With the midnight non-tender deadline fast approaching, I’ll update this post through the night as we figure out who the Pirates do and don’t offer contracts to. We already know that Jose Veras has been traded to the Brewers for Casey McGehee, who will presumably be tendered.
We also know that the Pirates signed Jason Grilli to a one-year/$1.1 million deal. Grilli, you’ll recall, was pretty excellent for the Pirates after the Phillies were forced to release him in July when they didn’t promote him to the Majors. He was recovering from a knee injury that forced him to miss all of 2010. Assuming Grilli stays healthy (he’s 35 now, so this is a bit of a concern), getting a reliever that can strike out more than a hitter an inning for $1.1 million is a pretty solid deal for the Pirates.
MIDNIGHT UPDATE: Everyone got a contract offer, with everyone being Joel Hanrahan, Garrett Jones, Chris Resop, Charlie Morton, Evan Meek, and Jeff Karstens. This is what I was hoping for, of course, though Neal Huntington’s comments early in the off-season put some doubt on a Jones tender. The Pirates are better off with all of these guys on the roster, though, especially with Veras headed to Milwaukee.
