March 25th: La Sorsa went unclaimed and will stay with the Pirates as non-roster depth, per Alexander.
March 22nd: La Sorsa has been told he won’t be breaking camp with the Pirates, so he’ll be triggering his clause tomorrow, Ari Alexander reports.
March 17th: Left-hander Joe La Sorsa has an upward mobility clause at the end of spring training in his minor league deal with the Pirates, reports Ari Alexander of 7 News Boston. If he triggers that clause, he’ll be offered up to the other 29 clubs. If any of them are willing to give him a roster spot, then the Pirates have to either give him a roster spot themselves or trade him to another club that will. If no club offers him a roster spot, then he can be sent to the minors as non-roster depth.
La Sorsa, 28 in April, agreed to a minor league deal with the Bucs right as free agency was beginning in early November. He hasn’t spent much time in camp because he joined the Italian team for the World Baseball Classic. The Azzurri went on a Cinderella run that just ended last night when they were eliminated by Venezuela in the semifinals. The lefty made four appearance for Italy, logging 2 2/3 innings, allowing two earned runs via two hits and one hit-by-pitch while striking out four.
His major league track record consists of 57 innings thrown for the Rays, Nationals and Reds over the past three years. In that time, he has a 5.21 ERA, 17.5% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate and 39.2% ground ball rate. In 2025, he only made five appearances in the majors. He spent most of the year in Triple-A, posting a 2.59 ERA in 48 2/3 innings. His 21.2% strikeout rate and 42.1% ground ball rate at that level were close to average but he walked 13% of batters faced.
With the upward mobility clause, La Sorsa will get a major league roster spot as long as one of the 30 clubs is willing to give him one, whether that’s the Pirates or not. The Bucs should have Gregory Soto and Mason Montgomery as their two primary lefties in the bullpen. Evan Sisk is also on the roster but he has already been optioned, so he should start the season in Triple-A. If La Sorsa does get a roster spot somewhere, he still has a minor league option remaining.
Photo courtesy of Thomas Shea, Imagn Images
I wish I had an upward mobility clause at work.
Same here. Never got one. Finnaly hung it up lat week.
Why not wait til deltoid week?
Yay Team Italy! I really had a good time watching their run.
Definitely was impressive.
If the Pirates like him then it looks like he would make the team and then they could send him to AAA in a week or two.
The bullpen is pretty set, 2 of Clevenger, Moldy, or Urquidy will be in the pen and the last one will be in the rotation. Unless they option Carmen Moldy to AAA to start the season, I see him in the pen with Mike Clevenger. Urquidy will be the 5th with Barco a call away
Clevinger is not on the 40 man roster and is on the AAA roster.He is minor league depth.
The 26 man roster is set.The backups are Bart,Yorke,Mangum,and Cook.
I did not see mention of this but I find it interesting that the Pirates let Nick Castellanos play first base during Spring Training evidently as a favor to the Padres.
Carmen is scheduled to start the 3rd game of the season and the finale at the Mets
He’s not going anywhere
I mean, his only alternative is to walk the plank. Can’t blame him.
Joe La Sorsa? More like Joe La So-so, amirite?
Good news for International League batters.
International House of Batters. They can have dinger but no grand slam. For that they have to enroll at Denny’s.
Happy to have him around for left handed depth