Pirates Rumors

NL Central Notes: Carlson, Brewers, Cousins, Pirates, Kuhl

By Mark Polishuk | May 21, 2022 at 10:06pm CDT

Brewers right-hander Jake Cousins has been shut down for the next 4-6 weeks after receiving a PRP injection, Cousins told Curt Hogg of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other reporters. Cousins has been on the IL since May 1, though an issue with his UCL was detected two weeks ago and the reliever was known to be seeking out a second opinion before deciding on his next treatment. Both of the consulting doctors recommended the injection, and Cousins will now embark on what will still be a pretty lengthy absence, even if he has been able to avoid surgery. If Cousins’ arm problems weren’t enough, he also told the media that he recently recovered from a case of COVID-19.

Depending on when Cousins is cleared to begin throwing or if a 40-man roster spot is required, it is quite possibly that the Brewers could shift him to the 60-day IL at some point. The righty made his MLB debut last season and made an immediate impact in Milwaukee’s bullpen, and Cousins has a 3.08 ERA over 38 total innings of big league action, with hefty strikeout (35%) and walk (14.7%) rates.

Andrew Knapp Elects Free Agency

By Darragh McDonald | May 18, 2022 at 10:29pm CDT

Catcher Andrew Knapp has cleared waivers and elected free agency, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Knapp had been designated for assignment by the Pirates a few days ago. Players can reject outright assignments and elect free agency if they have been previously outrighted in their careers or have more than five years of MLB service time. Knapp fits both of those categories, allowing him to return to the open market.

Knapp, 30, was signed by the Reds to a minor league deal this winter but didn’t make the team out of Spring Training. After being granted his release, he very quickly latched on with the Pirates to serve as the backup behind Roberto Perez. The switch-hitting Knapp got into 11 games with the Bucs but hit just .210/.310/.315, for a wRC+ of 23.

Perez recently underwent season-ending hamstring surgery, forcing the club to figure out a new plan for who would handle the receiving duties in Pittsburgh. Michael Perez had his contract selected and then the team claimed Tyler Heineman off waivers from the Blue Jays, with Knapp getting nudged out as part of the latter move.

Knapp will now be free to communicate with all 30 clubs and figure out his preferred next step. Over 320 career games, he’s hit .210/.310/.315 for a wRC+ of 70. That’s 30% below league average for all hitters, though backup catchers who can hit at a league-average rate are few and far between. The fact that he can hit from both sides of the plate could perhaps help him find a job with a team whose primary catcher has a notable platoon split.

Roberto Perez To Undergo Season-Ending Hamstring Surgery

By Mark Polishuk | May 18, 2022 at 3:00pm CDT

Pirates catcher Roberto Perez will undergo surgery on his left hamstring and miss the rest of the 2022 season, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (Twitter link). Perez was already on Pittsburgh’s 60-day injured list, and it was expected that his hamstring injury would require a long absence.

The Bucs initially placed Perez on the 10-day IL in between games of a doubleheader on May 7, after Perez injured his leg running the bases. Reports immediately filtered in that Perez (who was in obvious pain leaving the field) had suffered a serious injury, and the veteran backstop may have now already played his last game in a Pittsburgh uniform.

It marks the second straight injury-ravaged year for Perez, as he played only 44 games with Cleveland last season due to a pair of IL stints (a fractured right finger and shoulder inflammation). After the Guardians declined their $7MM club option on Perez for 2022, the Pirates inked the 33-year-old to a one-year, $5MM deal just prior to the lockout and just after the club had dealt former starting catcher Jacob Stallings to the Marlins.

A Gold Glove winner in both 2019 and 2020, Perez has long been appreciated for his excellent defense and ability to throw out would-be basestealers. He hasn’t enjoyed much success at the plate apart from a surprising 24-homer season in 2019, but Perez was off to a decent start with the Pirates, hitting .233/.333/.367 (106 wRC+) over 69 plate appearances.

With Perez now gone for the season, the Pirates will turn to a combination of Michael Perez and Tyler Heineman behind the plate. (Heineman was just claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays on Monday.) For those wondering former first overall pick Henry Davis could factor into the Pirates’ catching plans this season, Davis only just made his debut in Double-A ball, and has been himself sidelined with a left wrist contusion. Mackey reports that Davis will be examined by doctors in Pittsburgh, but initial testing hasn’t revealed any fractures.

Pirates Claim Tyler Heineman, Designate Andrew Knapp

By Steve Adams | May 16, 2022 at 2:51pm CDT

The Pirates have claimed catcher Tyler Heineman off waivers from the Blue Jays, per announcements from both teams. Pittsburgh designated fellow catcher Andrew Knapp for assignment in order to create space on the roster.

Heineman, 30, wasn’t formally designated for assignment on the Blue Jays, nor was it announced that he’d been placed on waivers. Toronto surely hoped to open up a 40-man roster spot by passing Heineman through waivers while still keeping him in the organization to preserve some depth, but he’ll head to Pittsburgh and join the club as the new backup to Roberto Perez now that Knapp has been designated for assignment.

Set to turn 31 next month, Heineman is in his third big league season. Originally an eighth-round pick by the Astros back in 2012, he’s become something of a journeyman, having since bounced to the Brewers, Diamondbacks, Phillies, Marlins, Giants, Cardinals and Jays organizations. Heineman logged big league time with the ’19 Marlins and ’20 Giants and, in 78 career Major League plate appearances, is a .221/.284/.324 hitter. As one would expect, his work in Triple-A has been considerably better; the switch-hitting Heineman carries a .283/.350/.413 batting line in 1163 plate appearances.

Defensively, Heineman ought to provide the Bucs with a solid glove. He’s nabbed 38% of runners who’ve attempted to steal against him in his professional career, and Baseball Prospectus credits him with above-average framing marks and average marks on blocking pitches in the dirt.

As for Knapp, the longtime Phillies backstop inked a Major League contract with the Pirates during Spring Training but simply didn’t provide the team with enough offense to keep his spot on the roster. Chances were limited — such is the life of a backup catcher — but in 35 plate appearances, Knapp slashed just .129/.229/.161. His career .210/.310/.315 line is a good bit better than that, but the Pirates will hope for more immediate production out of the well-traveled Heineman.

Pittsburgh will have a week to trade Knapp, place him on outright waivers or release him.

NL Central Notes: Greene, Reds, Stephenson, Pirates, Newman, Frazier, Cubs

By Mark Polishuk | May 15, 2022 at 6:28pm CDT

The Pirates’ 1-0 win over the Reds today will go down perhaps the most unusual game of the 2022 season, as Pittsburgh won without a single hit. Reds starter Hunter Greene tossed 7 1/3 innings of hitless ball, but was pulled after 118 pitches and after issuing consecutive walks during the eighth inning. Reliever Art Warren entered the game and issued another walk, then Ke’Bryan Hayes drove in the game’s only run via a fielder’s choice. The Reds lineup, meanwhile, was held to only four hits, with Bucs starter Jose Quintana doing much of the work in shutting Cincinnati out over seven innings.

Since the Bucs didn’t need to bat in the bottom of the ninth, the official threshold of nine hitless innings wasn’t met, so Greene and Warren won’t be credited with a no-hitter. This oddity marks just the sixth time since 1901 that a team has won despite going hitless, and ironically, the Reds were on the other side of the equation in the first such instance. Back on April 23, 1964, the Reds collected a 1-0 win over the Houston Colt .45s even though Houston’s Ken Johnson held Cincinnati hitless over nine full innings of work — a pair of ninth-inning errors led to the Reds’ only run.

Orioles Claim Beau Sulser, Designate Paul Fry

By Darragh McDonald | May 14, 2022 at 2:30pm CDT

The Orioles announced that they have claimed Beau Sulser off waivers from the Pirates and optioned him to Triple-A Norfolk. Lefty Paul Fry has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Sulser had his contract selected three weeks ago and made his MLB debut in late April. He pitched 9 2/3 innings out of Pittsburgh’s bullpen over four outings. His 3.72 ERA and 21.7% strikeout rate were acceptable, but he also had a concerning walk rate of 13%. The Pirates designated him for assignment a couple of days ago when they claimed Tyler Beede off waivers.

As for Fry, his designation is at least somewhat surprising, given that he was garnering trade interest at the deadline less than a year ago. Despite a penchant for walks, Fry’s ability to rack up strikeouts and ground balls seemed to give him appeal to other clubs around the league. For his career, he’s thrown 176 1/3 innings over this season and the previous four. His 4.80 ERA isn’t terribly enticing, but he has struck out 24.6% of batters he’s faced as well as inducing grounders at a 56.4% clip. His 12.2% walk rate has put a damper on his overall results, though.

This year, through 12 innings, the pattern is largely intact. His 6.00 ERA comes with a 22.2% strikeout rate, 65.6% ground ball rate and 13% walk rate. However, he’s been undone by a 25% HR/FB ratio. That’s a small sample, but it comes at a time when power is down across the league.

Given the interest he’s garnered in the past, it seems likely that he’ll latch on somewhere. He qualified for arbitration for the first time and is making a salary of $850K this year, just a hair above the $700K league minimum. He came into the season with three years and 75 days of service time and still has a pair of option years, meaning he could certainly be of interest to teams lacking in lefty bullpen depth.

Pirates To Hire Jason Kendall

By Darragh McDonald | May 14, 2022 at 11:08am CDT

Jason Kendall is rejoining the Pirates, as the club is going to be hiring him to a player developmental role, reports Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic. As noted by Biertempfel, the move isn’t technically official yet, with Kendall’s job still not having a title. Semantics aside, the duties will seemingly revolve around working with the club’s minor leaguers. “Put it this way, you’ll see me around,” Kendall says. He later elaborated: “I told the Pirates whatever they want me to do, I’ll do it. I’ll go down and watch minor-league teams and certain players. Catching is what I know, but I also can talk to the kids as someone who’s been there, done that.”

Of course, this is a homecoming for Kendall, 47, as he was drafted by the Pirates in the first round of the 1992 draft and spent the first nine years of his career with the black and yellow. “It just feels like I’m back home,” Kendall said. “This is the team that drafted me. This is the city that watched me grow up through good times and bad times.”

After retiring in 2012, Kendall worked as a special assistant coach with the Royals from 2012 to 2018. In late 2019, he expressed his interest in taking over the vacant manager position in Pittsburgh after the firing of Clint Hurdle. However, that job eventually went to Derek Shelton, who is now in his third season as the Bucs’ skipper.

The Pirates have performed quite poorly since Shelton took over, though that’s no fault of his. The club has been clearly in rebuild mode for quite some time. With the team focused on the future instead of the present, player development will be extremely important for the organization, especially given their low-spending habits. Up until the recent extension of Ke’Bryan Hayes, the club’s largest contract was the $60MM extension given to Kendall himself way back in the year 2000. That means that the work of the team’s player development staff, which now includes Kendall, will be a key factor in the trajectory of the club in the years to come.

Tigers Claim Sam Howard From Pirates

By Anthony Franco | May 13, 2022 at 12:33pm CDT

The Tigers announced they’ve claimed reliever Sam Howard off waivers from the Pirates and optioned him to Triple-A Toledo. He’d been designated for assignment last week. Detroit had two vacancies on the 40-man roster, so no additional move was necessary.

Howard, 29, has pitched in the big leagues with the Rockies and Bucs in each of the past five seasons. The Georgia Southern product has shown the ability to generate plenty of whiffs, but he’s also battled notable control woes. He’s tallied 91 MLB innings across 103 appearances, pitching to a 5.34 ERA with a solid 27.2% strikeout rate but a 14.1% walk percentage. He had an even more extreme version of that batted ball-averse style last season, when he fanned 30.2% but walked 16.1% of opponents in a personal-high 45 innings.

Those strike-throwing concerns became problematic enough for the Bucs to move on, but the Tigers will roll the dice on Howard’s swing-and-miss capabilities. He generated whiffs on 15.8% of his offerings last season, the 16th-highest rate among relievers with 40+ innings pitched. His four-seam fastball, in particular, was excellent at missing bats.

Howard still has a couple minor league option years remaining, so the Tigers can keep him at Toledo as a depth option for a while if he holds onto a 40-man roster spot. He’ll be the third left-handed reliever on the depth chart behind offseason signee Andrew Chafin and primary closer Gregory Soto.

Pirates Recall Rodolfo Castro, Reinstate Duane Underwood Jr., Option Cole Tucker and Max Kranick

By James Hicks and Darragh McDonald | May 12, 2022 at 7:35pm CDT

After already claiming right-hander Tyler Beede from the Giants and designating right-hander Beau Sulser for assignment this morning, the Pirates announced a series of further moves this afternoon, optioning shortstop Cole Tucker and right-hander Max Kranick to Triple-A Indianapolis, recalling shortstop Rodolfo Castro from Indianapolis, and reinstating right-hander Duane Underwood Jr. from the 10-day IL.

Tucker’s demotion is arguably the most notable element of all this, given his former prospect pedigree. Selected by the Pirates 24th overall in the 2014 draft, he instantly became one of the club’s most intriguing prospects. Baseball America ranked him #8 in the system the following year and Tucker would stay in the top 10 for four further years after that, gaining particular praise for his speed and defensive abilities.

However, since making his MLB debut in 2019, his performance at the plate has undermined his abilities elsewhere. In 154 career games in the big leagues, he has a batting line of .211/.259/.314, producing a wRC+ of 53. He has one option year remaining, so today’s demotion will make him out of options next year, assuming he spends at least 20 total days in the minors on the season.

Underwood, 27, was acquired from the Cubs and did yeoman’s work for the Pirates last year. In 43 games, he logged 72 2/3 innings, putting up a 4.33 ERA with a 20.3% strikeout rate, 8.4% walk rate and 43.5% ground ball rate. This year, he faced one batter before a hamstring strain put him on the shelf.

Pirates Claim Tyler Beede Off Waivers From Giants

By Anthony Franco | May 12, 2022 at 2:38pm CDT

The Pirates have claimed right-hander Tyler Beede off waivers from the Giants, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). San Francisco had designated him for assignment last week. Pittsburgh later announced the move, designating Beau Sulser for assignment to clear space on the 40-man roster.

Beede, who turns 29 later this month, is a former first-round pick and highly-regarded prospect. The Vanderbilt product reached the big leagues in 2018 and got his first extended look in the rotation the following year. Beede allowed a 5.08 ERA over 24 appearances (including 22 starts) in 2019, posting roughly league average strikeout, walk and ground-ball numbers but struggling with the longball. The Giants no doubt hoped he’d cement himself as a long-term starting pitcher in 2020 and beyond, but that didn’t wind up being the case.

Unfortunately, Beede required Tommy John surgery in March 2020. That cost him the entire season and kept him out until the following July. Beede spent the bulk of last season with Triple-A Sacramento, struggling to a 6.66 ERA with a massive 18.4% walk rate at the minors’ top level. Much of that came while he was still rehabbing from the Tommy John procedure, and his season ended in mid-August when he landed back on the IL because of a lower back strain.

Beede exhausted his final minor league option last year, meaning the Giants had to keep him on the active roster or expose him to waivers this season. They’d transitioned him to relief but he struggled over six outings. Beede allowed five runs in 9 2/3 innings, walking six batters while striking out just four. Devoting an active roster spot to a pitcher still battling control woes proved too much for a win-now Giants team, but that’s an easier dice roll for a rebuilding Pittsburgh club. Beede is averaging nearly 96 MPH on his heater this year and won’t reach arbitration eligibility until after the season, so there’s a chance he sticks around long-term if the Bucs can help him regain his control of the strike zone.

Sulser, 28, got his first MLB call last month. He made four appearances, allowing nine runs (albeit just four earned) in 9 2/3 innings out of the bullpen. The right-hander had an excellent three-start run with Triple-A Indianapolis to earn his first call-up and still has all three minor league options remaining. It’s possible another club takes a shot on him via small trade or waivers within the next week.

« Previous Page

Load More Posts

Show all

Headlines

Pirates Rumors

Navigation

MLBTR INFO

Connect