With the season officially in the rearview mirror, it’s my favorite time on the baseball calendar—the offseason. That means one of the first items on my personal agenda is updating my spreadsheets with the days of service for every Pittsburgh Pirate remaining in the organization, as well as updating options remaining going into 2021. I thought I’d pass that level of detail on to you, so hopefully you can glean something from it.
Optional Assignments
I covered the details back when the 2020 Operations Manual was released, so I won’t rehash it here, but I’m working off the assumption that all the rules regarding optional assignments stayed the same for 2020. This means that any player that was optioned for 20 or more days burned an option year. The following is a list of players who qualify, along with how many options they each have remaining:
Blake Cederlind (2)
Will Craig (2)
Oneil Cruz (2)
Ke’Bryan Hayes (2)
Cody Ponce (2)
Jason Martin (1)
Tyler Bashlor (0)
Nick Mears (2)
Austin Davis (1)
Brandon Waddell (2)
Here are just a couple individual notes on this topic before we move on:
Both Geoff Hartlieb and Sam Howard started the season on optional assignment, but came up after five and ten days, respectively, so neither used an option. They both project to be pieces of the bullpen in 2021.
José Osuna was only on option for 18 days, so his final option year still remains intact. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was nontendered this offseason instead of going through arbitration for the first time, so that ultimately may not matter to the Pirates.
Nick Tropeano only spent 12 days in the minors after being claimed from the New York Yankees, so he kept his final option year as well; however, I wouldn’t be surprised with a nontender for Tropeano as well, who will be slated for his second go around in arbitration.
Finally, Bashlor appeared to be on option for 20 days exactly, but it depends on how you count the days. While the transaction log states that Bashlor was recalled on 8/17, that was actually an off day, and the Pirates announced the move on the 18th. If you use the 17th, that would mean one less day on option, thus no option used. Personally, I am using the 18th in my count, but will be watching for any official word if and when something comes to light. Again, it wouldn’t surprise me if Bashlor is let go at some point in the offseason—especially if he is out of options—making it a moot point.
Service
I’ve covered this in the past as well, so a basic summary should suffice—service time was calculated differently during this shortened season than it typically is. With only 67 days to officially accrue service, total days are calculated by using the equation (days active * 186)/67, per the March Agreement. While I was unsure for a while about how the uneven quotients would be rounded—and still kind of am—a piece of Jeff Passan reporting on the Mike Clevinger situation from earlier in the season convinced me to round any tenth under .5 down and .5 and above up, as basic mathematics would teach.
I’m including my personal count of service time, as it seems I apply MLB rules on the matter differently than they do. It’s a topic for another day and one that truly mystifies me, but my count is what is in my spreadsheets, so it’s what I’m presenting here. Typically, the difference is just a few days here and there, so it doesn’t matter one way or the other.
Here are the complete lists:
Players who accrued a full year (172 days), along with their career service time to date:
| Derek Holland | 11.104 |
| Chris Archer | 7.156 |
| Gregory Polanco | 6.103 |
| Keone Kela | 6.000 |
| Michael Feliz | 4.168 |
| John Ryan Murphy | 4.121 |
| Jameson Taillon | 4.109 |
| Luke Maile | 4.099 |
| Chad Kuhl | 4.078 |
| Adam Frazier | 4.073 |
| Joe Musgrove | 4.063 |
| Josh Bell | 4.052 |
| Trevor Williams | 4.027 |
| Erik González | 4.007 |
| JT Riddle | 3.119 |
| Colin Moran | 3.107 |
| Kyle Crick | 3.104 |
| Chris Stratton | 3.097 |
| Steven Brault | 3.082 |
| José Osuna | 3.067 |
| Richard Rodríguez | 3.017 |
| Nick Burdi | 3.000 |
| Jacob Stallings | 2.143 |
| Kevin Newman | 2.047 |
| Carson Fulmer | 2.040 |
| Clay Holmes | 2.028 |
| Bryan Reynolds | 1.163 |
| Dovydas Neverauskas | 1.160 |
| Nik Turley | 1.144 |
| Anthony Alford | 1.141 |
| Sam Howard | 1.117 |
| Phillip Evans | 1.109 |
| Geoff Hartlieb | 1.091 |
| Cole Tucker | 1.079 |
| Kevin Kramer | 1.060 |
| Mitch Keller | 1.057 |
| JT Brubaker | 1.000 |
Players who accrued a partial year, along with how many days and their career service time to date:
| Nick Tropeano | 147 | 4.076 |
| Yacksel Ríos | 155 | 2.016 |
| Andrew Susac | 3 | 2.011 |
| Tyler Bashlor | 130 | 1.131 |
| Austin Davis | 108 | 1.098 |
| Jason Martin | 72 | 0.128 |
| Miguel Del Pozo | 47 | 0.090 |
| Ke’Bryan Hayes | 75 | 0.075 |
| Brandon Waddell | 64 | 0.064 |
| Cody Ponce | 47 | 0.047 |
| Blake Cederlind | 36 | 0.036 |
| Nick Mears | 22 | 0.022 |
| Jared Oliva | 19 | 0.019 |
| Will Craig | 8 | 0.008 |
I have nothing in particular to point out here, but do take note of all the players between 2.115 (last offseason’s Super Two cutoff) and 5.171 years of service. This is fodder for a future article, but hint…it’s a lot.
In the meantime, keep my personal spreadsheets favorited, where you can find all this information and more. I’ll keep it updated throughout the offseason for everyone to utilize, dissect, and enjoy.
