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Pirates Designate Heath Hembree For Assignment

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The Pirates have designated right-hander Heath Hembree for assignment, per a team announcement. The move clears a spot on the 40-man and active rosters for veteran righty Jerad Eickhoff, whose contract has been formally selected from Triple-A Indianapolis (as was originally reported yesterday).

Signed to a one-year, $2.125MM contract as a free agent back in mid-March, Hembree came to the Bucs as a potential late-inning arm with ample experience as a big league setup man. From 2015-19, Hembree racked up 238 innings of 3.59 ERA ball and notched 44 holds (plus two saves) as a stalwart option in the Red Sox’ late-inning relief corps. He became increasingly homer-prone in 2020-21, however, leading to an unsightly 6.43 ERA over those two seasons combined.

That number didn’t deter the Pirates from taking a low-cost look at a pitcher whose strikeout rate soared to a career-high 34.4% during the 2021 season. The uptick in strikeouts was accompanied by a 95.5 mph average fastball — a significant jump from his 2019-20 levels and the highest mark he’d posted since a career-best 95.7 mph average back in 2017. Hembree also boasted high-end spin rate on his fastball and above-average spin on his breaking ball, all of which surely combined to pique Pittsburgh’s interest.

Things simply haven’t panned out with the Bucs, however, as the 33-year-old has logged an ugly 7.16 ERA with more walks (14) than strikeouts (12) over the life of 16 1/3 innings. Hembree’s average fastball velocity has dipped back down to 94.2 mph, and he’s allowed runs in eight of his 20 appearances with the team. Along the way, he missed two weeks with a calf strain, and since returning, he’s walked five batters in three innings.

The Pirates will have a week to trade Hembree, pass him through outright waivers or release him. It’s unlikely that a team claims him, however, given the $1.23MM that’s still remaining on his contract. Even if Hembree clears outright waivers, he has enough service time to reject an outright assignment while still retaining the remainder of that salary owed to him. At that point, he could become a free agent and sign with any team. A new team would only be responsible for paying him the prorated portion of the league minimum, with the rest of his salary still coming out of the Pirates’ pockets.

Pirates To Select Jerad Eickhoff

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The Pirates will select the contract of right-hander Jerad Eickhoff, as first reported by Jarrod Prugar of DK Sports Pittsburgh (Twitter link). Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette hears the same and takes a look at Eickhoff’s road back to the Majors after beginning the year in minor league camp during Spring Training. Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster is currently full, so they’ll need to make a corresponding move.

Eickhoff, 31, is a veteran of six big league seasons, most of which have come with the cross-state Phillies. He spent the 2021 season in the Mets organization and made a handful of spot starts for an injury-depleted rotation, serving up 19 runs in 19 2/3 innings. The majority of the damage against Eickhoff came in his final outing, though, when the Mets left him on the hill to take a 10-run shellacking in 3 1/3 innings versus Atlanta.

Prior to last year’s rough stint in Queens, Eickhoff had been a generally solid contributor in Philly. His numbers dipped in his final year with the club, but Eickhoff nonetheless notched a 4.15 ERA over the course of 459 2/3 innings as a member of the Phils, striking out 21.4% of his opponents against a strong 6.8% walk rate.

Those big league numbers with the Phillies fall closely in line with Eickhoff’s career marks at the Triple-A level (4.29 ERA, 22% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate). That includes a 2022 season in which he’s logged 48 1/3 innings foe the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis. In that time, Eickhoff has posted a 4.84 ERA with strikeout and walk rates close to his career norms. He’s made seven relief appearances and six starts so far in Triple-A, though he hasn’t topped 81 pitched or completed six innings in any single outing this year.

There’s no obvious 60-day IL candidate for the Pirates, who have a a full 40-man roster after acquiring Eric Stout from the Cubs earlier today. Pittsburgh also has infielder Tucupita Marcano and righty Duane Underwood Jr. on the Covid-related IL, and they’ll need a pair of spots once that duo is cleared for reinstatement. Based on Eickhoff’s forthcoming promotion and that pair of IL usages, it would seem there’s a decent bit of roster maneuvering on the horizon for the Bucs.

Cubs Trade Eric Stout To Pirates

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The Cubs have traded lefty Eric Stout to the Pirates in exchange for cash, per a pair of team announcements. Stout was designated for assignment by Chicago last week. The Pirates have optioned him to Triple-A, and their 40-man roster is now full.

Stout, 29, made his first big league appearance since 2018 last week and wound up working a total of 3 2/3 innings over two games for the Cubs. He surrendered a total of two runs on three hits and a walk with six strikeouts before being jettisoned from the 40-man roster.

Signed to a minor league deal over the winter, Stout has spent the bulk of the season in Triple-A Iowa, where he’s notched a 3.94 ERA with a massive 36.6% strikeout rate but a bloated 16.8% walk rate in 29 2/3 innings. In addition to his 22 walks, Stout also hit a pair of batters and tossed three wild pitches.

During his original call to the big leagues with the 2018 Royals, Stout averaged 91.3 mph on his fastball in a tiny sample of work. That number jumped to 93.1 mph in last week’s big league return, and the improved velocity could help to explain some of the uptick in strikeouts he’s experienced this year. Command was never a huge issue for Stout in the lower levels of the minor leagues, but he’s posted walk rates of 13.2%, 19.6% and 16.8% in his past three Triple-A stints (Reds, Marlins, Cubs). It’s clear that he can miss bats at a high level, and Stout can still be optioned both this year and next, so the Bucs will hope they can help him hone his ability to locate the ball with a change of scenery in Triple-A.

Pirates To Recall Oneil Cruz, Select Bligh Madris

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The Pirates are going to call Oneil Cruz up to join the big league team, reports Kody Duncan of Rum Bunter. Pirates manager Derek Shelton confirmed the Cruz promotion to reporters, including Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and added that outfielder Bligh Madris will be joining the team as well. Corresponding moves are not known at this time. Cruz is on the 40-man roster but Madris is not.

As of tomorrow, June 20, MLB teams will be required to adhere to a 13-pitcher limit on their 26-man active rosters, after previously being allowed to carry 14. With many teams pushing their pitching staffs to the limit, there is likely to be a slew of forthcoming transactions where a pitcher is subtracted from the roster to make room for a position player. However, it’s possible that this will go down as the most significant of those transactions, given Cruz’s prospect status and unusual profile.

Originally signed by the Dodgers out of the Dominican Republic, he was traded to the Pirates in 2017 as part of a deadline deal that sent Tony Watson the other way. Since then, Cruz has attracted attention both for his incredible skills with the bat and because, at 6’7″, he’s unusually tall for a shortstop.

Last year, Cruz utterly dominated the minor leagues. In 68 games between Double-A and Triple-A, he hit 17 home runs, stole 19 bases and slashed .310/.375/.594, for a wRC+ of 158. Based on that tremendous showing, he was promoted to the big leagues in October of last year, getting a two-game cameo as the season wound down. Cruz hit his first major league home run in one of his nine plate appearances last year.

Coming into this season, many expected that Cruz would be on Pittsburgh’s Opening Day roster, but they optioned him at the end of March, seemingly motivated by service time considerations. By keeping him down on the farm for a few weeks, they could prevent Cruz from reaching a full year of MLB service by the end of the 2022 season, thus delaying his free agency by a year. Cruz then was slow to get into a groove at the beginning of the season, hitting .176/.282/.284 in April. Based on that sluggish performance, Cruz stayed on the farm when Pirates placed regular shortstop Kevin Newman on the injured list at the end of April. Since that time, most of the playing time at short has gone to Diego Castillo, who is hitting .195/.238/.308 on the year. Meanwhile, Cruz’s bat was woken up from that sleepy start, as he hit .256/.368/.500 in May, followed by a .283/.364/.500 showing in June. The club has dabbled with playing Cruz in left field, giving him nine starts there this year, but he’s made 42 starts at shortstop. It seems likely that the 23-year-old will be given a chance to stay on the infield, at least while the team isn’t in a competitive window.

Of course, when the team enters a competitive window will largely come down to the exciting youngsters. The Pirates have never been a high-payroll team and will be dependant on Cruz, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Roansy Contreras and others to deliver on their potential while they are in their younger and cheaper years in order to build a competitive ballclub.

As for Madris, 26, he doesn’t come with nearly as much as hype as Cruz, but there are still reasons for Pittsburgh fans to be excited, based on his excellent performance this year. A ninth round pick in the 2017 draft, the outfielder has never appeared on one of Baseball America’s lists of top prospects in the system, though he did get an honorable mention on the FanGraphs list coming into this season. In 45 Triple-A games this year, the lefty swinger has walked in 11.3% of his trips to the plate and kept his strikeouts down to a 20.3% rate. Overall, his batting line is .308/.390/.526 for a wRC+ of 144. His .374 BABIP might be rubbing some good luck on those numbers, but it’s still an impressive showing for the corner outfielder. Madris will likely be battling Jack Suwinski and Cal Mitchell for corner outfield playing time. Suwinski may have earned himself a longer look in one corner after today’s three-homer performance, but Mitchell has hit just .205/.244/.356 in his first few weeks at the big league level.

Pirates To Select Cam Vieaux

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The Pirates are planning to select left-hander Cam Vieaux onto the major league roster, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). Outfielder Canaan Smith-Njigba is headed to the 60-day injured list after suffering a fracture in his right wrist.

Vieaux was the Bucs’ sixth-round pick back in 2016. The Michigan State product has spent six-plus seasons climbing the minor league ladder and is now in line for his major league debut. The 6’3″ southpaw worked exclusively as a starting pitcher up through 2020, but he split his time a bit more evenly between the rotation and the bullpen last year. Vieaux has pitched in relief this season, tossing 27 2/3 innings over 18 outings with Triple-A Indianapolis. He has an excellent 2.28 ERA, although he’s posted fairly pedestrian strikeout, walk and ground-ball numbers.

Smith-Njigba was just called to make his own big league debut on Monday. He appeared in three games and collected his first hit, a double. Unfortunately, he’ll be shelved for at least the next two months while he recovers from the wrist issue. He’ll collect major league pay and service time for any time spent on the IL.

Pirates Select Jason Delay, Recall Canaan Smith-Njigba

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The Pirates announced they’ve selected catcher Jason Delay onto the major league roster, with reliever Duane Underwood Jr. landing on the COVID-19 injured list in a corresponding move. Pittsburgh also recalled outfield prospect Canaan Smith-Njigba and infielder Hoy Park, optioning outfielder Travis Swaggerty and reliever Aaron Fletcher to Triple-A Indianapolis.

Delay, 27, was a fourth-round senior sign out of Vanderbilt back in 2017. He has spent the past six years in the minor leagues, reaching Triple-A for the first time last season. Delay is a career .230/.302/.332 hitter in a bit more than 800 professional plate appearances. He’ll add some depth beyond the primary catching tandem of Tyler Heineman and Michael Pérez.

Smith-Njigba is also up for his first big league look. Pittsburgh added the Dallas native to their 40-man roster to keep him from being taken in the Rule 5 draft, but he’s spent the entire season thus far in Indianapolis. A former 4th-round pick of the Yankees, Smith-Njigba went to the Bucs as part of the January 2021 trade that landed Jameson Taillon in the Bronx. Baseball America has slotted him near the back of the Pirates top 30 prospects in each of the past two years, writing that his combination of bat-to-ball skills and raw power could give him a chance to carve out a role in a corner outfield rotation.

Through 218 plate appearances in Triple-A, Smith-Njigba is hitting .277/.387/.408. He’s walked in a robust 15.1% of his plate appearances against an average 23.9% strikeout rate. The left-handed hitter has only one home run with Indianapolis, but he nevertheless did enough to convince the front office he merited a major league look. He’ll take the active roster spot of Swaggerty, a former first-rounder and another notable prospect who was promoted for the first time on June 4. The South Alabama product appeared in five games, collecting a hit in nine at-bats before being sent down.

Quick Hits: Canha, Escobar, Marte, Mets, Perez, Suarez

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Starling Marte, Mark Canha, and Eduardo Escobar are all playing well for the first-place Mets, making the team’s investment in the trio look like a canny move.  The New York Post’s Joel Sherman looks back at how the Mets added all three players during a frenzied span of around two days prior to the lockout, and how newly-hired GM Billy Eppler “emphasized on-base percentage, defense, versatility and players with strong reputations as good teammates,” with a particular focus on how well such free agents could adapt to Citi Field.  Sherman’s piece contains several interesting details about the Mets’ pursuit of the three players, as well as some other info on some of the other suitors.

The Rangers (another of the winter’s more aggressive teams) and Dodgers were interested in Canha, while “the Mets saw the Giants as a threat” due to Canha’s ties to the Bay Area.  As for Marte, New York was a relatively late entry into that chase, as agent Peter Greenberg said he met with roughly 20 other teams before touching base with the Mets, since Eppler wasn’t officially hired until midway through November.  However, the Mets made up plenty of ground by offering Marte a big four-year, $78MM contract that outpaced the other bidders.  “What stands out to me is that the Mets came in and in less than 24 hours we had a deal,” Greenberg said.

More from around baseball….

  • Martin Perez has been one of the surprises of the 2022 season, as the veteran lefty has an AL-best 1.56 ERA over 69 1/3 innings, plus a 54.7% grounder rate and just a single home run allowed.  With encouragement from Rangers coaches, Perez has re-established his sinker as a big part of his arsenal, Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News writes, and Perez also took a tip from the legendary Pedro Martinez about throwing more pitches outside the strike zone, to induce more chases from batters.  The results speak for themselves, as Perez is having a career year at age 31, and setting himself up for a much more lucrative trip to free agent this winter.  After the Red Sox declined their club option on Perez last fall, he told Grant that the Pirates and Nationals each had interest prior to the lockout, but Perez instead chose to return to a familiar environment and signed with Texas for a one-year, $4MM pact in March.
  • The Padres placed right-hander Robert Suarez on the 15-day injured list due to right knee inflammation earlier this week, and manager Bob Melvin told reporters (including reps from 97.3 The Fan radio) that Suarez recently had surgery to remove “loose impediments.”  A specific recovery timeline isn’t known, but Suarez will miss “at least a couple of weeks before we see him back throwing.”  The 31-year-old rookie has been a solid performer out of San Diego’s bullpen this year, with Suarez contributing a 3.09 ERA and 30.9% strikeout rate over 23 1/3 innings, though with a high 13.8% walk rate.

Diamondbacks Claim Cole Tucker From Pirates, Designate Jacob Webb

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The Diamondbacks have claimed Cole Tucker off waivers from the Pirates, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The club later announced the claim, with right-hander Jacob Webb being designated for assignment to create a spot for Tucker on the 40-man roster. Tucker has been optioned to Triple-A.

This will be a homecoming for Tucker, as he was born in Phoenix, played high school ball at Mountain Pointe High there, and committed to the University of Arizona before being selected by the Pirates in the first round of the 2014 draft.

Despite being a former first round selection, Tucker has struggled to cement himself in the big leagues so far. In 154 career games, he’s hit just .211/259/.314 for a wRC+ of 53. Though the club initially hoped that he could be their shortstop of the future, his tepid performance at the plate pushed them into moving him around the diamond in the hopes of creating a super utility player. As such, Tucker’s seen time at each infield position, as well as appearances in center and right field.

With the Diamondbacks, they likely intend to use Tucker to help with his original shortstop position. Nick Ahmed has been on the COVID IL for a couple of weeks and is still trying to get answers about the shoulder issues that have been plaguing him for years. With Ahmed out, the club has given the bulk of their shortstop starts to Geraldo Perdomo, who is taking walks but adding no power, producing a slash line of .215/.338/.277, 82 wRC+.

Tucker, 25, is in his final option year, meaning the D-Backs can give him regular playing time in Reno and see if he can get into a groove at the plate and earn his way onto the big league roster, though he’ll be out of options next year and will need to hold onto a spot on the active roster or else be sent into DFA limbo again.

As for Webb, he pitched for the Braves in each of the previous three seasons but was designated for assignment in April, landing in Arizona on a waiver claim. He had dealt with his share of injuries but provided good results when healthy. In 76 2/3 career innings in the big leagues, he has a 2.47 ERA, 21.9% strikeout rate, 9.6% walk rate and 38.7% ground ball rate. He’s logged just 5 1/3 Triple-A innings so far this year. He is in his final option year, meaning any team lacking in depth could be interested in picking him up and stashing him in Triple-A. Arizona will have a week to trade him or put him on waivers.

Pirates To Promote Travis Swaggerty

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8:50PM: Infielder Rodolfo Castro will be optioned to Triple-A to make space for Swaggerty on the 26-man roster, Mackey reports (Twitter link).

7:25PM: The Pirates are calling up outfielder Travis Swaggerty, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.  Swaggerty will officially join the active roster prior to tomorrow’s game, and is likely in line to make his Major League debut.  No 40-man move is required, as Swaggerty was already added to Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster back in November.

The 10th overall pick of the 2018 draft, Swaggerty received some top-100 attention from Baseball Prospectus and MLB Pipeline in advance of the 2019 season.  However, his stock dropped after only an okay year at high-A ball in 2019, no minor league baseball at all in 2020 due to the canceled season, and then a 2021 that was cut short after only 12 games due to shoulder surgery.

Starting the 2022 campaign again at Triple-A Indianapolis, Swaggerty has performed well to date, hitting .280/.362/.439 over 150 plate appearances, with four home runs.  This promising start could help answer lingering doubts about Swaggerty’s bat, as both MLB Pipeline (who rank Swaggerty 13th in Pittsburgh’s farm system) and Baseball America (25th) cite the 24-year-old’s lack of any real track record at the plate.  Swaggerty was showing some improvement due to some adjustments at the plate even as late as the 2019 campaign, but BA’s scouting report considers him “an open question” due to what was essentially two lost seasons.

Swaggerty’s hitting may determine whether or not he can become a regular at the MLB level, but he could stick around as a fourth outfielder based on plus glovework alone.  Bryan Reynolds’ presence would seem to block Swaggerty from the center field job in Pittsburgh, though since Swaggerty has a strong throwing arm, he could also be deployed as a right fielder.  Swaggerty joins Jack Suwinski, Tucupita Marcano, and Calvin Mitchell as left-handed hitting young outfielders on the Pirates roster, though it would seem plausible that any of these players could be optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding move for Swaggerty’s promotion.

With plenty of veterans (including outfielders Ben Gamel and Jake Marisnick) on the injured list, the Pirates have had to dip in their farm system numerous times already in the first two months of the season.  Given that the Bucs are still in the midst of a rebuild, it is quite possible that Swaggerty or any of these other youngsters would’ve gotten the call at some point anyway, and this opportunity gives Swaggerty a chance to establish himself as a building block.

Pirates’ Max Kranick Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Pirates right-hander Max Kranick underwent Tommy John surgery yesterday, Jason Mackey of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.  As per the usual 12-15 month recovery timeline, Kranick will miss the rest of the 2022 season and is in jeopardy of being sidelined for all the 2023 campaign.

It’s a rough turn of events for the 24-year-old, who only just made his MLB debut last season.  As Mackey notes, Kranick has been battling soreness in his forearm and elbow area for much of the year, dating back to Spring Training.  As a result, Kranick was limited to five innings of Major League action and 8 2/3 frames in the minors before he was placed on the Triple-A injured list last month.  Unfortunately for Kranick, he won’t even bank any big league service time during his absence, as he was in the minors when he went on the IL.

Kranick is a Pennsylvania native (born in Scranton) who was selected by the Pirates in the 11th round of the 2016 draft.  With a 3.50 ERA and 5.85% walk rate over 323 2/3 career innings in the minors, Kranick emerged as a rotation candidate, even if his 19.67% strikeout rate left something to be desired.  Kranick started nine games for Pittsburgh last season and struggled to a 6.28 ERA over 38 2/3 innings, before tossing five scoreless innings of relief work over his two MLB appearances in 2022.

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