The Pirates weren’t expected to do much at the just-now-passed deadline to agree to tender their arbitration-eligible players with contract offers, and even though they waited until the last minute to make the announcement, the news is that there isn’t much news. The Pirates non-tendered Gaby Sanchez and Chaz Roe, every other arbitration eligible player was tendered.
It seems likely that the decision went down to the wire because the Pirates were looking to trade Sanchez, but they obviously didn’t hold much leverage in this situation. Gaby Sanchez will become a free agent and his Pirate career is over. If you don’t know who Chaz Roe is (I had to look him up), he’s a right-handed pitcher that the Pirates grabbed off of waivers from the Yankees in September. He is (get this) a big guy and (you won’t believe it) a former first round draft pick who had some interesting minor league numbers the last couple of years as a reliever, but hasn’t really caught on anywhere. Neal Huntington said the Pirates “foresaw” the need for the roster spot and hope to give Roe a non-roster invite to spring training. I don’t know if that comment is related to the still-unfinished Radhames Liz signing or something else; with the winter meetings coming up I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
A quick glance around the league reveals a few non-tenders that seems like they might draw the Pirates’ eye. The Braves declined to offer deals to both Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy, both of whom missed all of 2014 with their second Tommy John surgeries. I have no idea what their exact health status is at this exact moment in time(the Braves were supposedly discussing a two-year deal with Medlen), but Medlen in particular seems like the sort of reclamation project that the Pirates love. Obviously he couldn’t be the centerpiece of their off-season, since he’s likely out until early mid-season (his surgery was in March of last year), but I think that’s a name to keep an eye on. The Cubs non-tendered Wesley Wright, who’s been a decent-enough LOOGY for most of his career. The Pirates could probably use another left-handed reliever after the Justin Wilson/Francisco Cervelli trade, though I’d sort of expect the Pirates to target lower-profile guys than Wright.
Over in the AL, Kyle Blanks was officially non-tendered by the A’s (he was DFA last week), and I’d certainly agree with Charlie that Blanks would make some sense as a Gaby Sanchez replacement, should the Pirates want to go in that direction (though, as I wrote yesterday, there is some logic in just not wasting a roster spot on that sort of player). The Blue Jays also let Justin Smoak walk, if the Pirates were for some reason interested in having Pedro Alvarez compete for the first base job simultaneously with the title “Most Disappointing Corner Infield Slugger From the 2008 Draft” this spring.
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