10:50 am: Pittsburgh has confirmed the Suwinski DFA. Ozuna will take his spot on the 40-man roster.
9:28 am: The Pirates are designating outfielder Jack Suwinski for assignment, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The 27-year-old has spent parts of the last four big-league seasons with the club. Pittsburgh has yet to officially announce the move.
As Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette pointed out this morning, the Pirates need to clear a 40-man roster spot for the addition of Marcell Ozuna. The new DH was practicing with the team, while Suwinski was not with the rest of the position players during today’s Spring Training activities.
More to come…
I know Pirates fans are frustrated by him but I could see him getting picked up by a team like the White Sox. Hope he clears waivers cause he would be good to have in AAA.
Dude just couldn’t make the adjustment like so many others.
actually then hitting coach Andy Haines messed with the Jack’s swing trying to make him more of a contact hitter than a power hitter
He’s a local Chicago kid, would be a fun homecoming
If I were the White Sox, I’d sign anybody and everybody with a chance, bring them to camp to fight for a job in hopes of cobbling together a decent veteran roster while waiting for those kids in A+/AA who almost won the Carolina League a year ago to get through the system.
It’s a new dawn,
It’s a new day,
It’s a new life for me,
And I’m feeling good.
Jason Kendall was a great hitter, not just for a catcher.
He was a good hitter, not sure id bandy about “great”.
I know it went bad but I can blame the Bucs to hard here, he did flash some plus potential his first few years.
From a guy who can’t hit to a guy who loves to hit women. Great move.
Forgive my ignorance, is this an Ozuna thing? I genuinely didn’t hear about this
Since 2024 there have been 4 players suspended for DV reasons to play a game in MLB, all of them have played for the Pirates
Moneyball can take many forms.
@Patriot12992 Here’s an MLB article about Ozuna’s DV charges: mlb.com/news/marcell-ozuna-addresses-2021-arrest-s…
Guy got a sweetheart deal from the DA and the charges were dropped after he took some classes. Same thing with his DUI – paid a fine and nothing really happened.
His best season was 2023, he hit 26 bombs and had a 793 OPS. Too bad he couldn’t build on a pretty nice season.
Just another waste of money by BC. Should have never been signed to begin with.
He barely cost anything. He had some potential and showed signs of it. It just didn’t work out
This is why they signed him, to try and sneak him through waivers and have a lefty of they can call up in case. If someone claims him, not the end of the world. Will they want to pay him 1m?
Its over fellas. Finally.
Pirates fans long national nightmare is over.
I still think Andy Haines ruined him, tried to make him hit for more contact. On paper, that sounds like a good idea, but he sacrified it for chasing outside the zone more often. You can’t do that with a three-true-outcomes type hitter. Haines would have tried to make Luis Arraez hit 15-20 home runs if the Pirates had him.
Oh well, good luck, Jack. He seems like a good guy, and maybe with the right hitting coach, he can at least become a solid platoon bat.
Shame but predictable. Hopefully someone picks him up and is able to turn him back around.
Roster spring cleaning
After all the fan suggestions of including him in a trade for Paredes, it turns out he has no value to the Pirates at all, unless he’s non roster depth.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Astros pick him up, honestly. He’s cheap, has power, and not a terrible (but not a great) fielder.
Him, Bart, and Termar or even one of our relief arms would have been a pretty good package for Paredes as much as Astros fans seemed to hate it. But I can understand the pushback because it’s definitely not splashy.
correction
he has power potential but has lost it for the past 2 years
And batting below the Mendoza line doesn’t exactly help either
I disagree–the power is still there. His bat speed is still near the upper quarter in the league, barrel % is still pretty good. His chase percentage is the thing that’s killed him. He still has a ton of power, he just swings at things he shouldn’t.
Even with that, though, if you look at his swings from last year he would have had 7 HRs in Houston instead of his piddly three. He definitely has power. A different approach at the plate would unlock it more.
I never saw anyone mention him and truthfully, would the Astros have been that stupid? Then again, some were suggesting Joey Bart and a prospect. Guess it comes down to wishful thinking
Guy would be a Hall of Famer if he got to play the Giants everyday. Hit 3 bombs including a walk off against them in a 2022 game and then hit 2 more in a game at Oracle in 2023.
He looked like he figured things back out at AAA last season, feel like he could do well with a change of scenery to another club. Probably a quad A guy but I think he could be a useful contributor still
Especially if he can play CF reasonably well. (Er, can he play CF reasonably well?)
This makes the roster better. $1.5M is a small price for this improvement.
At last! Now they can make a claim to be actually competing for a playoff spot. As long as Swingandamisski was on the roster the Pirates would’ve remained a laughing stock.
Glad he is out. Wish him luck. Glad to see the OF has some more depth to where we do not need him.
Cruz and Reynolds holding 2/3 of the field with O’Hearn likely playing the other 1/3 to give Horwitz 1B and Lowe 2B. You still have unexpected fillers that can give you depth with Endy Rodriguez, Nick Yorke, and even Henry Davis.
I expect we see a move sending Joey Bart away soon though.
Kind of expect him to move on and land somewhere where he figures it out. Though also possible that with the extra salary, he slips through and goes back to Indy. When he came up he definitely looked like a real hitter at the plate. Last year looked like he was guessing most of the time, pretty much lost. Not quite Henry Davis level where he couldn’t hit anything high, but just confused. Still think a good hitter is in there, but the Pirates won’t be unlocking that.
Don’t feel to bad for him he did get a guaranteed contract in November which makes it unlikely another team puts in a claim
The Pirates are not a good baseball team
They have one of the best Aces (if not the best) in the game, not much else.
Finished fourth or fifth for 9 consecutive years and don’t look like they have the current talent or pipeline to contend in the Skenes window
Have to wonder if the front office has enough talent to figure out how to get enough talent on the field
Seems like a no brainer for the White Sox to take a flyer on the home town kid. Jack is a high quality person and Getz is trying to collect those types, when talent is equal. Hope he finds his power stroke wherever he goes.