ploy.
people need to realize that maybe players who Ben goes after might not want to play for them
and what he’s asking for in return for Keller isn’t being met by potential teams
So you think the Tigers had some lower offer out there, but Valdez’s agent wanted more, so he decided to tell Rosenthal that the Pirates were aggressively pursuing him. And the Tigers then thought, oh no, it’s the Pirates, the team that’s never paid more than 3/39 for a free agent. This must be serious! We better pay him 3/115, because otherwise we’ll never outbid them.
With some other team dangled, I could see things playing out that way. But the Pirates aren’t that team. No one’s going to be spurred to action because they heard the Pirates are interested. Unless the guy signs for an absurdly low amount, and the call was brought on because the signing team knew there was no real competition. But that’s not what happened here.
You do realize that it’s a significant part of Ben’s job description to convince players to want to take their money and play for the Pirates, right? And to convince the other GMs to make trades that would help him out? Yes, it’s a competitive thing, so it’s not like he can just get whatever he wants, but he seems as bad at that part of the job as he is at identifying quality players, at least outside of the first round or two of the draft.
I dont buy that logic
If Pirates had the best offer theyd sign players
They never come close to having the best offer
They reportedly had the best offer out to Suarez. Ben could have A) added more money for the single year or B) argued better. Same with Okamoto, had the same deal offered reportedly.
A is obviously far more effective, but even when the money’s the same Ben can never get B done. Mainly because of the track record that he’s largely responsible for.
Reportedly is all they’re good for
Being a Pirates fan is my seasonal depression.
Ya its a total buzzkill after the Steelers and Penguins are both generally competetive and entertaining every year, then the Pirates start up and it’s like the bad news bears and they never sign anyone exciting ever.
Most seasons no one even talks about the pirates after opening week.
And what’s sad is that literally everyone in the city talks about the Pirates when theyre good (2011-2014). Theyre just as popular as the Steelers when theyre good. Shame this owner doesn’t see it
I don’t hate the Pirates,
Just Bob Nutting, Neil Huntington, Will Craig, O’Neill Cruz’s assumption that the Dodgers will want him back despite how he’s playing, and their hitting coach.
Oh yeah, and the Clemente Sign in Right Field being replaced by an ad. Also the fact that the Angels are the only team to make the playoffs less recently.
Fellow Bucco fan concurring with your sentiment.
I didn’t know about the sign, but that seems criminal.
The Pirates replaced it with a Surfside Drink advertisement last year, and every Pirates fan, along with Roberto Clemente’s family, all complained creating heavy backlash against the whole organization.
Travis Williams, the Pirates president, changed the sign back and issued an apology. I will give him that he took full responsibility for this.
Yesterdays news. You should feel at least some rare optimism about this coming season. Thus is a much better roster than last year. How it translates we’ll find out.
No one cares when anyone trashes ownership or management. Trashing this fans is ridiculous.
Theyre pretty much the worst example of how to run a pro sports franchise in any sport.
Worse than the Cleveland Browns?
How about the Angels?Rockies?Nationals?White Sox?
They are bad but I agree, no franchise is run worse than the Browns.
Only one can be the worst.
The Browns and Pirates are the worst.
Ill give the edge to the Browns because NFL has a fair system, they just draft the worst QBs consistently
There is no comparison.
The Browns are an absolute joke.
The Pirates are a small market team that has not been run well and is frugal to the point of being cheap.
The salary cap in football should enable all teams to be at least decent under decent management.
Small market teams in baseball need very good management to be at least decent.
Very good management is cornered by the very good teams who have the money to pay for the best management and players.
Also draft busts in Ke’Bryan Hayes and #1 overall pick Henry Davis. Forgot to mention those yesterday.
Davis is starting to be worth it. Its hard to believe it, but hes becoming a top defensive catcher in the bigs. That alone, is making him worth it in a weak class for bats.
Lot of pressure on instant results from him, but hes right on coarse and heading into a heavily utilized season.
The bat is the final piece, but this guy raked in college and hit well in the minors. Wouldn’t be suprised if he figures it out. But he really doesn’t need to, just needs to keep up the good work behind the plate
i still give Ben a good grade with the drafting during his tenure
That’s a good point, it does take talent some time to develop, especially at Catcher.
As long as Davis does well with his defense, he will be in the league for a long time! Hopefully the bat develops too, but I worry about his contract expiring before then.
He made some incredible strides last season that no one saw coming.
The guy they were trying at RF and 1B suddenly becomes paul skenes personal catcher with an electric arm behind the plate
Ive heard that Henry is one of the hardest workers and its starting to show
Goku- He has done a good job near the top but has not picked many good ones later on that have been developed.
If Henry is good enough for Skenes he should be good enough for everyone.
But it says something about the Pirates that Henry had to go to a private outfit to really improve on his catching techniques.
Skenes, Konnor, Davis, Chandler, Termarr, Solometo, Harrington
Not sure who else, but thats a haul. I think the drafting has been great
Go skenes!!!!
Im sure the pirates are fond of you also
Good pickup for 1.5 million you can’t get anything these days so paying that for a potential middle rotation arm is a great pickup.
I missed that the Tigers did not pick up that miniscule option. Harris has been known to be frugal over small amounts, though. Tigers loss is Pirates booty.
Middle of the rotation arm?
I’d put the over/under on 50 innings given this guys history
He’s a high upside 5 who may be able to hold it down until Jones comes back.
I think he will be good to go for way more than that he has been pitching all winter without any injury issues.
Would be nice
Urquidy’s career has been derailed by injuries. He can be pretty good when healthy but beware of his health. Nice to see Jose get another contract.
Now that is a Pirates like signing. We all knew Valdez was never a possibility.
Would you sign Valdez for close to 40 million crazy money for that guy
No.
But it is something that naysayers can complain about.
No
The Pirates obviously wouldn’t even though the fake rumor that they were the most aggressive suitor for Valdez. We all knew that was a fake rumor. Even Pirates fans had to know in their hearts that Nutting would never fork over the tall stacks of cash for any top player. The best they will ever get in free agency is 2nd tier guys like O’Hearn. Its just the way it is.
Valdez had a 3.8 WAR in 2025 and has averaged a 3.8 WAR over the past 3 seasons, which is worth
…
you guessed it
…
$38 million.
And we don’t yet know how much of the “an unspecified amount of deferred money” is in the deal and how much that brings down the AAV.
I don’t own a team and as such I cannot sign him, so your question is a moot point. To indirectly answer your question, Valdez is obviously worth that much money on the FA market, especially on a short term deal.
Inasmuch as there seems to be no other suitor as the Pirates clearly would never have been competitive we do not know what Valdez is worth if the Tigers were stupid enough to bid only against themselves.
Definitely not Framber Valdez, but this former Astros SP has a reasonable chance to break camp as a #5 SP for Pirates. And if he bounces back from injury which has kept him from performing up to his standard, he could be a valuable addition to the organization.
He has mid rotation upside.
I have to give Cherington credit on this signing especially for the amount.
It seems to me that this guy is a better than average pitcher.
This is not a bad signing by any means.
Nothing beats a guy with major shoulder issues coming off Tommy John Surgery
Nice pickup by the Bucs
We wanted the guy who took 115mil but we will have to settle for the guy who took 1.5 mil. Nice consolation prize. This is the time of year that BC swings and misses with these guys for the most part.
It was never happening and you know it. I Don’t believe they were even interested. Besides, they have more important needs like 3B.
Bob Nutting is a embarrassment, along with most of the front office. Have no problem admitting that, ever. But your comment is nonsense.
If true, id assume he was considering a 1 year deal from the Pirates, before Tigers caught wind of it and paid up
No shot they were offering him anything close to what he got tho
Would have preferred a lefty, but at least it’s something.
Ah, I missed the reverse splits part. So cheap reclamation project who gives you lefty-ish results and has worked with the new pitching coach.
Now use the savings to pay a 3B you get in a trade.
Same difference actually. This guy has huge reverse splits, so it’s kinda like a lefty. Still need that 3B!!
Montgomery throws gas. Now we hope that it’s in the strike zone and won’t be centered.
Wow Ben. Great timing. We miss in Framber and get a broken down 30 year old. We may win 72 this year.
If the Pirates were seriously in on Framber, then they can still sign a guy like Bassit. A one-year deal and he’s not going to cost a ton of money.
This makes sense but think it means they are seriously considering trading away Ashcraft or worse, Chandler. I’m guessing those are the arms that the Astros and Mets would be seeking if they’re willing to give us one of their 3B.
Not true.
In what world is chandler being traded for one of those avg. 3rd basemen or Ashcraft..
The asking price is high. Ashcraft would be a logical piece for Baty (Mets fans seem to think that Vientos is worth Ashcraft). Chandler is far more appealing and so a return of Baty and Peterson is not outside of the realm of possibility.
There is a zero percent chance Chandler would only net Baty and Peterson. Zero.
I think it would be a horrible trade, too. I love Chandler and want to keep him as long as we can. It all depends on how desperate BC is to get a 3B bat.
But this is a trade that seems to make legitimate sense to Mets fans. It just shows how much fans overrate their own prospects and underrate other teams’.
Check out the Locked on Mets most recent video to see how high they believe the return should be for Vientos or Baty.
They are more than willing and seems very possible if not likely Triolo or whoever will be playing 3b. And if they were going to trade someone I would put odds on the guy making $. Don’t think they are trading any starters. Prospects if they trade.
Fast-Even Cherington is not stupid enough to even consider it.
Only Met fans are pushing it.
Yeah, I’d much rather roll with Triolo at 3rd than give up a high asking price for either Mets guy. Vientos has some intrigue from me but not enough to give up a ton when we already have a fairly decent, albeit less power, player at the position. Triolo’s defense probably cancels out Vientos HR power in my opinion and they both other wise are very similar batters. Triolo has more value base running as well.
Yep, they’ve had all offseason to find a solution, and they whiffed. The Pirates spent January like they spend most of the summer, striking out left and right.
I give them credit for making an honest offer to Suarez as he only had two real suitors.
Suarez seemed to me to be intent on hitting in the Reds stadium and thinking that he will get the MLBTR estimate of $69M next year.
He will be a year older and a full time DH so good luck with that.
Its ridiculous to even think they might be considering trading Ashcraft or Chandler
Harrington or Barco might be available
Zero % chance of Chandler, Skenes, or Ashcraft going anywhere. Highly unlikely that keller is traded at this point either.
Looking like they will roll with Triolo at 3B , but could flip Yorke or Gonzales for an equally mid backup 3B
Agreed. I think theyre very confident going in with Triolo at 3B and Suarez would’ve primarily been DH even if he signed
I wonder if someone like Oswaldo Cabrera would be available from the Yankees. Id do Yorke for Cabrera
Who do they drop, 40 is full. Could wait til pitchers and catchers report and designate someone to the IL.
Some are going to call me insane for thinking this but I can see the Pirates winning a Wild Card this year. I’m not a Pirates fan but I will say this team has a lot of good pieces. I’m not talking World Series winning, but I can see them getting in the playoffs in 2026.
For less than 2 million this could be an excellent pickup
….not unless they find a 3B.
I hope so, that would be great for baseball. They’re one of those franchises that makes MLB a little more fun when they’re competitive.
If they make the playoffs they can win the world series. They have what wins in playoffs pitching. And if they are in wild card hunt they will likely add some bats at deadline. Have some prospects who could be called up. Getting wild card is the hard part.
Shadow-They need another power hitter.
This is a good signing.
They should be able to reach 500 which is something that they have not done since 2018.
Mendoza I agree they have some spots that could use shoring up but it’s a long season. Things happen that nobody sees coming in the spring. Like I said before I am not a Pirates fan whatsoever, but this team strikes me different than the Pirates of the past who knows how many years. If nothing else I wanna see them do good for their long suffering fans.
We’ve got Framber Valdez at home champ
Could very well be.
He could ne really good in long relief
Alex Stumpf reported his deal comes with a minor league option, which is interesting. Seems to leave the door open for another addition, or the opportunity for a top prospect to grab the last rotation spot.
You kind of knew that teams were using the Framer Valdez to the Pirates rumors to their advantage. And I guess that Valdez decided to travel 286 miles to Detroit gave us that answer. Jose Urquidy was decent a lifetime ago, even winning 13 games with a 134/38 K/BB in 2022 for the Astros. The Pirates are the NL version of the Angels, throwing crap against the wall to see what sticks. Having said all that, if Urquidy has a semblance of health, this may work out to be one of the better signings of the offseason by any team. I just don’t see it happening!
I think this is pretty solid for the Bucs!
quality under the radar signing. his recent innings look great but probably lower competition than AAA.
Probably a floor of a reasonably priced long relief in blow outs, with a ceiling of a mid rotation type. either one isn’t bad to have on the team with the only problem is maybe not getting innings for other younger pitchers you might want to get some time.
The Pirates are wise in not wanting to over extend the young pitchers.
What happened to Jared Jones? No plans for him next season? He looked solid before the injury…
Iirc he’s projected to be fully recovered later in the summer. Certainly in the plans once he’s healthy, as he’s no worse than a mid rotation guy and possibly more given how hard he throws. Really just a matter of durability given the amount of stress his mechanics put on his frame. And learning how to pitch more than just throw gas, I think.
Like this signing for PIT. Happy to see Urquidy getting a major league opportunity.
First, this article says 1.5M, now it’s 5M?
I saw that too.
I thought that $1.5M was too low but I think that $5M is too high.
Another Horowitz, start the season on the IL, won’t pitch for at least 2 months
Horowitz worked out fine
Will this guy, too?
Where’s the 3rd baseman, Ben? Maybe sign a player whose recovering from injury and won’t play until June
Paul- They are talking about Jones starting the season on the IL.
This post is wrong, the deal was for $1.5M, not $5.0M