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Pirates Made Extension Offer To Ke’Bryan Hayes

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The Pirates proposed a contract extension to third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link). It seems no deal is imminent, as Heyman writes that there’s “no traction” in talks between Pittsburgh and the Ballengee Group client.

It’s hardly surprising the Pirates would have interest in locking up Hayes long-term. The former first-rounder has been considered a top prospect for a while, but he arguably took his stock to new heights last season. Called up to the big leagues on September 1, Hayes went on an absolute tear to start his MLB career. He hit .376/.442/.682 with five home runs in his first 95 plate appearances. Both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference credited him with nearly two wins above replacement, an incredible amount of value to amass in less than a month of action.

No one should expect Hayes to sustain anything approaching that level of offensive output, but he only needs to be a decent hitter to be quite productive given the reports on his glove. Still rookie-eligible, Hayes enters 2021 as a consensus top 15 prospect in the league.

Hayes is controllable through 2026 and stands to make salaries around the league minimum for the next three years. Already 24 years old, he isn’t slated to hit free agency until after his age-29 season. The Pirates needn’t have any urgency in locking him up then, although it’s easy to see the appeal for the organization in initiating talks. Not only is there reason to be bullish on Hayes’ future, early-career extensions tend to carry plenty of upside for teams.

The specific offer the Pirates put on the table isn’t known. Extensions for players with less than one year of MLB service are rare but not unheard of. Looking at players in comparable situations over the past couple years, however, it’s difficult to find a prior agreement that perfectly maps with Hayes’ situation.

Luis Robert and Eloy Jiménez signed six-year extensions guaranteeing $50MM and $43MM, respectively, each including a pair of club options to buy out free agent years. Both the White Sox stars were more than a full year younger at the time of their deals than Hayes is now, though. Evan White and Brandon Lowe, meanwhile, signed extensions with guarantees around $24MM and multiple club options. Neither of those players was seen as the same caliber of prospect as Hayes at the time. A guarantee in between those general ranges that extends the Pirates’ team control window could make some sense, but obviously a player’s urgency to sacrifice earnings upside for upfront guarantees varies person-to-person.

Blake Cederlind Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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March 24: Cederlind underwent Tommy John surgery last night, the Pirates announced to reporters (Twitter link via Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). He’ll miss all of the 2021 season and a portion of the 2022 campaign as well.

March 12: The Pirates announced Friday that they’ve placed right-hander Blake Cederlind on the 60-day injured list due to a strained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. Cederlind sustained the injury in Wednesday night’s game, per the team. At this time, he and the Pirates “are discussing what the best recommended intervention is to treat the injury.” Cederlind’s spot on the 40-man roster will be filled by righty Trevor Cahill, whose previously reported one-year deal is now official.

Cederlind, 25, was in the mix for a bullpen spot with the Pirates after making his big league debut with four innings last year. The 2016 fifth-rounder has spent the past few seasons ranked among the organization’s more promising pitching prospects, but today’s announcement means he’ll miss at least the first two months of the season — quite possibly even more than that. The Pirates didn’t reference the possibility of Tommy John surgery, but that’s of course the concern anytime a player experiences a UCL injury.

While Cederlind tossed only four innings last year, he showed plenty of reason for excitement, including a sinker that averaged 98.7 mph out of the bullpen. His last full season of work came in 2019, when he pitched to a combined 2.28 across three levels: Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A. Control has been an issue through his pro career, as he’s walked 11.3 percent of the opponents he’s faced, but he’s also posted above-average ground-ball rates.

If Cederlind can avoid surgery, it’s possible he’ll emerge as a bullpen option for the Pirates this summer, but it seems the Bucs will take their time in determining the best course of action for the promising young righty.

Steven Brault Shut Down For A Month

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The Pirates have shut lefty Steven Brault down for the next month or so due to a “moderate arm muscle strain,” director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk tells reporters (Twitter links via Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic and Jason Mackey of the Post-Gazette). Because of the fairly lengthy shutdown, Brault will need to be built back up before returning to a game setting. His total absence could stretch anywhere from 10 to 12 weeks in length.

Brault exited his most recent Grapefruit League start with tightness, which the club eventually revealed to be a lat strain. The team’s update today did not specify the grade of the strain, but a fairly lengthy absence for Brault nevertheless alters the team’s rotation outlook substantially. After trading away Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon this winter, Brault was the team’s most experienced incumbent option on the starting staff.

Holdovers Chad Kuhl and Mitch Keller are virtual locks for the Pittsburgh rotation, as are offseason signees Trevor Cahill and Tyler Anderson, both of whom signed guaranteed Major League deals for the 2021 season. Other candidates to take the ball early in the year include righties Wil Crowe and JT Brubaker. Crowe, acquired from the Nats in the offseason trade of Josh Bell, has thrown quite well so far in Spring Training. Through 9 2/3 innings, he’s held opponents to one run on seven hits and three walks with seven punchouts.

Brault’s timeline for a return will be particularly worth monitoring given his status as an obvious summer trade candidate. The 28-year-old (29 in April) drew interest over the winter and, as a player who is controlled for just two years beyond the current campaign, is a logical trade chip for a rebuilding club like Pittsburgh. Because he’s controlled through 2023, there’s no real urgency to move him this summer — particularly if he doesn’t have much time demonstrate his health prior to the July 31 trade deadline.

Trevor Cahill Likely To Make Pirates' Season-Opening Roster

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  • Pirates manager Derek Shelton expects recently signed right-hander Trevor Cahill to break camp with the team, Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic relays. “I don’t plan on him staying behind in Florida,” Shelton said of Cahill, whom the Pirates inked to a one-year, $1.5MM guarantee earlier this month. The Pirates aren’t yet sure which role Cahill will fill when the season starts, though. The well-traveled 33-year-old has amassed 225 starts in 352 appearances, and he’s coming off a season divided between starting and relieving with the Giants. Cahill wound up with 26 innings of 3.24 ERA ball and posted an excellent 29.2 percent strikeout rate, but he also walked 13.2 percent of the batters he faced, recorded a 4.38 SIERA and logged a personal-worst 33.3 percent groundball rate.

Pirates Sign Steven Wright

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The Pirates announced the signing of right-hander Steven Wright to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. The deal reunites the former Red Sox hurler with Pittsburgh general manager Ben Cherington, who led the Boston front office from 2011-15.

Wright worked mostly as a swingman for the Red Sox from 2013-19. He peaked in 2016, tossing 156.2 innings of 3.33 ERA ball en route to an All-Star selection. A knuckleballer, Wright unsurprisingly has never gotten many strikeouts but has induced plenty of weak contact throughout his major career.

The 36-year-old hasn’t pitched much over the past few years. Various injuries and a pair of suspensions (fifteen games for domestic violence in 2018, then eighty games for performance-enhancing drugs in 2019) have kept him to 84 MLB innings since the start of the 2017 season. Wright hasn’t pitched since undergoing Tommy John surgery in October 2019.

Steven Brault Day-To-Day With Left Latissimus Muscle Tightness

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  • Pirates starter Steven Brault left Friday’s outing after only two innings due to tightness in his left arm, and is day to day with the injury.  The team’s statement specified that Brault’s issue was with his latissimus muscle, rather than any forearm or elbow tightness.  Still, any sort of injury concern isn’t welcome news for Brault or the Pirates, as Brault is projected for one of the top spots in Pittsburgh’s rotation.  The southpaw had a 3.38 ERA/5.07 SIERA over 42 2/3 innings for the Bucs last season, allowing only two home runs and doing a good job of limiting hard contact, though Brault was aided by a .243 BABIP and his 21.3K% was below average.

Reds Claim Carson Fulmer

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The Reds announced they’ve claimed right-hander Carson Fulmer off waivers from the Pirates. Pittsburgh designated Fulmer for assignment last week to create 40-man roster space after acquiring Duane Underwood Jr.

Fulmer has pitched parts of five seasons at the major league level and has yet to find much success. Over 105 career innings, he has just a 6.34 ERA/5.41 SIERA. Fulmer has posted worse than average strikeout (18.9%), walk (13.9%) and groundball (37.5%) rates.

In spite of the poor results, the 27-year-old has continued to attract interest around the league. Within the past eight months, the former eighth overall pick has been claimed off waivers by the Tigers, Pirates (twice) and Orioles. In each situation, the claiming team had been near the top of the league by waiver priority. Fulmer fell a little farther down the waiver order this time around, but he’ll find another landing spot nonetheless.

It’s hardly a surprise to see the Reds put in a claim for Fulmer. The Cincinnati organization has been rather open about their affinity for pitchers with high spin rates, and Fulmer certainly qualifies. The 27-year-old sat in the 91st percentile in fastball spin and 88th percentile in curveball spin last season, per Statcast. While that has yet to translate to MLB performance, there’s no harm for the Reds in taking a flier. Fulmer is out of minor league options, so he’ll need to either break camp with the big league club or else again be offered to rival teams.

Pirates Sign Trevor Cahill

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The Pirates have made a late addition to their rotation mix, announcing Friday that they’ve signed veteran righty Trevor Cahill to a one-year deal.  The JBA Sports client will reportedly be guaranteed $1.5MM and have the opportunity to take home another $1MM via incentives.  Those incentives are based on innings pitched and kick in with a $100K bonus for reaching 75 frames. Cahill would also earn $150K for reaching 100 innings, $200K at 125 innings, $250K at 150 innings and $300K at 175 innings.

Trevor Cahill | Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

Cahill received interest from as many 16 teams, Nightengale writes, following a season that saw him post a 3.24 ERA/4.38 SIERA over 25 innings with the Giants.  Presumably, based on the terms of his contract, much of that interest was on non-guaranteed deals.

Long a ground-ball specialist, Cahill seemed to change course in 2020, albeit with the caveat of his very small sample size of work.  Cahill had only a career-low 33.3% grounder rate, while his K% rocketed to 29.2%, by far the highest of his 12-year career.  His Statcast metrics were solid overall, and Cahill continued to deliver his signature elite-level curveball spin.

It was a solid bounce-back outing from a very rough 2019 season that Cahill post a 5.98 ERA/4.95 SIERA over 102 1/3 innings with the Angels.  Cahill was bedeviled by a 22.5% home run/fly ball rate that season, but he cut that number down to a much more palatable 12.5% in 2020.

The 33-year-old Cahill worked as both a starter and reliever in San Francisco, and it seems likely that he’ll be ticketed for rotation work in Pittsburgh.  Certainly, his incentive structure is geared toward that role.  With Jameson Taillon, Joe Musgrove, Trevor Williams, and Chris Archer all now pitching for other teams, the Pirates have definitely need for some innings-eating arms in the rotation.

Cahill joins fellow newcomer Tyler Anderson alongside Mitch Keller, Chad Kuhl, and Steven Brault as the top rotation candidates in Pittsburgh, though this collection could change significantly as the season goes along — whether just by simple attrition, other youngsters stepping up to grab jobs, or the rebuilding Pirates trading more hurlers elsewhere.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported the agreement and the terms (Twitter links).

Pirates Not Concerned With Naming Closer

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  • Pirates manager Derek Shelton won’t spend much time thinking about who might claim the closer role until the last few days of camp, per the Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel. Said Shelton, “We have a guy who we know can go to the back end and do it in Richie (Rodríguez), who did it last year, so I’m really not thinking about it.” That certainly sounds like Richard Rodriguez has the inside track on the job. There will certainly be enough bodies to choose from, as the Pirates plan to break camp with eight or nine relievers, notes Biertempfel. That said, there aren’t a lot of proven late-inning options to immediately wrench the role from Rodríguez. Kyle Crick is the most obvious challenger, with Chris Stratton perhaps snagging an opportunity or two after striking out close to 30 percent of hitters last season.

Pirates Acquire Duane Underwood, Designate Carson Fulmer

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The Pirates announced the acquisition of reliever Duane Underwood Jr. from the Cubs. First base prospect Shendrik Apostel will go to Chicago in return. To create 40-man roster space, Pittsburgh designated right-hander Carson Fulmer for assignment.

Underwood, 26, has thrown 36.1 innings out of the Chicago bullpen over the past three seasons. His 5.20 ERA isn’t particularly impressive, but Underwood has shown some promising peripherals. The right-hander has struck out an impressive 27.7% of hitters at the MLB level against a solid 7.7% walk rate. He was at his best last season, racking up strikeouts at a 30.7% clip while walking only 6.8% of batters. The right-hander averages just under 95 MPH on his fastball and also features a curveball and changeup, the latter of which has gotten plenty of whiffs in limited major league action.

Nevertheless, the Cubs designated Underwood for assignment earlier in the week. He never managed to stake a claim to a permanent spot in the Chicago bullpen, thanks largely to persistent trouble keeping the ball in the yard. Underwood is also out of options, meaning he can’t be sent to the minor leagues without being exposed to other teams. That’s less a concern for the rebuilding Pirates than it was for the playoff-hopeful Cubs.

Acquiring Underwood bumps Fulmer from the Pittsburgh roster for the second time in six months. The former eighth overall pick has been claimed off waivers by the Tigers, Pirates (twice) and Orioles going back to last July but hasn’t found a permanent home. Teams clearly remain intrigued by his promise, though. Fulmer has just a 6.34 ERA with poor strikeout (18.9%) and walk (13.9%) numbers over 105 MLB innings. Like Underwood, he is out of options. Any acquiring team must therefore keep him on the active roster or else again offer him to other clubs.

In exchange for Underwood, the Cubs pick up Apostel, a 20-year-old first baseman who signed with the Pirates out of Curacao. He had a .252/.381/.463 line in the Dominican Summer League between 2018-19. His older brother Sherten Apostel also originally signed with the Pirates and made his MLB debut last season with the Rangers.

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