Yasmani Grandal

Yasmani Grandal Steps Away From Red Sox

By Anthony Franco | June 4, 2025 at 9:38pm CDT

Yasmani Grandal informed the Red Sox’s Triple-A team that he is stepping away from his minor league deal. Grandal did not officially announce his retirement, but it appears he’s leaning that way.

“At the moment, it looks like he’s probably going to walk away and potentially hang them up,” Triple-A manager Chad Tracy told MassLive’s Katie Morrison-O’Day on Tuesday. “We talked (Monday), and I knew he was going to pack up and go…his response was ‘it’s time to be dad.’” The Sox technically placed him on the restricted list, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Francys Romero confirms that Grandal does not intend to return to the Boston organization.

Grandal signed a minor league deal with the Sox in mid-April. He bypassed a contractual opt-out on May 1 and ultimately appeared in 23 games for Worcester. While he posted a decent .256/.372/.397 batting line, the Sox have a more locked-in catching duo than they did at the time he signed. Connor Wong had just broken his finger. Carlos Narváez was playing in front of Blake Sabol. Wong returned on May 2, while Narváez has impressed enough to take over as the primary catcher. Sabol was recently designated for assignment, so Grandal would probably have been the first one up in the event of an injury, but that was his only real path to the big leagues.

If this is the end of his playing days, he’ll walk away as one of the more productive catchers of his generation. Grandal was a two-time All-Star who twice received down-ballot MVP votes. He has spent parts of 13 seasons in the big leagues. A first-round pick by the Reds in 2010, he was dealt to San Diego as a prospect in a blockbuster deal for Mat Latos. Grandal played parts of three seasons with the Padres before he was packaged in another significant trade, moving to the Dodgers alongside then-prospect Zach Eflin for Matt Kemp.

Grandal arguably did his best work in a Dodger uniform. He hit .238/.337/.453 while grading as an elite pitch framer over four seasons. He played one All-Star season with the Brewers before joining the White Sox on a four-year, $73MM free agent deal. The contract didn’t end well, but he posted a career-best .420 on-base percentage over 93 games in 2021. His most recent (and potentially final) MLB work came with the Pirates last season, when he hit .228/.304/.400 across 72 contests as the veteran in a catching group that also included Joey Bart and Henry Davis.

Yasmani Grandal Not Planning To Use Opt-Out In Red Sox Deal

By Steve Adams | May 1, 2025 at 1:16pm CDT

Veteran catcher Yasmani Grandal has a May 1 opt-out in his minor league contract with the Red Sox. He’ll pass on that chance to return to the open market and remain in the organization despite not being selected to the big league roster today, per MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. He’ll remain in Triple-A as a depth option for Boston, at least for the time being.

Grandal is out to a nice start in his brief time with the organization. Signed to a minor league pact back on April 10, the 36-year-old has appeared in seven games and gone 6-for-24 with three doubles and a homer in 29 plate appearances. That’s a .250/.379/.500 batting line, which could put him in line for a big league look sooner than later, even if he won’t be called up immediately. Cotillo adds that the Red Sox are expected to be amenable to granting Grandal his release if a big league opportunity presents itself elsewhere.

The switch-hitting Grandal has been a consistent presence in the big leagues dating back to his 2012 debut. He spent the 2024 campaign with the Pirates — his fifth MLB club — and enjoyed a nice season in a part-time role. Appearing in 72 games and tallying 243 plate appearances, Grandal slashed .228/.304/.400 with nine home runs, a 9.9% walk rate, an 18.9% strikeout rate and his customary brand of framing-focused defense behind the plate. He only thwarted six of 72 stolen base attempts against him (8.3%), but he was excellent at manipulating the strike zone and drew positive grades for his ability to block balls in the dirt.

The Red Sox lost starting catcher Connor Wong to a broken finger early in April. That left them with the inexperienced tandem of Carlos Narvaez and Blake Sabol behind the plate. Seby Zavala, their most experienced option in Triple-A prior to signing Grandal, hit the minor league injured list with an oblique strain in mid-April as well. The subsequent results behind the plate have not been pretty. Narvaez is hitting .218/.274/.385 (81 wRC+) in 84 plate appearances. Sabol is hitting .125/.167/.188, albeit in only 18 plate appearances.

Sabol has been used as a true backup to Narvaez, in part because of concerns regarding his glovework. He’s just 1-for-21 in throwing out runners in the majors dating back to 2024 (1-for-11 this season). Narvaez opened the year with similar struggles, but he’s quieted some of the throwing concerns by following up a 1-for-8 start to catch four of the past nine runners who’ve taken off against him.

With or without Grandal, the Sox should have help on the horizon. Wong began a minor league rehab assignment in Triple-A on Sunday and has now appeared in two games. He’ll presumably need several more before he’s cleared to return, but it seems as though he might only end up missing around a month (or perhaps a slight bit more) in total with the injury.

The 28-year-old Wong slogged through an ugly start to the season, hitting just .087/.192/.087 in 26 plate appearances (2-for-23), but he hit .280/.333/.425 as Boston’s primary catcher in 2024. That’s the only season of Wong’s young career in which he’s delivered above-average offense — or even just average offense — over any meaningful sample. He’ll need to prove that wasn’t a fluke, but he’s the best option for the Red Sox for the foreseeable future. If Wong can’t get back to something close to that 2024 form, it’s easy to envision the Red Sox seeking catching help at this summer’s trade deadline. After trading Kyle Teel in the offseason Garrett Crochet blockbuster, Johanfran Garcia is the only catcher among Boston’s top 30 prospects at Baseball America or MLB.com. He’s 20 years old and has yet to play above A-ball.

Red Sox, Yasmani Grandal Agree To Minor League Deal

By Darragh McDonald | April 10, 2025 at 9:33pm CDT

9:33pm: Grandal’s deal has a May 1 opt-out clause if he’s not added to the MLB roster and would come with a $1.35MM base salary if he earns a call-up, Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports.

5:15pm: The Red Sox and catcher Yasmani Grandal have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The Wasserman client will presumably need some ramp-up time after missing Spring Training but could be an option for the Sox in a few weeks.

The move is likely a reflection of the thinning catching depth in Boston. Connor Wong was the club’s primary backstop to start the year but he recently suffered a broken finger on a catcher’s interference play, putting him on the 10-day injured list. The club previously had one of the top catching prospects in the sport but traded Kyle Teel to the White Sox as part of the Garrett Crochet deal.

The Wong injury has moved Carlos Narváez from the backup spot to the top of the depth chart. He has just 14 games of major league experience. Blake Sabol has been recalled to serve in the backup role, though he’s more of a utility guy who can catch in a pinch, with fairly suspect defensive abilities. They have one experienced non-roster option, as Seby Zavala is with Triple-A Worcester on a minor league deal, but he has a career line of .205/.271/.342 and is out to a .136/.136/.182 start with the WooSox.

Given those circumstances, adding a veteran is a fairly straightforward move, especially one with Grandal’s track record. He debuted back in 2012 and emerged as one of the best catchers in the league about a decade ago.

He is a few years removed from his prime now but had a solid season with the Pirates last year. He got into 72 games for the Bucs and stepped to the plate 243 times. His 9.9% walk rate and 18.9% strikeout rate were both better than league average and he also launched nine home runs. His .228/.304/.400 line led to a 95 wRC+. That indicates he was 5% worse than league average independent of position, but catchers are usually about 10% worse than par.

He’s always been considered a strong defender and still got good marks last year, especially in terms of framing. Grandal finished eighth on both the FanGraphs and Statcast framing leaderboards last year despite playing way less than most of the guys ahead of him. Thanks to his decent offense and strong glovework, FanGraphs considered him to be worth 2.0 wins above replacement on the year, even though he only played about half of it.

Despite that strong showing, he didn’t find much interest in free agency. He reportedly turned down an offer from Atlanta at one point and remained on the market until agreeing to this deal. He’s naturally a few weeks behind everyone else and will need to get in game shape. The Sox could send him to extended Spring Training or just throw him to one of their minor league affiliates to get playing time that way.

If he’s in game shape before Wong, he might be the club’s best option to take the lion’s share of playing time behind the plate. Even if Wong gets back while Grandal is still gearing up, Narváez has options and could be sent down if the club wants to go with a Wong/Grandal pairing. There’s no real harm on a minor league deal, especially in a clearly weak area for the club. Grandal is a bit more than just a warm body since he has years of experience and just had a decent enough performance last year.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images

Yasmani Grandal Reportedly Turned Down Offer From Braves “About A Month Ago”

By Leo Morgenstern | March 10, 2025 at 6:54pm CDT

According to reporter Francys Romero, the Braves made an offer to free agent catcher Yasmani Grandal “about a month ago.” Needless to say, Grandal, who remains unsigned, turned down the proposed deal. The terms of Atlanta’s offer were not included in Romero’s report.

Grandal, 36, is the top catcher remaining on the free agent market. Depending on how teams view James McCann and Yan Gomes, Grandal is arguably the only unsigned catcher capable of filling more than a backup role. During his best years, he was widely considered one of the top catchers in the sport. His performance dropped off significantly in 2022 and ’23, but he rebounded with the Pirates in 2024. His offensive numbers were slightly above average for a catcher in nearly every category, while his top-notch pitch framing numbers made him a valuable defender behind the dish. He finished the season with 1.4 FanGraphs WAR in 72 games played.

Up until recently, one might have thought the Braves were set at catcher. Sean Murphy is entering the third year of his six-year, $73MM contract extension, and the Braves surely want him to play as much as possible. While he had a down year in 2024, he is only one year removed from an All-Star season in 2023. In addition, the consensus top prospect in Atlanta’s system is catcher Drake Baldwin. Soon to be 24, Baldwin excelled at Triple-A last year and has continued to excel this spring. He looks ready to make his MLB debut. It’s hard to imagine how Grandal would have fit into the mix.

However, things changed last week when the Braves announced that Murphy would miss four to six weeks with a cracked rib cage. That makes Baldwin the likely Opening Day starter. All of a sudden, the youngster is facing far more pressure to succeed right away. Thus, if the Braves had any interest in Grandal last month, one would think that interest would only be greater now that Murphy is set to miss extended time. Indeed, Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported a few days ago that the Braves were “considering” Grandal and McCann.

From Grandal’s perspective, signing with the Braves might now seem more appealing than it did last month. He would have a clear path to regular playing time (or at least a split role with Baldwin) while Murphy is on the shelf. That might only be for a couple of weeks, but even so, it would give Grandal a chance to prove he still deserves a major league opportunity, whether in Atlanta or somewhere else. The Braves are the only team known to have expressed interest in Grandal this winter, but perhaps another club could look to acquire him if he gets a big league gig and plays well.

Romero notes that Grandal is hoping to continue his playing career, though he could consider retirement if the right deal doesn’t come together. The 36-year-old has enjoyed a highly successful 13-year tenure in Major League Baseball with the Padres, Dodgers, Brewers, White Sox, and Pirates. At his peak, he was a well-above-average offensive catcher, putting up an .807 OPS and a 121 wRC+ over his first 10 seasons. However, his most valuable tool has always been his glove. In particular, Grandal is widely considered one of the most talented pitch framers of his generation. According to FanGraphs, he has racked up 152.0 framing runs throughout his career, easily the most among active catchers. Austin Hedges ranks second with 89.3. If Grandal chooses to hang up his catching gear, he will certainly have a strong career to look back on.

Braves Considering Free Agent Catchers

By Anthony Franco | March 6, 2025 at 9:30pm CDT

The Braves will open the season without their starting catcher. Sean Murphy will be down four to six weeks after breaking a rib when he was hit by a Will Kempner pitch last week. Murphy and Chadwick Tromp are the only catchers on the 40-man roster. Atlanta will need to make some kind of move by Opening Day.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports that the Braves are giving some thought to adding Yasmani Grandal or James McCann. They’re the top two unsigned veteran catchers. Neither player would land more than a couple million dollars on a one-year contract. The Braves would need to decide whether it’s worth rostering a veteran if Murphy only misses the first few weeks of the regular season. Tromp is out of options, so they’d probably wind up cutting a catcher once Murphy returns.

The Braves also have a high-upside alternative. Drake Baldwin is one of the top handful of catching prospects in the sport. The former third-round draftee hit .276/.370/.423 with 16 homers between Double-A and Triple-A a year ago. Baldwin spent more than half the season at Triple-A Gwinnett, where he appeared in 72 games. He’ll turn 24 just after Opening Day. Baldwin should play in the majors at some point this year. He could break camp as the starter, which would keep Tromp in the backup role.

Atlanta would need to add Baldwin to their 40-man roster, but they could open a spot by placing Joe Jiménez on the 60-day injured list at any time. An outside acquisition would need to go on the 40-man anyways, so that’s unlikely to be much of a deterrent. Baldwin could get his first look at major league pitching and head back to Gwinnett for regular playing time once Murphy gets healthy.

McCann or Grandal would be less exciting, if arguably steadier, alternatives. They’re both mid-30s veterans who have plenty of experience working with big league pitching staffs. McCann has spent the last two seasons as Adley Rutschman’s backup in Baltimore. He hit .228/.274/.382 during his stint with the Orioles. McCann grades as a below-average pitch framer but has a strong reputation for his work with pitchers. He threw out a slightly above-average 23.5% of base stealers and wasn’t charged with a passed ball in 559 2/3 innings last season.

The switch-hitting Grandal appeared in 72 games for the Pirates. He hit .228/.304/.400 across 243 trips to the plate. That was his best offensive showing since a 23-homer campaign with the White Sox in 2021. Grandal continues to post excellent pitch framing grades, as he has throughout his career. He was charged with five passed balls across 560 1/3 frames, though, and he only managed to nab six of 72 opposing basestealers (an 8.3% rate). Grandal had the slowest pop time — average time to throw to second on steal attempts — among 83 qualified catchers, per Statcast.

Free Agent Profile: Yasmani Grandal

By Darragh McDonald | January 10, 2025 at 5:01pm CDT

This winter’s free agent market has been hot in some ways but there are still plenty of intriguing names out there for most positions. One area that moved fairly quickly was the catching market, with many of the top names off the board.

It wasn’t an amazing class to begin with but the top free agent backstops this winter were Danny Jansen, Carson Kelly and Kyle Higashioka. All three of them signed about a month ago. Gary Sánchez, Travis d’Arnaud, Jacob Stallings and Austin Hedges have also been locked up.

For teams still looking for help behind the plate, their options are now more limited. Former All-Star Game MVP Elias Díaz is still out there, though he’s coming off a season in which his struggles were pronounced enough that he was released by the Rockies, finishing out the year as Higashioka’s backup in San Diego. Christian Bethancourt had some good results with the Cubs last year but was nonetheless outrighted, perhaps due to how inconsistent he’s been in recent years. James McCann has had passable offense at times but his work behind the plate hasn’t been well regarded.

One intriguing guy still available is Yasmani Grandal. His numbers were rough in 2022 and 2023 but there are some ways in which last year was a bounceback. The Pirates gave a lot of time behind the plate to Joey Bart, who engineered a nice breakout season, as well as former top overall pick Henry Davis. But Grandal was somewhat quietly in the mix next to those guys and managed to get into 72 games and step to the plate 243 times, as well as crouching behind the dish for 560 1/3 innings.

Offensively, he had a cromulent performance. His 18.9% strikeout rate was his best apart from his part-time work over a decade ago, before he was established as a big leaguer. His 9.9% walk rate was a bit below some of his previous work but still above league average. He also popped nine home runs in that limited role. His .228/.304/.400 batting line translated to a 95 wRC+, below average overall but above par for a catcher.

Grandal has been a solid defender in his career, particularly in the framing department, and that continued last year. Among guys with at least 550 innings caught in 2024, Grandal ranked seventh on the FanGraphs leaderboard for framing. The six guys ahead of him on that list each had more than 700 innings behind the plate. Patrick Bailey was the only backstop significantly ahead of the pack on a rate basis. Statcast had Grandal 11th on their framing leaderboard. Of the 10 guys ahead of him, only Hedges caught fewer pitches than Grandal.

The strong framing contributed to a solid overall defensive profile. When combined with a decent year at the plate, he actually provided some sneaky value, depending on which measure of wins above replacement you trust most. Baseball Reference only gave him 0.6 WAR on the year but FanGraphs had him at 1.4 and Baseball Prospectus at 1.8. That’s likely due to those outlets having different weights for catcher defense or framing specifically.

Grandal hasn’t gotten any attention this offseason. He hasn’t been tagged at MLBTR since early May, when he was activated from the injured list, having started the season on the IL due to plantar fasciitis in his left foot.

He isn’t going to help sell season tickets, but for clubs who still want upgrades behind the plate, perhaps he’s the best bet. He isn’t likely to cost much either. He only got $2.5MM plus incentives from the Bucs a year ago. Perhaps his solid season can get him a bump, but he’s also now 36 years old and still unsigned, which doesn’t give him a lot of negotiating leverage. Even if he does earn a raise, it surely won’t be massive.

Going back to Pittsburgh is probably not an option. Bart surely earned himself some run after his strong season, while the club still has Davis. There’s also Endy Rodríguez, who seemed to be emerging as the club’s catcher of the future in 2023, but then spent 2024 recovering from surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament and flexor tendon in his throwing arm. Jason Delay is on the 40-man roster as well.

Teams like the Red Sox, Nationals, Padres, Phillies, Atlanta, Blue Jays, Mariners and others could arguably do with improving their catching depth. Some of those clubs have strong starting options but most clubs avoid leaning on one catcher too much these days. Cal Raleigh led the league with 125 starts last year, meaning every team had a backup/secondary catcher in the starting lineup at least 37 times, often far more.

There’s obviously some risk with signing a 36-year-old catcher but he arguably has a decent floor, depending on how one values his framing. While he struggled offensively in 2022 and 2023, BR considered him to be well below replacement level, but FG had him just barely below, while BP gave him 2.3 WAR for that two-year period.

Pirates Option Henry Davis

By Darragh McDonald | May 3, 2024 at 3:23pm CDT

The Pirates announced today that catcher Yasmani Grandal was reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Fellow backstop Henry Davis was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis in a corresponding move. Alex Stumpf of MLB.com reported that Grandal was at the ballpark prior to the official announcement.

Davis, 24, was the first overall pick in the 2021 draft and was considered one of the top prospects in the league on his way up through the minors. He was able to make his major league debut last year but the club’s other notable catching prospect, Endy Rodríguez, handled the bulk of the work behind the plate. Davis mostly played right field and hit .213/.302/.351 in his first taste of the majors.

That wasn’t especially impressive production but it’s not uncommon for prospects to scuffle when first promoted to the big leagues and didn’t necessarily warrant concern, but it did raise questions about how the club would proceed. Rodríguez didn’t hit much in his debut either but the Pirates seemed to prefer him behind the plate, based on the way they handled the playing time last year.

Rodríguez required UCL surgery in December, which put him out of action for the entire 2024 season. That was obviously bad news for the Bucs but it did at least open a window for them to experiment with Davis behind the plate at the major league level for an extended stretch of time.

The results haven’t been especially encouraging thus far. Davis has a grade of -3 from Defensive Runs Saved so far on the season. Each of Statcast, FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus rank him as a subpar pitch framer so far this year.

But the larger problem is that his poor offense has gotten even worse from last year. He has drawn walks in 13.3% of his plate appearances but has also been struck out at a huge 34.9% rate. He currently sports a batting line of .162/.280/.206 for a wRC+ of 48. His average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard hit rate are all in the 37th percentile or lower among qualified hitters.

The Bucs had signed Grandal to serve as a veteran complement to Davis this year but he had to begin the season on the IL due to left foot plantar fasciitis. Jason Delay was on the roster with Davis to start the year but the Bucs acquired Joey Bart from the Giants as Delay was placed on the injured list and later required knee surgery.

While Davis has struggled, Bart has been flourishing. His 28.2% strikeout rate is on the high side but he’s drawn walks at a 17.9% clip and hit three home runs already. His .219/.359/.531 slash line translates to a 151 wRC+. That’s a small sample size of 39 plate appearances, but since he’s out of options and Davis is struggling, it makes sense to keep him around and see what happens.

For now, Davis will head down to the minors to try to get in a better groove as Bart and Grandal share the big league catching duties. In the long run, the Pirates will have to answer some questions about their plans behind the plate. Grandal is a free agent at season’s end but Rodríguez will be back in the picture for 2025. If Bart can last on the roster for the rest of the year, he can be retained via arbitration for three future seasons, but is out of options and needs to be kept on the big league roster. Davis still has a full slate of options and just 14 games of Triple-A experience, so keeping him at that level for a while isn’t outrageous. But if catching isn’t in his future, there will come a point where it makes sense to move him and allow him to focus more on offense and outfield defense.

From a service time perspective, Davis came into 2024 with 105 days of service, leaving him 67 shy of the one-year mark. He’s added 36 here so far this year and could still get over that line if he comes back for another month-plus at some point.

Central Notes: Grandal, Delay, Borucki, Gipson-Long, Edman, Martínez

By Leo Morgenstern | April 9, 2024 at 2:12pm CDT

Alex Stumpf of MLB.com offered a series of Pirates injury updates today.

Yasmani Grandal is still a few weeks away from coming off the injured list as he recovers from plantar fasciitis. However, he seems to be making good progress, and Stumpf reports that he will begin baserunning in the coming days. He has already been participating in simulated games. The two-time All-Star spent his last four seasons with the White Sox. His days as one of the best catchers in baseball are long behind him, but the Pirates are hoping he can be a capable veteran backup.

In less positive catching news, Jason Delay has been shut down from all baseball activities with little explanation. He has been on the IL since April 3 (retroactive to April 1) with right knee inflammation. The long-time minor leaguer had a mini breakout with the Pirates last year. Although his offensive numbers weren’t so impressive, he played 68 games behind the dish and put up strong defensive metrics, looking like a solid backup option.

On the pitching side, Ryan Borucki is recovering quickly from left triceps inflammation that landed him on the IL retroactive to April 6. Borucki, 30, entered the year hoping to follow up on a strong 2023 season in Pittsburgh. While the southpaw struggled through a pair of injury-riddled seasons with the Blue and Mariners in 2021 and ’22, he was a master of control for the Pirates in 2023. In 40 1/3 innings, Borucki walked just four batters. The only other pitcher with so few bases on balls (min. 30 IP) was Jacob deGrom. Stumpf notes that Borucki will begin playing catch soon, and he shouldn’t be on the IL for much longer than the minimum 15 days.

In other news from around the NL and AL Central:

The Tigers released a medical update today (shared by Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press) that revealed right-handed pitcher Sawyer Gipson-Long is dealing with right forearm tightness. He was already on the IL recovering from a groin strain. The 26-year-old is undergoing medical evaluation to determine the severity of the injury. Gipson-Long made four starts for the Tigers last year but retains his rookie eligibility for 2024. He is the team’s No. 10 prospect according to MLB Pipeline and No. 19 according to Baseball America.
Cardinals center fielder Tommy Edman has been approved to begin his hitting progression, reports Daniel Guerrero of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. His first step is hitting off a tee. While Edman will still need plenty of preparation to transition from a tee to MLB-caliber pitching, this marks an important step in his recovery. The Gold Glove-winner has been sidelined all year with a wrist injury.
Guardians infield prospect Angel Martínez has been on the 10-day IL since Opening Day with a right foot contusion he suffered this spring. Today, he was sent to Triple-A Columbus for a rehab assignment. Although Martínez is on Cleveland’s 40-man roster, he has yet to make his MLB debut. He will likely stay at Triple-A once his rehab stint is up, where he will look to improve upon a poor showing at the plate last season. Martínez, 22, is widely considered a top-10 prospect in the Guardians system. He is a candidate to earn a call-up to the MLB squad in the event of an injury to another infielder.

Jared Jones Makes Pirates’ Roster; Jared Triolo Likely To Be Named Second Baseman

By Steve Adams | March 25, 2024 at 9:45am CDT

Top pitching prospect Jared Jones has won a spot on the Pirates’ Opening Day roster, the club announced to its beat writers this morning (X link via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com). He’ll likely slot into the team’s rotation. The Bucs will select the contracts of Jones and of right-handers Hunter Stratton and Ryder Ryan (X thread via Stumpf). Pittsburgh will place catcher Yasmani Grandal and infielder/outfielder Ji Hwan Bae on the 10-day injured list to begin the season. Relievers Colin Holderman and Carmen Mlodzinski will open the season on the 15-day IL.

Also making the roster are out-of-options pitchers Bailey Falter, Josh Fleming and Roansy Contreras, as well as outfielder Edward Olivares and righty Luis Ortiz. The Bucs will not carry non-roster invitees Brent Honeywell Jr. and Billy McKinney on the roster to begin the season. Those aren’t the only key roster decisions Pittsburgh has faced this spring; Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes that manager Derek Shelton last night called it a “very safe assumption” that Jared Triolo will be the Pirates’ starting second baseman to begin the season.

Jones, 22, was the Pirates’ second-round pick back in 2020 and entered spring training ranked among the game’s top 100 prospects at each of Baseball America (No. 74), MLB.com (No. 62), The Athletic (No. 39), FanGraphs (No. 62) and ESPN (No. 53).

Those rankings come on the heels of a strong 2023 season split between Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis, wherein Jones logged a combined 126 1/3 innings of 3.85 ERA ball with a 27.6% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate. The right-hander’s dominant spring showing surely didn’t hurt his chances of making the Opening Day roster; Jones pitched 16 1/3 innings without an earned run during Grapefruit League play, yielding just nine hits against eight walks with 15 punchouts.

The Athletic’s Keith Law writes that Jones has made huge gains with both his heater and his slider since being drafted and now has the potential for three plus pitches. The former two-way standout is an excellent athlete and, as noted by Eric Longenhagen and Tess Taruskin at FanGraphs, has also improved his strike-throwing as he’s shifted his focus solely to pitching. Scouting reports on Jones generally agree that there’d mid-rotation potential, and further improvements to any of his command, curveball or changeup could further boost his upside.

Jones tossed 122 2/3 innings in 2022 and 126 1/3 innings last season. That should set the stage for a decent uptick in his workload this season. The Bucs might still be cautious with him on a start-by-start basis, particularly early in the year, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if a healthy Jones approached or exceeded 150 frames this year. Since he’s a consensus top-100 prospect who’s making the Opening Day roster, his performance this season will particularly important for the Bucs. If Jones wins Rookie of the Year this season or finishes top three in National League Cy Young voting, he could net the Pirates an extra pick in the 2025 draft under the 2022-26 CBA’s newly implemented prospect promotion incentives.

Triolo, 26, made his big league debut in 2023 and spent the bulk of his time at third base, filling in for an injured Ke’Bryan Hayes. That’s Triolo’s natural position, but Hayes is one of MLB’s best defensive players at any position, so Triolo will slide over to second base in what could be his first full big league season. The writing for him winning the second base job was on the wall after the Bucs optioned Liover Peguero and Nick Gonzales — particularly with Bae also banged up (and now headed to the injured list).

In 209 plate appearances last season, Triolo batted .298/.388/.398 — production that was buoyed by an enormous .440 average on balls in play and came in spite of a grisly 30.1% strikeout rate. The punchouts and good fortune on balls in play have both continued this spring. Triolo has taken 45 plate appearances and batted .325/.400/.525 — excellent surface-level numbers that are propped up by a more suspect .458 BABIP. Couple that with a 31.1% strikeout rate, and his production looks similar to his 2023 output — though this year’s pair of homers in his limited spring playing time is a good sign, as Triolo hit just three long balls in last year’s 209 trips to the plate.

Triolo is a strong defender who draws plenty of walks, which should help set a decent floor for him, but he’ll need to cut down on the strikeouts and/or significantly improve his quality of contact (86.6 mph average exit velocity; 32.8% hard-hit rate) if he’s to sustain much in the way of success at the plate in the majors. Strikeouts were an issue in his first taste of Triple-A work last year (26.5%) but weren’t a problem for him in the lower and mid-minor league levels, so perhaps he’ll drop that rate over a larger sample as he gains more experience. If nothing else, a plus defender at multiple positions with a keen eye at the plate has the makings of a useful utility option, but Triolo will get the opportunity to show he can be more than that right out of the gate in 2024.

The 27-year-old Stratton made his MLB debut with the Bucs in 2023 and pitched 12 innings with three runs on nine hits and three walks. He fanned 10 of his 47 opponents (21.3%) and kept the ball on the ground at a hearty 51.5% rate. He was non-tendered in November but returned on a minors deal two months later. Stratton will now get a second big league look after firing seven shutout frames with a 7-to-2 K/BB ratio this spring.

Ryan, 29 in May, pitched a scoreless frame with the Mariners in 2023. That represents the entirety of his MLB experience. He’s fanned 28.6% of his opponents in 7 2/3 innings for Pittsburgh this spring and done so with a staggering 73.7% ground-ball rate. Ryan has pitched to a sub-4.00 ERA with a strikeout rate north of 24% in each of the past two Triple-A seasons (one with the Mariners and one with the Rangers). The Pirates will give him his first real look in the majors to see if he can carry any of that success over to the game’s top level.

NL Central Notes: Taillon, Cardinals, Grandal

By Nick Deeds | March 9, 2024 at 7:42pm CDT

Cubs right-hander Jameson Taillon has yet to make an in-game appearance this spring due to soreness in his calves. That was set to change today as he was poised to make his first start since camp began, though those plans were scuttled when the club scratched Taillon from his start earlier today.

As noted by Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic, manager Craig Counsell indicated to reporters that Taillon was dealing with lower back tightness and that the right-hander’s back “locked up” while throwing warm up pitches prior to his scheduled start, though there hasn’t been imaging scheduled for the right-hander and Counsell indicated the club hopes to know more about Taillon’s status tomorrow. Sharma goes on to note that the Cubs are hopeful the issue was just a spasm and that Taillon has dealt with a similar issue previously in his career and that it often subsides after just a few days. Though Chicago is remaining optimistic that the 32-year-old will be able to avoid a trip to the shelf to open the season, the right-hander missing time to open the season would be a blow to the club’s chances in a crowded NL Central division.

Taillon figures to occupy the middle of the club’s rotation this season alongside fellow veteran righty Kyle Hendricks, behind southpaws Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga. The fifth spot in the Cubs’ rotation has not yet been determined but appears likely to go to one of Jordan Wicks, Drew Smyly, Javier Assad, and Hayden Wesneski as things stand. Taillon’s four-year deal with the Cubs got off to a rough start last season as he struggled to a 6.90 ERA in his first 13 starts with the club, though he settled in to provide mid-rotation results late in the season with a 3.57 ERA and 4.23 ERA across the season’s final three months. [UPDATE: Counsell told ESPN’s Jesse Rogers and other reporters Sunday that Taillon “came in today pretty much the same as he left yesterday. Probably not the improvement we were hoping for.” While the manager admitted to “a level of concern for Opening Day,” Counsell doesn’t “think it’s a long-term absence for Jameson, so don’t think it’s one of those concerns.”]

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