11:45am: Pirates GM Ben Cherington spoke about Triolo’s injury on his radio show, as noted by Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and noted that Triolo figures to miss “weeks” due to the injury as opposed to days. That more or less rules out a minimum stint on the shelf, but at least seems to indicate that the expectation isn’t that the infielder’s injury will cost him multiple months.
10:27am: The Pirates announced this morning that they’ve placed infielder Jared Triolo on the 10-day injured list due to patellar tendon injury in his right knee. Outfielder Billy Cook was recalled to the majors in a corresponding move.
The news comes just days after Triolo moved into a new role as the team’s starting third baseman after being bumped off shortstop in favor of top prospect Konnor Griffin. Triolo ultimately wound up making just one start at the hot corner before hitting the shelf. Kevin Gorman of TribLive reports that Triolo’s injury occurred while running the bases on Friday. The infielder did not play Saturday in what at first looked like a routine day of rest but now appears to have been an effort to give Triolo a day to recover before a potential IL decision.
Even with Griffin now in the majors, losing Triolo is a real blow for the Pirates. He’s gotten off to a slow start this year with a wRC+ of just 71 in six games, but he’s proven to be a solid and dependable role player for Pittsburgh in recent years thanks to his ability to play solid defense all over the infield while hitting within spitting distance of league average. Triolo figured to get the lion’s share of reps at third base now that Griffin has shortstop locked down, but with him headed to the shelf for an uncertain length of time the position now figures to be split between Nick Gonzales and Nick Yorke.
Gonzales’s 86 wRC+ for his career is no better than Triolo’s and he lacks significant experience at the hot corner, but he has gotten off to a hot start at the plate (120 wRC+) this year and is a former top prospect who has long been looked at as a possible breakout hitter. As for Yorke, he was once a first-round pick by the Red Sox but got traded to Pittsburgh prior to his big league debut in 2024. He has just 38 games in the majors on his resume and is just as inexperienced at third base as Gonzales, but he too is off to a hot start with a 137 wRC+ in his first five games. Triolo’s injury, then, serves as a prime opportunity for either Gonzales or Yorke to step up and claim the third base position if one of them can prove capable at the position defensively and sustain their hot start to the year.
As for Cook, the 27-year-old has just 22 games and 55 plate appearances in his career. He’s hit .236/.236/.436 in those limited opportunities, but he has hit a respectable enough .264/.352/.440 in 197 games at Triple-A. He’s stolen 94 bags over the past four seasons, and that combination of speed on the bases and at least solid offensive numbers in the minors leaves a path for him to be an effective fourth outfielder in the majors. Perhaps he’ll see time as a defensive replacement in the Pirates’ outfield, given that all three of Oneil Cruz, Ryan O’Hearn, and Bryan Reynolds are unimpressive defenders on the grass.
Gonzales and Yorke are off to a pretty solid start, and now with Griffin up, losing Triolo isn’t that big of a hit. Though a little surprised they called Cook back up instead of Callihan.
Happy not to see Ozuna in middle of lineup today. After his day off move him down in the lineup until he starts to hit.
The most unimpressive defender is Oneil. At least, Reynolds and O’hearn shows some flashes. Oneil must be the first DH the next year.
At least Cruz is off to a solid start with the bat. Outfield communication has been this team’s biggest weakpoint, defensively. It’s not even all on Oneil. He’s the CF, and if he calls for the ball, Reynolds and O’Hearn need to backoff. CF always takes priority on calls like that.
He is very fast but both Reynolds were under both balls when Cruz ran into Reynolds and almost O’Hearn.
O’Hearn had a nice conversation with him.
Cruz needs to know that the other outfielders can get to balls that are in their area.He has a lot of ground to cover and needs to do it much better rather than expanding his territory.
Still, when the CF calls off a corner OF, it’s his ball then.
I don’t trust Cruz not to drop it,and he should not be calling for it if the left or right fielder is clearly there and in his territory.
To do so means potential injuries all around.
Cruz clearly does not know what he is doing out there,for whatever reason.But he has had a year and a half to learn to be a decent centerfielder.
He should not be moved around like a bowling pin but he could cause real physical damage to himself or someone else.I think that is why O’Hearn had a conversation with him after the one ball that he caught in right field.
Cruz is too athletic to be a DH.
I think he’ll eventually move to an OF corner, especially if Ozuna keeps struggling. Give Reynolds and O’Hearn more playing time at DH, call-up Jhostynxon Garcia, move Cruz to left or right field, let Garcia and Mangum handle CF.
I always said that he could play right field as his arm is strong but in the outfield it has been too erratic.
I said that his arm would be wasted at first base but it is not accurate enough to play anywhere else.
It is very difficult to move around like he has done but his insistence to stay at shortstop did not give him enough time to adequately learn a new position.
He has the least feel for baseball than anyone that I have seen who is a regular player.
Changing positions again could really screw up Cruz’ mental state. He’s hitting the ball far better this year and especially against lefties
Leave him where he’s at
He’s not going to become a DH anytime soon. If Reynolds or O’Hearn were better on defense than Cruz, then one of them would be the centerfielder.
Center is easiest to play so corner won’t help him other than fielding fewer balls.
Maybe 1b. But DH probably best for him unless he improves. But if he can hit hit good enough to be a dh he can keep playing poor defense.
They would play Mangum in CF if they had to make a change.He is a very good centerfielder.
Quit talking about him being DH. Like I said he’s too athletic to sit and just hit. You posters saying g his are nuts.
Kinda solves a logjam for the time being. I hope it’s nothing serious though. Guys will find time to play either way if warranted. Having real depth and not needing to scramble is great.
What long jam? Just a bunch of guys. No one significantly better than the other. If you could trade for a good 3b you would send any of these guys to bench minors.
They are Major League Baseball players not “just a bunch of guys”.
Gonzalez has real ability and was a number one draft choice.
Yorke was one too and has not had a substantial chance in the ML’s.
They are both young and can get better.
They are not minor league suspects and should be able to play as well as possible unless Cherington wants them to be the third catcher.
Maybe give Ozuna rest and play Cruz at DH with magnum playing in cf and cook in LF. Ohearn or Reynolds in RF
No, you push one of the corner outfielders to DH, not the guy in center field.
Except Cruz is terrible in cf. Quit trying to defend the guy. He’s awful in cf and he was awful at ss. Forget the crap about his arm. Give him a first baseman’s glove, stick his 6’7” body and huge wingspan over there and forget about him.
You are probably correct unless he suddenly implements all that Taylor and Kiermeier have taught him.
The problem though is that they have two good first basemen now.
I did not disagree with the move to CF and I think that he has truly tried except for maybe last year when he did not hustle.
He does cover a lot of ground and no one expects him to be Ken Berry but he has to remember to take his sunglasses and not make stupid plays that cause game losses.
They are in a rough position with him though because if he hits like he has started to hit they have to bat him.
I also find it interesting that the Pirates had to have a player and a former player instruct him rather than having one of their 350 coaches do it.
Rather would just call-up Esmerlyn Valdez and make him DH more often than move Cruz around again.
I don’t think that Valdez is ready. He’ll be called to the end of the season.
Valdez needs to play a year in AAA unless he plays very well and they need him.
He needs regular at bats at this stage of his career.
If the Pirates have an opportunity to give him regular playing time (because someone is struggling), and he is still hitting well by like mid-May, then he should get serious consideration to reach the Majors. Since he is already on the 40-man roster, they kinda just can’t wait around if they have the opportunity to give him.
The problem is that the players who would be struggling are high paid and they could not get rid of them.
I do not think that a month and a half is enough time to tell whether you can play in the MLs if you have never played at AAA unless maybe you are Connor Griffin.
And that one is still to be determined.
If a young prospect is convincingly ripping apart Triple-A pitching over a month-and-a-half, it’s probably safe to give them another challenge. If Valdez keeps hitting for a wRC+ over 150 at Triple-A, while keeping his K% low, contact rate high, and walk rate high, going into mid-May, you’re really just wasting his time and not giving him more of a challenge.
Personally, I’d rather see Konnor Griffin struggle in the Majors and figure it out there, than just continue to obliterate minor league pitching.
How many Nick’s does it take to cover 3B…
Cruz has hit 4 homeruns this and 3 against left pitching. Hes starting to hit. Yea his defense is suspect, but he has an arm. I look for him to move to rightfield. I wis people would get off the kids back. He’s what 26 27? Maybe he’s just maturing as a player and thst maturity is making him a better teammate.
You hate to see anyone get injured but I think this is the best thing that could have happened to the Pirates. This organization bizarrely views Triolo as an everyday starter yet in my opinion Gonzalez is a much better option with defense not drastically worse than Triolo.
Totally agree that Triolo is not a starter, however he has premier defense. I am a Nicky G fan but he isn’t close to Triolo on defense. Gonzales can hit 270-.280 with .700 OPS. That isn’t enough to hold the starting third base job. Yorke is no better. The Bucs need a third baseman.
Cruz has the talent to be one of the better players in the game
He has the talent, but does he have the head? For the sake of all of us Pirate fans, I really hope he does. And for his sake too. He appears to be a good person and has the upbeat attitude that I personally would love to see succeed. I would also be willing to give him a very long leash, but I’m not Don Kelly or Ben Cherington.
I predict that Cruz will have the breakout year that’s been calling him
He certainly seems like he may.
No one has ever questioned his raw talent.
He seems to have taken seriously to getting better since last year.
His problems with the other fielders are probably because he is so fast and is trying too hard.
But they will not be contending for anything unless they have a decent centerfielder.
Nutting has spoken with money and that means that he really is serious about having a contending team at least for a wild card.