Baseball America has the full list of players who were declared minor league free agents and there are seven players from the Pittsburgh Pirates. This list will expand once players who were sent outright to Indianapolis this weekend become free agents. I’ll note that John Ryan Murphy and Yacksel Rios aren’t on the list from BA, but I can confirm that they are both free agents now. The Pirates already brought back one of their free agents, signing catcher Andrew Susac. He played the final game of the season for the Pirates in 2020 after spending the rest of the year serving as the third-string catcher at Altoona, often going on road trips as part of the taxi squad.
The BA list includes Pablo Reyes, Gage Hinsz, Montana DuRapau, Socrates Brito, Jason Martin, Hector Noesi and Adrian Valerio. Only Martin and Brito were part of the 2020 Pirates 60-man roster this year and Brito was there only briefly before opting out of the season. Noesi opted out before the season started, while Reyes was suspended all season for a failed drug test and the other three weren’t invited to Altoona. We could see any of these players re-sign with the Pirates, but none of them would be more than depth options with the current roster setup.
The 24-year-old Hinsz was the most interesting player here until injuries decimated his career. Except for pitching winter ball in two years ago, he has not pitched since 2017. He wasn’t even fully healthy at any point during his career, except the year he signed (2014). He’s throwing now, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he re-signed with the Pirates, but the prospect shine is worn down at this point. It’s tough to bounce back from that much missed time, especially for someone who hasn’t reached Double-A yet.
