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.
Now that the World Series is over and we’ve all had some time to come to grips with the Cubs winning, our focus, as well as that of the Pittsburgh Pirates, shifts to the off-season. Teams are already making moves, and the Pirates will start to do so as well in the coming weeks. They are losing Sean Rodriguez and Matt Joyce from the bench, two players that had career seasons. They need to find a fifth starter, ideally one that’s a veteran for a young staff, and they could use some improvements in the bullpen.
We’ll see all this develop and more in the coming weeks.
Injury Updates
According to Scott Boras, Gerrit Cole is expected to have a normal off-season and should be ready for spring training. Cole dealt with elbow inflammation last season, and his return now only to the team but to being a quality front-end starter is a must for the Pirates next season.
The Pirates officially activated A.J. Schugel, Chris Stewart, Josh Harrison, Elias Diaz, and Gerrit Cole from the 60-day disabled list, according to the team’s transactions page.
Minor Moves
A little while ago, the Pirates outrighted Jacob Stallings, Pedro Florimon, and Zach Phillips off the 40-man roster, according to the Post-Gazette. All three have been outrighted before, so they can choose to refuse the assignment to and elect free agency. No word yet on what each of the players did.
The Pirates also selected the contracts of outfielder Jose Osuna and reliever Dovydas Neverauskas from Triple-A Indianapolis.
Andrew McCutchen’s future
Word came out recently that the Pirates and Nationals considered a trade centered around Andrew McCutchen at last year. One of the Pirates’ targets in such a trade was the Nats’ top outfield prospect Victor Robles. Robles is ranked the #10 prospect in all of baseball, per MLB.com.
In the end, the trade collapsed because of the “large number of moving parts,” which makes sense. Blockbuster trades are more common in the off-season rather than in the middle of the season. But this shows the willingness of the Pirates to discuss McCutchen in a trade.
This is interesting from the Nationals’ perspective. Obviously Bryce Harper occupies one of the outfield spots, but Ben Revere and Jayson Werth held the other two spots. You wonder if Revere would be one of the players coming the Pirates’ way. Werth is making over $20 million this upcoming season, so taking that contract back wouldn’t be realistic for the Pirates.
Having Robles and Austin Meadows might clog the Pirates’ future outfield situation, but Robles is only 19, and it’s always good to stockpile minor league talent, regardless of position. Let’s see if the two teams revisit these talks this winter.
Rays are Open for Business
#Rays left GM Meetings with stronger belief would trade 1 from Archer, Odorizzi, Smyly, outside chance of Cobb.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) November 10, 2016
The Rays have starting pitchers they’re willing to part with, and the Pirates have a need for a starter. I’d expect these two teams to talk plenty in the next few months. Chris Archer will likely require a lot to get, but Jake Odorizzi and Drew Smyly could be had for less.
Other Notes
Joba Chamberlain is working out, throwing and intends to play next yr, according to his agent, Jim Murray
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) November 10, 2016
Joba Chamberlain would be a low-risk signing for the Pirates. I wouldn’t mind that.
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