Welcome to the weekly Pittsburgh Pirates Rumor Mill, where we update you on all of the latest Pirates trades, signings, rumors, injury news, promotions, demotions, and the like from the past week.
Make sure to check out last week’s debut Rumor Mill here.
It seems like the past week has been all about injuries for the Pirates. Well, that and the team coming back down to earth. Sitting at 5-5 at the moment, the team hasn’t had the greatest week. They lost two out of three to the Reds, and then lost three out of four against the Tigers. But in worse news, the team has been hit with the injury bug.
For starters, Francisco Liriano missed his scheduled start on Wednesday with right hamstring discomfort. His status is day-to-day at the moment, per the Pirates.
Ryan Vogelsong will start Wednesday in place of Francisco Liriano, who has right hamstring discomfort (status is day-to-day).
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 12, 2016
Ryan Vogelsong did a nice job in Liriano’s place, allowing just one run in five innings of work. It doesn’t seem, at least at the moment, that Liriano will miss significant time. If he does, that certainly puts the Pirates in a precarious situation. You wonder if that means top prospects Tyler Glasnow and Jameson Taillon could reach the majors sooner. Gregory Polanco was called up sooner than expected when Neil Walker when down to injury two seasons ago, although his injury (an appendectomy) occured later in the season than Liriano’s did this year. I doubt the time frame of those two will be moved up, but it’s still something to think about.
Jung Ho Kang and Jared Hughes remain on the disabled list, but both seem to be progressing without any setbacks.
#Pirates trainer says Jung Ho Kang (knee) has been cleared to play in extended spring games with NO restrictions.
— RobBiertempfel (@RobBiertempfel) April 13, 2016
#Pirates Jared Hughes (left lat) threw live BP sim game today in Bradenton. Trainer: "Initial reports are positive."
— RobBiertempfel (@RobBiertempfel) April 13, 2016
This is good news for both players. Kang’s next step is full game action, as he’ll move from extended spring training games to minor league rehab games soon. Hughes likely won’t need as much game action as Kang before he returns, so he should progress from sim games to stints in the minors back to the major league club rather quickly. Of course, this is barring any setbacks for both players.
Bullpen lefty Cory Luebke was also placed on the disabled list this week with right hamstring tightness, the a similar injury to the one Liriano suffered.
Pirates have placed Cory Luebke on the 15-day DL with right hamstring tightness. Rob Scahill recalled. He's active today.
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) April 14, 2016
This came as a bit of a surprise, and you wonder if it’s more of a “phantom” DL stint. He could very well be injured, however. Luckily the Pirates have bullpen depth in the minors. Rob Scahill was recalled to replace Luebke, and while he’s a righty (unlike Luebke), he was mildly successful last season during his time with the Pirates.
And in the worst news of the week, Elias Diaz‘s injury seems to be worse than initially thought:
#pirates say C Elias Diaz (elbow) has sought "multiple opinions" from docs and has been shut down again.
— RobBiertempfel (@RobBiertempfel) April 13, 2016
While Diaz might not have seem much major league action this season, he was certainly in the Pirates plans for next season. If he misses all of this year, do the Pirates (re)consider re-signing Francisco Cervelli? They should.
This was also a busy week in terms of transactions. In some minor news, John Holdzkom was released. While on the surface this may seem disappointing, as Holdzkom seemed to have so much promise in his magical 2014 major league debut, keep in mind that the team could still re-sign him on a minor league deal, similar to when Casey Sadler was released and then re-signed over the off-season.
Pedro Florimon cleared waivers and was assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis as well:
INF Pedro Florimon cleared waivers & was assigned to Indy. Florimon has 72 hours to accept/refuse assignment.
— RobBiertempfel (@RobBiertempfel) April 13, 2016
We still sit in that 72-hour window, so we should know soon whether Florimon accepted his assignment; I expect him to.
And in the biggest transaction of the past week, Mike Morse was recently designated for assignment. A.J. Schugel‘s contract was selected to take his spot on the active roster. Maybe the Pirates wanted another arm in the bullpen and felt Morse could clear waivers. Or maybe they felt it was Morse’s time to go. He was likely the odd man out when Kang returned anyways, it’s only a bit surprising that this move came this early. I do think Morse will clear waivers because of the money he is making this season, however.
And today, the Pirates signed former Cleveland Indians’ ace Justin Masterson to a minor league deal. Who knows what Ray Searage can do with him, but with the injuries pitching staffs generally face over the course of a season, it wouldn’t surprise me if Masterson sees the majors at some point this year.
The Masterson signing points to a big problem for the Pirates this season: starting pitching depth. The Liriano injury is so scary because if either he or Gerrit Cole go down to injury for a long period of time, the Pirates could be in deep trouble. We’ve seen Jon Niese and Juan Nicasio struggle, and we all know Jeff Locke‘s history as a starter. Former depth starters Brandon Cumpton and Casey Sadler are out for the year with injuries, and top prospects Glasnow and Taillon likely won’t be ready until mid-June at the earliest. Nick Kingham is also injured, and Steven Brault and Chad Kuhl won’t be ready for major league action this season. Thus, the depth starting pitching options out of Triple-A include Trevor Williams, Wilfredo Boscan, and now Justin Masterson. Boscan is not ideal, as evidenced by his poor spring. Rather than the quality of options, just focus on the number of realistic options: two. That number is more like three, though, with Ryan Vogelsong operating out of the pen with the ability to start. It is vitally important for this team’s starting pitching to remain healthy during the first half of the season.
I also expect the team to target bullpen help sooner rather than later if the back-end continues to look shaky. Arquimedes Caminero has looked awful, and Kyle Lobstein has looked very hit-able. The Pirates added to the bullpen at last year’s deadline in Joe Blanton and Joakim Soria, and I expect them to do the same again this season. A strong bullpen is a huge advantage in the game today.
The Pirates haven’t been linked to any specific players on the trade or free agent market as of late, and it may take some time for the rumors to develop. But still keep checking in every Friday at noon for all of the past week’s Pirates’ news, and we’ll make sure to get you the latest rumors when they come!
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