Pittsburgh Pirates Wake Up Call – Gift Return; The Goose is Loose

In our Daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.

Two Pittsburgh Pirates dropped the final game of the three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday in extra innings. By way of the result, Pittsburgh lost their second straight series.

With an off-day looming, manager Clint Hurdle emptied his bullpen and his bench. All told, 23 Pittsburgh Pirates saw some type of action in the field, including a pinch hit appearance by Gerrit Cole and Tyler Glasnow serving as a pinch runner.

It was that kind of game. Afterward, two of those 23 were removed from the club’s 25-man roster.

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The Pirates Saved The Receipt

The Pittsburgh Pirates announced that Alen Hanson was placed on waivers, while Gift Ngoepe was optioned back to Triple-A Indianapolis. In their stead, Max Moroff and Philip Gosselin will make the jump to re-join the big club.

Ngoepe will undoubtedly be heard from again this season, even if solely based on his defensive abilities alone. After a blistering start to his major league career, Ngoepe slashed .174/.240/.217 during the month of May — a month that saw him log 51 plate appearances across 25 games (11 starts). Though Ngoepe can easily be considered the Pirates’ best overall defender, his performance at the plate was too poor to ignore.

A large swath of Pirates observers opined that Hanson never got the fair shake that many feel that he deserved. Your author is not among this group. Hanson never came close to approximating his previous highs beyond Double-A. His .483 OPS for 2017 to date has been less than encouraging, even if he has proven to be capable in the field.

If the Pittsburgh Pirates still believe that Hanson has a shot to make a meaningful contribution to the big league club, they might be in luck. It is highly unlikely that many other teams might be interested in using a waiver claim on Hanson, and if he clears waivers, the Pirates can stash him at Triple-A.

The Goose is Loose Again

Fan-favorite Phil Gosselin makes his way back to the Pittsburgh Pirates after a 19 game sting with the Indianapolis Indians. Gosselin was sent down explicitly to play every day to receive regular plate appearances in hopes of sparking his bat.

That mission was largely accomplished, as Gosselin slashed .310/.337/.405 during his time away. Those aren’t exactly earth-shattering numbers, yet the Pirates would likely take that from a part-time utility man. The challenge will now involve the club finding just the right amount of playing time to keep his bat serviceable, though his numbers at the plate conceivably cannot be worse than what the club was getting from Ngoepe or Hanson.

Baseball Talk On the Web

• I will be writing some non-Pittsburgh Pirates content over at Beyond the Box Score. Here’s my first piece for them – a look at Cardinals outfielder Randal Grichuk‘s recent demotion.
• Travis Sawchik has a tremendous piece on Joey Votto.

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