The Pirates have been awfully busy over the last 24 hours whereas I have not been particularly busy on the blogging front, so I’ve got some catching up to do. Let’s start with the moves the club made tonight to shore up their 40-man roster in anticipation of the midnight deadline to protect eligible players from this year’s Rule 5 draft. The Pirates added Jameson Taillon, Nick Kingham, catcher Elias Diaz, and outfielder Willy Garcia to the 40-man roster tonight, just a few hours after claiming Pedro Florimon off of waivers from the Washington Nationals. To make room on the 40-man for those players, the Pirates outrighted Brent Morel to Triple-A, and designated Ike Davis and Ramon Cabrera for assignment.
Obviously it’s not much of a surprise to see any of those four minor leaguers added to the 40-man. Taillon and Kingham figure to play some sort of role in Pittsburgh this year, Diaz rose to prominence with a big season in Altoona, and Garcia is probably one of the club’s more interesting power prospects after thumping 18 homers as a 21-year old in Altoona this year. Tim Williams came up with a couple other names that he would have protected (Jason Creasy and Mel Rojas), in his preview post for today’s decisions, and it does seem like they’re risking losing Rojas here, since Rojas is coming off of a pretty strong season in Altoona and Indianapolis and is old enough (he’ll be 25 in May) that he could legitimately be considered a fourth or fifth outfielder by someone.
Judging from the Twitter reaction, quite a few people seem surprised to see the Pirates let Davis go. I’m not sure that this move is all that surprising, though. The Pirates were obviously not going to keep Davis, Gaby Sanchez, and Pedro Alvarez all on the roster at arbitration prices this winter, and given Davis’s relatively punchless stint as a Pirate (10 homers, .378 SLG, .143 ISO), it makes sense that he’d be the odd man out. Pedro Alvarez obviously presents his own set of questions, but the ceiling is a bit different with Alvarez, I think. The Pirates could have tried to offer Davis arbitration and trade him to someone else, but it’s worth noting that the Mets tried the exact same strategy last year and only managed to get two fringey pitching prospects in return. Davis then didn’t exactly distinguish himself with the Pirates as a trade target. Of course, the move will give the Pirates a bit more financial flexibility as they continue their quest for more pitching this winter, and given Davis’s status as a likely odd-man out anyway, that’s why he’s the one that’s being moved out tonight even though the 40-man roster is relatively full of crap at the moment.
The Pirates also claimed Pedro Florimon off of waivers from the Nats earlier in the day, and I think that we can probably surmise that that move officially spells the end of the Clint Barmes era. Florimon can’t really hit at all (career .565 OPS in 692 PAs with the Orioles and Twins), but he’s got a heck of a glove at shortstop according to both UZR and DRS. I’m not sure that the Pirates need him and Justin Sellers, but then, the Pirates had some serious infield depth problems last year after Josh Harrison moved into an every day role and you can probably say that both Sellers and Florimon are at least replacement level players, which wasn’t really true of Michael Martinez, Brent Morel, or Jayson Nix.
There is one other move sort of hanging around on the fringes that isn’t quite official yet, but seems like it might as well be. That would be the Pirates’ signing of Radhames Liz, which was first rumored yesterday and then seemingly confirmed by everyone except the Pirates today. Given the vagaries of roster rules around the Rule 5 deadline tonight, it’s possible the Pirates are waiting until tomorrow to make the deal official. Liz has bounced around from the Orioles and their system, to Korea, and then back to the states in the Blue Jays’ system last year. He’s supposedly throwing gas in winter ball this year and the team he’s playing for is managed by Dean Treanor, Indianapolis’s manager. If the Pirates are willing to give him a big league deal (it seems like they are, though, again, we’ll see for sure soon), then I’d imagine that whatever they’re seeing has impressed them enough to consider him a solid relief candidate for the Island of Misfit Pitchers that makes its home out in centerfield at PNC Park.
