The Pirates made a bunch of cuts and announcements in the last 24 hours or so, so let’s get caught up. Tyler Yates, Sean Gallagher, Josh Fields, Wyatt Toregas, and Dan McCutchen were sent down on Friday while the club announced Joe Beimel wouldn’t be ready for the start of the season. Today, they sent Andy Marte, Brian Burres, Dusty Brown, and Corey Wimberly to minor league camp and scratched Chris Snyder with a sore back. They also told Steve Pearce that he’s made the team.
The only surprise as far as I can see is that Burres was sent down as it kind of seemed like he was a candidate to start if James McDonald isn’t ready to start the season with his side injury. Without Burres, Jeff Karstens is the obvious choice for that role (they’ve already started stretching him out in minor league games, as I noted on Tuesday). Michael Crotta is technically an option, but since he only threw an inning on Tuesday and they haven’t worked him like a starter yet, that seems unlikely. Cutting Burres also more or less assures Garrett Olson a spot on the team with Beimel and Scott Olsen both started the year on the mend. If we give bullpen spots to Hanrahan, Meek, Olson, Karstens, Jose Veras, and Chris Resop (Jen Langosch mentions the other five as locks, more or less), that leaves one bullpen spot for someone that we didn’t expect to make the team; either Crotta or Chris Leroux. Crotta has been much better this spring, but I don’t know if that means anything in this situation.
With Pearce on the team and Snyder hurting, the Pirates may end up letting both Josh Rodriguez and John Bowker go, which would be a shame. Jason Jaramillo is still in camp, though of course teams always need catchers in the spring and with Brown and Toregas sent down, Jaramillo is the only non-Snyder, non-Doumit option left. If Jaramillo doesn’t make the team, the final roster spot will come down to Bowker and Rodriguez. I’d prefer Bowker, though I can see why the Pirates would keep Rodriguez. If I had to guess, though, I’d guess that they keep Jaramillo instead of either.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
