The Pirates were expected to make a lot of moves this weekend to get their roster down to 40 for the upcoming offseason. The first batch of those moves came yesterday.
The Pirates outrighted Kevin Kramer, Luke Maile, Yacksel Rios, Jason Martin, and John Ryan Murphy off the 40-man roster. They also lost Brandon Waddell to the Twins and Nick Tropeano to the Mets, both via waiver claims.
The most surprising of the moves came with the loss of the catchers. Heading into yesterday, Maile and Murphy were the only alternate options to Jacob Stallings. That changed when the Pirates claimed Rays catcher Michael Perez off waivers. The Pirates shouldn’t be done at catcher, and I’d be a bit surprised if they didn’t try to keep Maile around on a minor league deal to add depth.
The two losses come from the bullpen. Losing any talent hurts when you’re a team that just finished in last place. Waddell wasn’t used much, but could eventually step up as a reliever, possibly capable of multiple innings. I liked Tropeano, and think he could be a sleeper for next year after putting up some of the best numbers of his career in 2020.
The Pirates still need to clear three roster spots by Monday. One of those spots might end up coming from Chris Archer’s option decision, with the expectation being that it will be declined. The Pirates have other waiver claimed guys and non-tender candidates for the other two spots.
What moves do you expect to happen this weekend?
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