Pirates Rumors

NL Notes: Mets, Nats, Pirates, Cardinals, D-backs

By Connor Byrne | July 10, 2016 at 1:29pm CDT

With right-hander Matt Harvey’s season over thanks to thoracic outlet syndrome, the reigning National League champion Mets are unsure if it makes sense to deal prospects for major league help at this year’s trade deadline, according to the New York Daily News’ John Harper. “There’s a lot of grey area right now,’’ a Mets source told Harper. Only two Mets prospects – shortstop Amed Rosario (No. 18) and first baseman Dominic Smith (No. 76) – cracked Baseball America’s just-released midseason top 100 prospects, notes Harper, who points out that the 47-40 team lacks blue-chip pipeline talent to trade. Harper’s also skeptical of the quality of starters set to move by the deadline, though he adds that the Wild Card-holding Mets might be willing to part with Smith for a capable rotation piece.

More on New York and four other NL cities:

The Mets’ tough-it-out approach with injured young starters Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz is backfiring on them, while the Nationals are benefiting from a more guarded method, opines Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post. Harvey missed the entire 2014 season because of Tommy John surgery and then responded with a 238 2/3-inning workload last year, writes Boswell, who points out that Harvey and agent Scott Boras expected the Mets to shut him down late in the campaign. However, general manager Sandy Alderson had no such expectation and Harvey elected to keep pitching after dealing with backlash from fans and media. Meanwhile, the Nats have taken care of ace Stephen Strasburg, another Boras client, having shut him down early during their 98-win showing in 2012. They also sent Strasburg to the disabled list last month rather than take a chance with his upper back injury. Strasburg dominated before landing on the DL and has continued doing so since returning July 3. Moreover, while Strasburg might have been this year’s NL All-Star starter, he and the club made the “mutual decision” to keep him out of the game, per president and GM Mike Rizzo.
Having won 12 of 15, the 46-42 Pirates now sit just 1.5 games back of a Wild Card spot. Thus, they’re approaching the trade deadline as buyers. “Our expectation is we are going to add,” GM Neal Huntington told Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Our mindset is we are going to add and put ourselves, for the first time in the franchise history, in position to make the postseason four consecutive years.” The Pirates’ resurgence has come without ace Gerrit Cole and catcher Francisco Cervelli, of which Huntington is cognizant. “We’ve gone through this toughest part of our schedule,” he said. “We’re going to get guys back healthy.”
Cardinals GM John Mozeliak acknowledged that the idea of promoting Baseball America’s second-ranked prospect, Triple-A right-hander Alex Reyes, as a bullpen option is an enticing one. “So when you think about that type of tool set and putting it in the bullpen it’s certainly exciting,” Mozeliak told Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “You’d be hard pressed to find that type of talent in the trade market and let alone (it would be a) zero acquisition cost.” On the other hand, the flame-throwing 21-year-old hasn’t totaled more than 116 1/3 frames in a season since joining the Cardinals organization in 2013, and they want him to accrue innings so he can help their rotation in 2017. “If all he ended up with is 75 innings what can we expect from him as a starter next year?” Mozeliak said. Reyes, who served a 50-game marijuana suspension to begin the season, has racked up 41 1/3 innings this year.
Before the Diamondbacks traded Brad Ziegler to Boston on Saturday, they asked the pending free agent reliever if he’d be open to a contract extension. Ziegler said yes, but, “Next time I heard from them, they told me I was traded” (via ESPN’s Scott Lauber).

NL Notes: Nats, D-backs, Mets, Pirates

By Connor Byrne and Jeff Todd | July 9, 2016 at 8:31pm CDT

The Nationals’ Trea Turner, whom Baseball America ranks as the sport’s fifth-best prospect, rejoined the club Friday when first baseman Ryan Zimmerman landed on the disabled list with a strained left rib. The middle infielder hasn’t slotted into the Nats’ lineup, though, which is no surprise in light of manager Dusty Baker’s comments on Friday. “Right now, there’s no real place for Trea to take,” Baker said, per Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. “This isn’t a tryout camp. This is try to play the best team overall to win the game and win the pennant. Hopefully Trea will be a part of that while he’s here.” Turner has garnered some center field experience at the Triple-A level, though Baker is wary of putting him out there in the majors at this point. “I’m sure in time, he’ll show us all, but right now, he’ll probably remain in the infield unless I have to make a move out there in the outfield,” stated Baker. Between second baseman Daniel Murphy and shortstop Danny Espinosa, the Nats have an outstanding middle infield, so it doesn’t appear Turner will make much of an impact if those two remain healthy. The 23-year-old has batted an excellent .302/.370/.471 with 36 extra-base hits and 25 stolen bases in the minors this season.

Pirates Sign Josh Outman To Minor League Deal

By Connor Byrne | July 9, 2016 at 6:17pm CDT

The Pirates have signed free agent left-hander Josh Outman to a minor league contract, per a team announcement. The Turner Gary Sports client will head to Triple-A Indianapolis. While Outman likely faces long odds of returning to the majors, it’s worth noting that the Pirates only have one southpaw in their bullpen, as their depth chart shows.

Outman, 31, last saw major league action in 2014. As a member of the Indians and Yankees that year, he combined for 40 appearances and posted a terrific 2.86 ERA and solid 53.9 percent ground-ball rate in 28 1/3 innings. However, a 5.08 BB/9 offset his 8.26 K/9 somewhat and he benefited from an 87.2 percent strand rate. Outman, who dealt with thoracic outlet syndrome last season but has now recovered from the issue, spent some of the year in the Braves organization and amassed 8 2/3 frames across four minor league levels. He opened this season with the independent Atlantic League’s New Britain Bees.

On the whole, Outman has recorded a 4.43 ERA, 7.41 K/9, 3.77 BB/9 and 43.8 percent ground-ball mark over 274 1/3 major league innings. Thirty-two of his 161 appearances have come in the form of starts, mostly with the Athletics from 2008-11. His latest start in the majors came back in 2012 with the Rockies.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/9/16

By charliewilmoth | July 9, 2016 at 3:11pm CDT

Here are today’s minor moves from around the league.

Veteran lefty Tom Gorzelanny has declined his outright assignment with the Indians and is now a free agent, the team has announced. The Indians designated Gorzelanny for assignment on Monday after he allowed seven runs in three innings for them. Gorzelanny, who turns 34 this week, has a career 4.40 ERA, 7.3 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9 in parts of 12 seasons with the Pirates, Cubs, Nationals, Brewers and Tigers in addition to the Indians.
The Cardinals have announced that they’ve allowed outfielder Carlos Peguero to depart for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan. They will receive cash considerations in return. The 29-year-old Peguero has played with the Mariners, Royals, Rangers and Red Sox in parts of five big-league seasons, but has never stuck, accumulating just 319 career plate appearances. He’s shown big power in the minors, though, with 95 home runs and a .277/.346/.520 in the equivalent of about three full seasons at Triple-A.
The Rays have signed reliever Casey Coleman to a minor league deal, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Coleman opted out of his deal with the Mariners last week after posting a 2.08 ERA, 8.8 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 39 strong innings with Triple-A Tacoma.
One of Coleman’s new Durham Bulls teammates is lefty Dana Eveland, who was designated for assignment this week. Via SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (on Twitter), Eveland has accepted the Rays’ outright assignment. He posted an 8.55 ERA, 8.1 K/9 and 6.8 BB/9 in 20 innings of relief with the Rays this season.
The Pirates have outrighted catcher Jacob Stallings, as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Bill Brink tweets. The Bucs designated the defensive specialist for assignment last week. The 26-year-old has batted just .200/.235/.326 this season, but he received a brief callup because of a rash of injuries to Pirates catchers.

Pirates Shopping Jon Niese

By Steve Adams | July 8, 2016 at 12:46pm CDT

The Pirates are actively shopping Jon Niese and have called around to a number of teams to gauge interest in the left-hander recently, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review first reported. Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette hears the same and adds that the Bucs are anticipating at least a handful of scouts to be on hand this coming Sunday to watch Niese start the final game of the season’s first half.

Acquired from the Mets this offseason in a one-for-one swap with Neil Walker, Niese has struggled through the worst season of his nine-year career in the Majors. The 29-year-old currently holds a 4.87 ERA — his highest full-season mark of any in his career — and is averaging more walks per nine innings (3.1) than he has since 2010. The main problem for Niese, though, is that he’s been astonishingly prone to the long ball with Pittsburgh, surrendering 19 home runs through his first 98 innings. That mark is already higher than the total number of homers he allowed in the 2011, 2013 and 2014 seasons (individually, not combined), and it sits one behind last year’s total of 20 homers despite the fact that he’s pitched 80 fewer innings.

Of course, there are some positives about Niese’s numbers as well. His 6.2 K/9 rate is an improvement over last year’s career-low rate, his 54.7 percent ground-ball rate is a slight improvement over his career-high, and his average of 89.2 mph on his heater is right in line with the marks he’s put up over the past few years. xFIP, which normalizes his current outlier home run rate, doesn’t actually feel that Niese has been significantly worse than he was in 2015.

Even if you’re squinting to try to salvage some hope for Niese’s season, though, the fact remains that he’s allowed considerably more runs and been much more hittable than the Pirates were hoping when acquiring him in that December trade. And, with young arms like Tyler Glasnow, Jameson Taillon, Chad Kuhl and Steven Brault all working their way up to the point of making their MLB debuts, the club has a number of younger options to deploy in favor of Niese and his $9MM salary.

That salary figures to stand as an obstacle to trading Niese, though Pittsburgh could absorb a portion of the remaining $4.23MM on that 2016 income in order to facilitate a trade. The Bucs also hold club options over Niese that are respectively valued at $10MM and $11MM for the upcoming 2017 and 2018 seasons, but Nesbitt writes that the club is likelier to buy out his 2017 option for $500K than pick it up in hope for a 2017 rebound.

His 2016 struggles notwithstanding, Niese was a solid mid-rotation arm for the Mets for many years prior to the trade. From 2012-15, Niese averaged 174 innings of 3.65 ERA ball in Queens, thriving due to strong ground-ball tendencies and a solid, if unspectacular 511-to-197 K/BB ratio. If the Bucs are willing to eat some cash, a team in need of pitching could roll the dice on Niese in hopes of a rebound that would make his club options look like a reasonable price to pay. From a speculative standpoint, the Orioles and Royals make some sense, as both are in need of rotation innings and could stand to add an arm that is controllable beyond the current campaign.

Pirates To Promote Josh Bell

By Steve Adams | July 8, 2016 at 10:44am CDT

The Pirates will promote top first base prospect Josh Bell to the Majors to make his big league debut tonight, according to multiple reports (Logan Stout first tweeted word of Bell’s promotion).

[Related: Updated Pirates Depth Chart]

In Bell, the Pirates are promoting a player that ranks 38th on Baseball America’s just-updated Top 100 prospects list (published today). Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com currently have Bell rated as the game’s No. 43 prospect. A 23-year-old switch-hitter that was selected 61st overall in the 2011 draft, Bell has had a monster season at Triple-A Indianapolis, slashing .324/.407/.535 with 13 homers, 19 doubles and four triples in 359 plate appearances. BA notes that Bell’s defense at first base is somewhat questionable — he just transitioned to the position in 2015 after previously playing right field — but both BA and MLB.com write that he could be a difference-maker at the plate and has middle-of-the-order potential. The 2016 season marks the first in which Bell has truly tapped into the power potential that led the Bucs to give him an over-slot bonus of $5MM back in 2011 when he slipped out of the first round due to signability concerns.

Bell’s promotion could mean that incumbent first baseman John Jaso will move into a bench role. Jaso, inked to a two-year, $8MM contract as a free agent this offseason, has provided his typical brand of steady production against right-handed pitching, but he’s limited to a strict platoon and is more good than great against righties (.285/.362/.413 this season). As Bell’s excellent Triple-A production (which recently landed him on Jason Martinez’s “Knocking Down the Door” series) indicates, he carries significantly higher upside at the plate. And, with an OPS north of .900 against both lefties and righties in Triple-A this season, Bell could be a long-term option that doesn’t require a platoon partner.

Bell becomes the latest top prospect to join the Pirates’ ranks, as they’ve promoted Top 100 mainstays Jameson Taillon and Tyler Glasnow this year and also called up highly regarded organizational prospects such as Chad Kuhl and Steven Brault to make their big league debuts. Even if he’s in the Majors to stay, Bell will accrue just 86 days of big league service time in 2016, which would leave him well shy of eventually achieving Super Two designation. If this promotion to the big leagues proves to be permanent, the Bucs will control Bell through the 2022 season and he won’t be arbitration eligible until the completion of the 2019 campaign.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NL Central Notes: Bruce, Price, Phillips, Carpenter, Pena, Stewart

By Jeff Todd | July 6, 2016 at 8:55pm CDT

Among the clubs looking at Reds outfielder Jay Bruce are the Dodgers and Nationals, both of whom have been tied previously to the slugger, as Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports writes. (Rosenthal previously reported those connections here and here.) Neither of those organizations has a critical need for an outfielder, though it’s possible to imagine both looking to add some thump to their lineups. Of course, those are likely to face competition for the revived veteran from other quarters. Bruce holds the top spot in MLBTR’s top twenty trade candidates list as he continues to put up monster offensive numbers.

Here’s more from Cincinnati and the rest of the NL Central:

Reds manager Bryan Price isn’t at risk of dismissal, president of baseball operations Walt Jocketty tells Rosenthal. Price says that the removal of pitching coach Mark Riggins was done as part of an effort to add “a different perspective, different approach” to address the club’s pitching woes.
Rosenthal also notes that the Reds could conceivably look to give youngster Jose Peraza more time at second while reducing the role of veteran Brandon Phillips, who has struggled at the plate. Jocketty acknowledges that Peraza’s current super-utility role is “not the most ideal way to develop a guy,” but says “that’s what [the Reds] have” at present. Rosenthal wonders whether the organization could re-approach Phillips about waiving his no-trade clause, which he has been unwilling to do thus far, though Jocketty says the organization isn’t considering that at the moment. Generally, Jocketty says that trade chatter still isn’t “that active right now.”
Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter left tonight’s game with what has been diagnosed as an oblique strain, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was among those to report (Twitter links). He’s headed for an immediate assessment of the injury as the team seeks to get out ahead of things, and manager Mike Matheny says there’s a “high level of concern.” It’s obviously not possible to assess how much time he might miss at this point, let alone whether a DL stint will be required, but the manner in which the Cards are proceeding suggests some pessimism. St. Louis just lost Brandon Moss, so it’s not an optimal time for another position player to be dealing with an injury issue.
Meanwhile, Cardinals catcher Brayan Pena is headed to the DL with knee inflammation not long after being activated, as MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch reports on Twitter. 11-year minor-league veteran Alberto Rosario will get his first big league call to replace Pena as the backup receiver, but that’s probably not what St. Louis was hoping for. The team recently lost Eric Fryer on waivers while attempting to outright him to clear space for Pena.
Pirates reserve catcher Chris Stewart will attempt to play through knee soreness, head athletic trainer Todd Tomczyk told reporters including Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). An MRI showed “wear and tear” to the joint, which could ultimately require surgery, but it seems that Stewart will at least make an effort to avoid going under the knife.

Pirates To Promote Tyler Glasnow

By Steve Adams | July 6, 2016 at 9:25am CDT

9:25am: Glasnow will actually debut tomorrow against the Cardinals, Olney now tweets. Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tweets that Glasnow’s promotion was in part driven by uncertainty surrounding Niese’s left knee. Niese’s start has been pushed from Thursday to Sunday, and he’s being examined in Pittsburgh today.

8:39am: The Pirates will promote top prospect Tyler Glasnow to make a start this weekend against the Cubs, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney (via Twitter).

The 22-year-old Glasnow entered the season rated as a consensus top 15 prospect throughout the game and has worked to a 1.78 ERA through 96 innings at the Triple-A level this season. While he’s averaged 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings pitched in that time, he’s also averaged 4.9 walks per nine, so there are certainly some control issues that need to be further smoothed out. That high walk rate notwithstanding, Glasnow has yielded just 13 hits over his past 40 frames.

Entering the season, Baseball America rated Glasnow as the No. 14 prospect in baseball, writing that he featured a fastball that sits 94-96 mph but tops out at 99 mph and appears even faster than that to hitters due to his 6’8″ frame. Glasnow also offers a curve and a changeup, the former of which BA termed “unhittable when he has command of it.” MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis rated Glasnow as the No. 10 prospect and praised his clean delivery but noted that he struggles to consistently repeat it due to his size. ESPN’s Keith Law ranked him fourth on his midseason update of the game’s Top 25 prospects, calling him a future ace. Virtually any scouting report one can find on Glasnow agrees that his ceiling is that of a top-of-the-rotation starter, and the Pirates undoubtedly have visions of Glasnow and fellow top prospect Jameson Taillon joining current ace Gerrit Cole atop their rotation for the next several years in their perfect-world scenario.

Pittsburgh currently has Cole, Taillon and Ryan Vogelsong on the Major League disabled list, so the need for some rotation help is understandable. Those injuries, combined with struggles from veterans such as Francisco Liriano and Jon Niese, have led to season-long rotation problems. As such, the Bucs have had to dip into their farm system on multiple occasions to help patch things up; Pittsburgh received four good innings from left-hander Steven Brault in his big league debut yesterday and, and rookie right-hander Chad Kuhl has also made a pair of starts in the past week. The overall results for the starting staff haven’t been pretty, as Pirates starters rank 20th in the Majors with a 4.67 ERA and 21st with 464 innings thrown. Glasnow will become the 11th player to make a start for the team in 2016.

Innings don’t figure to be as significant of an issue with Glasnow as they are with Taillon, who didn’t pitch in 2014-15 due to injuries. However, Glasnow did total a fairly limited 109 1/3 innings last season between Double-A and Triple-A (an ankle injury cost him about a month of the season), and his career-high for innings pitched came back in 2014, when he totaled 143 2/3 frames between Class-A Advanced and the Arizona Fall League. As such, the Bucs will probably keep an eye on his workload moving forward.

Exactly how he factors into the rotation plans moving forward is yet unclear — this could be a spot start, or Glasnow could make regular starts with innings/pitch limits moving forward — but given the team’s injuries and the presence of Brault and Kuhl in the current rotation picture, it certainly seems possible that there’s a permanent spot to be won. If Glasnow is indeed in the Majors to stay, he’d be controllable through the 2022 season and would not be eligible for arbitration until after the 2019 season. He won’t sniff Super Two eligibility as it stands right now, as he’d finish the year with 87 days of Major League service time if he’s promoted on Friday and sticks through season’s end.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Police Investigating Sexual Assault Claim Against Jung Ho Kang

By Jeff Todd | July 5, 2016 at 4:40pm CDT

The Chicago police department is investigating an allegation of sexual assault against Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang, as Stacy St. Clair and David Henzmann of the Chicago Tribune report. The ballclub has issued a statement, signed to CEO Frank Coonelly, in which it declined comment but did acknowledge the investigation.

According to the report, the investigation relates to events that occurred during the Pirates’ trip to Chicago last month. Pittsburgh played a series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field from June 17th through 19th. You can find further details of the claims at the link provided above.

Kang, 29, has played with the Pirates since the start of 2015 after previously featuring as a star in his native Korea. He has been a high-quality player for Pittsburgh, though certainly on-field considerations are not of primary concern given the seriousness of the matter at hand.

The Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy governs the investigation and punishment of matters such as these, as well as many related issues. Commissioner Rob Manfred has the authority to place Kang on paid administrative leave for seven days while the league begins looking into the matter, though no such action has been taken to this point.

This news comes even as Jose Reyes returns today for the Mets after serving a lengthy suspension for a domestic violence incident. Major league baseball has doled out suspensions to two other players — Hector Olivera and Aroldis Chapman — under the above-noted policy, which was announced last August. So far as has been publicly reported, none of those situations involved allegations of sexual violence, but instead fell under the policy due to their domestic implications.

Pirates Designate Jacob Stallings

By Jeff Todd | July 5, 2016 at 3:15pm CDT

The Pirates have designated catcher Jacob Stallings for assignment, per a club announcement. His 40-man roster spot was needed for southpaw Steven Brault, who was called up to start today’s game.

[Related: Updated Pirates Depth Chart]

Originally selected in the seventh round of the 2012 draft out of the University of North Carolina, Stallings has steadily climbed through the Bucs’ system but has never hit much. He appeared briefly at the major league level for the first time this year, but has played mostly at Triple-A in 2016.

Stallings’s already borderline bat hasn’t improved thus far in 2016; far from it, in fact. Over his first 180 plate appearances at the highest level of the minors,the 26-year-old owns a meager .202/.239/.327 slash line.

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