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Pirates Agree To Overslot Deal With Third Round Pick Bubba Chandler

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The Pirates have agreed to sign third round draft choice Bubba Chandler to a $3MM contract, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). The deal is pending a physical. That shatters the $870.7K slot value associated with the #72 selection.

Of course, the main reason Chandler fell to 72nd overall was the high bonus required to dissuade him from a two-sport commitment (baseball and football) to Clemson University. Each of Baseball America, Keith Law of the Athletic, and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN slotted Chandler among the top 25 prospects in their pre-draft rankings. That suggests he was generally seen as a mid-late first round talent, and his bonus is commensurate with that status.

A two-way player during his Georgia high school career, Chandler is expected to focus on pitching full-time in pro ball. The righty draws praise for his athleticism, mid-90’s fastball and promising curveball, with McDaniel suggesting he has mid-rotation upside.

The Pirates’ ability to get overslot deals done with Chandler and Anthony Solometo (along with potential significant agreements for still-unsigned Lonnie White Jr. and Owen Kellington) reflects Pittsburgh’s overarching draft strategy. The Pirates cut an underslot agreement with first overall pick Henry Davis, allowing them to leverage their league-high bonus pool into likely agreements with a handful of well-regarded prep prospects on the draft’s second day.

Pirates Sign Anthony Solometo

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9:51am: MLB.com’s Jim Callis tweets that Solometo’s bonus is $2.8MM, so he took home a bit more than $800K over slot.

9:44am: The Pirates announced this morning that they’ve signed left-hander Anthony Solometo, who was their second-round pick in the 2021 amateur draft. The team unsurprisingly didn’t include bonus details, but Solometo’s No. 37 slot comes with a $1.999MM value.

Solometo, 18, was ranked as one of the top high school arms in this year’s draft but slipped to the second round. As such, signing Solometo away from his commitment to North Carolina may require the Bucs to go over that $2MM slot value. They’ll have the resources to do just that after top pick Henry Davis’ signing bonus checked in roughly $1.9MM under slot, however.

Heading into the draft Solometo was ranked 17th on MLB.com’s list of draft prospects, 20th at The Athletic, 28th at Baseball America, 34th at FanGraphs and 35th at ESPN. He earns praise for a fastball that’s reached 94-95 mph — though it currently sits lower than that — and a slider that grades out as a potential plus offering as well. MLB.com and FanGraphs note that Solometo’s delivery draws comparisons to that of Madison Bumgarner.

Solometo was the second of four highly touted players the Pirates secured at the top of their draft class. While Davis was at least a moderate surprise with the top overall pick — he was expected to go somewhere in the top five or so picks regardless — that selection might’ve helped the Bucs save enough to go over slot on their next three picks. Each of Solometo, Lonnie White Jr. and Bubba Chandler were high school players with first- or second-round potential, and Pittsburgh has drawn a good bit of praise for maneuvering to land that trio and Davis with the team’s top four selections.

Pirates Acquire Dillon Peters, Designate Kyle Crick

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The Pirates have acquired left-hander Dillon Peters from the Angels in exchange for cash considerations, both clubs announced. The Angels designated Peters for assignment last week after signing outfielder Adam Eaton to a major league contract. To open roster space for Peters, Pittsburgh has designated reliever Kyle Crick for assignment.

Peters appeared in the majors each season from 2017-20, with the bulk of his experience coming in 2019. Altogether, he’s tossed 132 2/3 innings of 5.83 ERA/5.22 SIERA ball across 31 MLB appearances (including 24 starts). To date, Peters has struggled to miss bats at the big league level, striking out a below-average 16.7% of batters faced and generating swinging strikes on only 8.7% of his offerings (11.4% league average).

However, Peters has shown much better strikeout and walk numbers this season at Triple-A. Through 41 1/3 frames with the Angels’ top affiliate in Salt Lake, the 28-year-old has punched out a strong 26.8% of hitters while walking just 7.3% of opponents. Peters has been plagued by the home run ball this year (2.61 HR/9), but that’s also likely influenced by the extreme hitter-friendly environment of Triple-A West. Clearly, the Pirates’ front office was sufficiently intrigued by Peters’ improved minor league peripherals to take a low-cost flyer on him. He’s in his final option year, meaning he can move freely between Pittsburgh and Triple-A Indianapolis for the rest of the season if he sticks on the 40-man roster.

It has been a difficult 2021 season for Crick, who has intermittently flashed high-leverage potential. A one-time top pitching prospect coming up through the Giants’ system, the righty moved to the bullpen in 2017. He made his big league debut with San Francisco that year, tossing 32 1/3 innings of 3.06 ERA ball. That offseason, the Giants shipped him to Pittsburgh alongside Bryan Reynolds in a now-regrettable deal to acquire Andrew McCutchen.

Crick pitched well in his debut campaign with Pittsburgh, working 60 1/3 relief innings with a 2.39 ERA and a 3.57 SIERA. He’s not consistently managed to follow up on that success, though, as his control has gone backwards in recent years. Crick struggled in 2019, then missed much of the abbreviated 2020 season dealing with shoulder and lat injuries.

This year, Crick has made 27 appearances totaling 24 1/3 innings. He’s tallied a 4.44 ERA with worse than average strikeout (19.6%), walk (17.8%) and groundball (36.7%) rates. Crick’s velocity on both his fastball and slider is down 2-3 miles per hour relative to his heyday, and he’s seen an accompanying dip in swinging strike rate.

The Pirates will have a week to trade Crick or expose him to waivers. As a player with between three and five years of major league service, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment if he passes through waivers unclaimed. Doing so, however, would mean forfeiting what remains of his $800K salary. If another club acquires Crick via small trade or waivers (or if he remains in the Pittsburgh organization but pitches his way back onto the 40-man roster before the end of the year), he’d be controllable via arbitration through 2023.

Pirates Sign First Overall Pick Henry Davis

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The Pirates announced this morning they’ve come to an agreement with first overall draft pick  Henry Davis. Davis will receive a $6.5MM signing bonus, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link).

The #1 overall pick came with an accompanying slot value of $8.4153MM, so Davis’ bonus lands a little less than $2MM under slot. Pittsburgh was surely aware of his willingness to sign for less than slot value before selecting him, with his bonus demands playing a role in their eventual choice.

The Pirates’ collection of picks came with a cumulative bonus pool of $14.394MM, the largest amount in this year’s class. Teams are permitted to exceed their bonus pool by up to five percent without forfeiting future draft choices, giving Pittsburgh around $15.11MM to allot to their draftees among the top ten rounds. With Davis signed, the Pirates still have around $8.61MM to spend on their crop of Day Two selections.

Davis, a 21-year-old catcher out of Louisville, catapulted himself into the mix for the No. 1 overall selection with a massive junior season. The Bedford, N.Y. native raked at a .370/.482/.663 clip and clubbed 15 home runs to go along with nine doubles — all while walking (31 times) more than he struck out (24).

Davis wasn’t the consensus or even the expected top pick in the draft, although the majority of pre-draft rankings listed him as a Top 5 overall talent. He ranked No. 2 at FanGraphs and at The Athletic; No. 4 at Baseball America and ESPN; and No. 5 at MLB.com, for instance. The Pirates’ decision to opt for Davis saved them a little bit of money with respect to the top overall draft slot, but any savings figure to be reallocated to an impressive crop of top-ranked talent they managed to secure at draft slots further down the board.

As Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper highlights, the Pirates’ first four selections — the fourth of which came at No. 72 overall — were all regarded as first-round talents in BA’s rankings. Left-hander Anthony Solometo, outfielder Lonnie White Jr. and right-hander/shortstop Bubba Chandler all ranked within BA’s top 32 players. Not every outlet was quite as bullish on that trio, but all were considered Top 75 talents; Chandler, in particular, was highly regarded. Specific rankings aside, it’s an impressive crop of talent to carry away from a single draft.

The Bucs will need to sign all four, of course, in order for that impressive group to pay dividends, but it appears they have a decent chance at doing so. Chandler, who was Clemson recruit as a quarterback, already told ESPN’s Tom VanHaaren this week that he intends to sign with the Pirates (Twitter link). Pittsburgh likely also saved some money with their picks in the fifth, sixth and ninth rounds by drafting college seniors, who frequently sign well below slot.

The selection of Davis immediately adds one of the game’s most highly regarded catching prospects to a Pirates system that second-year GM Ben Cherington and his front office are rapidly working to rebuild. Davis is lauded for his blend of hit tool, excellent power and plus or plus-plus arm strength. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen calls him a “rare offensive talent for a backstop.” Both Longenhagen and The Athletic’s Keith Law acknowledge some elements of his defensive game that need polish, but Law opines Davis will “outwork everyone to become an above-average defender.” ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel calls him the draft’s “best college hitter by a good margin,” and virtually every report on Davis notes that he has more than enough bat to make it work at another position even if he doesn’t stick behind the dish.

Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was first to report the sides had reached an agreement.

KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes Acquire Will Craig

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The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization have acquired first baseman Will Craig (hat tip to reporters Sung Min Kim and The Yonhap News’ Jeeho Yoo).  Craig will earn $371K for the remainder of the KBO season according to Yoo, while MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports a $425K salary.

Craig was most recently a member of the Pirates, and GM Ben Cherington said over the weekend that Craig had been given permission to look into opportunities with Asian teams.  Pittsburgh has designated Craig for assignment and outrighted him off its 40-man roster twice, with the most recent outright assignment coming last month.

Craig has spent his entire professional career with the Pirates, beginning after the Bucs selected him with the 22nd overall pick of the 2016 draft.  He has a .261/.351/.421 slash line over 2060 career plate appearances in the minor leagues, mostly playing first baseman but also getting some as a third baseman and right fielder.  After being selected for Pittsburgh’s alternate training site in 2020, Craig made his MLB debut with two games last season, and then appeared in 18 games for the Pirates this year.

In 69 PA in the majors, Craig has hit .203/.261/.281 with one home run (in his first game of the 2021 season).  Unfortunately for Craig, his most famous moment as a big leaguer was a uniquely memorable fielding error against the Cubs this season, when he engaged in a rundown with batter Javier Baez between first base and home plate rather than just step on first base to retire Baez on a routine grounder.

As noted by Kim, Craig will replace David Freitas as the foreign-born position player on the Heroes roster.  Freitas was placed on waivers by the Seoul-based team last month.

Pirates Select Henry Davis With First Overall Pick Of 2021 Draft

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The Pirates have taken Louisville catcher Henry Davis with the first overall pick of the 2021 draft.  The 21-year-old Davis joins Jeff King (1986), Kris Benson (1996), Bryan Bullington (2002) and Gerrit Cole (2011) as players drafted by the Pirates with the first overall selection, and Davis is the first Louisville player to be taken 1-1.

The pick ends weeks of speculation about Pittsburgh’s intentions with the top pick, and Davis’ selection counts as a bit of a surprise considering that high school shortstop Marcelo Mayer was seen as the favorite.  However, Davis was also mentioned as a candidate on the Bucs’ radar, and in recent days, there seemed to be an increasing possibility that the Pirates might opt for Davis or one of two other well-regarded high school shortstops in Jordan Lawlar and Kahlil Watson.  This is Pittsburgh’s second draft under general manager Ben Cherington, and the team also went with a college player early last year, taking New Mexico State shortstop Nick Gonzales with the seventh overall pick.

Henry DavisConsidering Davis’ pedigree, the Pirates aren’t exactly reaching by taking the backstop with the 1-1 selection.  However, since multiple reports have indicated the Pirates plan to spread out their bonus pool money, it’s fair to assume their choice of Davis may be tied to a willingness on his part to agree to a bonus south of the $8,415,300 assigned slot value for the first overall pick.  Any money saved in signing Davis will allow Pittsburgh to allocate more of its $14,394,000 draft bonus pool to its other picks within the first 10 rounds, theoretically allowing the Pirates to select and then sign any blue chip talents that may have fallen down the draft board due to signability concerns.

Fangraphs and The Athletic’s Keith Law each ranked Davis as the second-best overall prospect of this year’s draft class, behind Mayer.  Baseball America and ESPN.com’s Kiley McDaniel each had Davis fourth in their rankings, while MLB Pipeline ranked him fifth.  Whether Davis will stick as a catcher is a matter of some debate, as his blocking and receiving still needs some polish, but both McDaniel and Fangraphs note that Davis’ issues with framing won’t be an issue if and when Major League Baseball implements a robotic strike zone.  Additionally, Davis has a very powerful throwing arm, with BA and Pipeline each giving him a 70-grade arm on the 20-80 scouting scale.  (McDaniel even goes so far as to call it a “70-or-80-grade arm.”)

It’s possible Davis will eventually have to move to a corner infield or corner outfield slot.  No matter his position, however, Davis’ bat will seem to play anywhere — Fangraphs even called him “arguably the safest prospect in the draft because he plays a premium position, has impact raw power, and has no contact red flags.”  Perhaps the most highly-regarded college bat of the draft class, Davis has something of an unusual swing, but also (as per Baseball America) “standout zone recognition, pure bat-to-ball skills and plus power to his pull side to make everything work.”

MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis was the first to report that the Pirates were drafting Davis.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Pirates Recall Max Kranick As 27th Man

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  • The Pirates, meanwhile, have recalled Max Kranick to be the 27th man for today’s doubleheader against the Mets, the team announced. He will start the second game of the twin bill. The Scranton native will put his perfect record on the line. Kranick threw five perfect innings in his Major League debut against the Cardinals on June 27th. Kranick needed just 50 pitches to retire all 15 batters he faces, striking out three and getting the win.

Mets Claim Geoff Hartlieb

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The Mets have claimed right-hander Geoff Hartlieb off waivers from the Pirates, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (via Twitter). Pittsburgh designated the 27-year-old for assignment last weekend.

Hartlieb has spent parts of the past three seasons with the Pirates, totaling 62 innings with an unsightly 6.97 ERA. He’s fanned a below-average 20.7 percent of his opponents against a bloated 14.2 percent walk rate, though his 51.4 percent ground-ball rate is comfortably above-average. The 6’5″ righty relies primarily on a sinker that sits in the 94-95 mph range and a slider that clocks in around 84-85 mph.

While Hartlieb hasn’t had much success in the Majors to this point, he has an outstanding minor league track record. The former 29th-round pick has a 2.82 ERA in parts of six minor league seasons, including a 2.37 mark in 49 1/3 innings of Triple-A ball. He’s also whiffed 31.3 percent of his Triple-A opponents with a much better 9.4 percent walk rate and a massive 64.3 percent grounder rate.

Hartlieb was a starter in his college days at the Division-II Lindenwood University, but he’s worked exclusively as a reliever in pro ball. He has a minor league option remaining beyond the 2021 season, so he gives the Mets some flexibility in the ’pen beyond the current campaign as long as he sticks on the 40-man roster.

Pirates Sign Dee Strange-Gordon To Minors Deal

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The Pirates have signed infielder Dee Strange-Gordon to a minor league contract, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link).  Strange-Gordon will report to Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate.

As Passan notes, Strange-Gordon has made it almost a full circuit around the NL Central within the last five months, after previously being released from minor league deals with the Reds and Brewers, and then he opted out of a minors contract with the Cubs just yesterday.  All of this movement hasn’t resulted in any MLB playing time for Strange-Gordon, though a more clear path back to the majors might exist in the Steel City.

The Pirates have seen their infield depth considerably thinned within the last week, with Colin Moran, Erik Gonzalez, and Phillip Evans all placed on the 10-day injured list.  Gregory Polanco’s own IL stint (due to a bilateral adductor strain) has further subtracted from the position player mix, and Strange-Gordon did accumulate some outfield experience in his three seasons with the Mariners.  While the rebuilding Pirates are more prone to take a look at younger players than a veteran like Strange-Gordon, he can at least provide some depth in the event of any more injuries, or perhaps if any Pittsburgh players are moved prior to the July 30 trade deadline.

While it has been some time since Strange-Gordon was even a league-average hitter, he does offer some multi-positional versatility as a shortstop, second baseman, and outfielder.  Even as his batting declined over three seasons with Seattle, Strange-Gordon was still a threat on the basepaths, going 22-for-27 in stolen base attempts as recently as 2019.

Pirates Sign Tanner Anderson

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The Pirates have signed right-hander Tanner Anderson to a minor league deal, according to an announcement from their Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis. The 28-year-old was recently released by the Athletics.

Anderson will be returning to his original organization, as his professional career began when Pittsburgh selected him out of Harvard in the 20th round of the 2015 draft. He performed well and moved quickly through the minor leagues, reaching the majors in July 2018. Anderson made six relief appearances for the Bucs that season, allowing ten runs over 11 1/3 innings. Pittsburgh traded Anderson to Oakland over the 2018-19 offseason. He made five starts for the A’s in 2019, tossing 22 1/3 frames of 6.04 ERA/4.68 SIERA ball. The A’s passed Anderson through outright waivers after that season.

He’d spent 2021 with the A’s Triple-A affiliate in Las Vegas, where he moved back to relief. Anderson tossed fifteen innings over twelve appearances, allowing only six runs but walking twelve while striking out just three hitters. He’s yet to find much success at the big league level, but Anderson has a history of throwing strikes and racking up tons of grounders in the minors.

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