The final roster decisions for Opening Day 2014 have been made by the Pirates today. Most of the moves were predictable; Chris Stewart and Jeff Locke are headed to the disabled list, Travis Ishikawa was put on the roster and Andy Oliver was outrighted to Triple-A (which means removed from the 40-man roster) to make room for him. The one big lingering decision was the final bullpen spot; Stolmy Pimentel has long been assured of a spot in the ‘pen and Bryan Morris turned some heads in camp, leading Clint Hurdle to say last night that he had a spot, too. That left one spot open for Jeanmar Gomez and Vin Mazzaro.
The Pirates announced today that that final spot would go to Gomez, leading them to designate Mazzaro for assignment. That was fairly predictable; Gomez is a bit more durable, which makes him more useful as a long-man. Mazzaro was quite good in the middle-relief role for the Pirates last year, but it’s hard to think of him as irreplaceable. It doesn’t seem like a stretch to think that either Morris or Pimentel could give the Pirates something similar in that role this year. It’s still possible the Pirates could trade Mazzaro; he’ll be placed on waivers and they’ll have ten days to make a decision on him. I don’t think he’d bring much in return by himself, but it seems like the Pirates have kept one toe in trade discussions all spring. If anything’s going to happen on that front, it’ll probably happen soon as rosters are being filled out all across baseball today.
Imagae credit: Flickr — Cruiser Girl
