The Pirates have announced that they’ve placed catcher Francisco Cervelli on the 15-day DL with a broken hamate bone in his left hand. To take his place on the active roster, they’ve acquired fellow backstop Erik Kratz from the Angels for cash considerations. To make room for Kratz on the 40-man roster, they’ve designated reliever Trey Haley for assignment.
Cervelli had surgery today to remove a fractured hook of the hamate bone, the Pirates also announced. He is expected to return to baseball activities in four to six weeks. He left yesterday’s game against the Cardinals with hand pain after taking a swing. Cervelli was hitting .257/.373/.293 this season, posting his usual high on-base percentage but with little of the modest power he demonstrated during his breakout 2015 season. It’s possible his hand injury could further hamper his power once he returns.
Kratz will likely share the Pirates’ catching duties with Chris Stewart in the meantime. His acquisition was necessary in part because of an injury to Bucs catching prospect Elias Diaz, who ordinarily likely would have started in Cervelli’s place. Kratz (who, incidentally, made his big-league debut with the Bucs in 2010) has a career .210/.261/.381 line in parts of seven big-league seasons, although he rates as a good defender and solid framer, qualities the Pirates value highly in catchers. The Angels signed Kratz to a minor league deal two weeks ago after he was released by the Astros.
The Pirates signed Haley to a big-league deal last offseason despite a lack of previous big-league experience, then sent him to Triple-A Indianapolis. He throws very hard, routinely hitting the high 90s, but continues a longstanding pattern of struggling badly to throw strikes, with a 6.66 ERA, 7.0 K/9 and 7.4 BB/9 in 24 1/3 Triple-A innings this year.
Erik Kratz to his 4th team this year …
Move Jaso behind the plate and call up Bell.
Jaso had to be move from the plate because of concussions, I think it’s safe to say his catching days are over
Correct, Jaso will not be catching again, ever. I heard on a Pirate radio broadcast that, in case of emergency, Sean Rodriguez would likely catch instead of Jaso, and Sean’s never done it before in the majors.
That would be smart but I’m a aCub fan don’t do it
Wonder if this makes them players for Lucky. They obviously have the prospects to get it done and he’s affordable (contract-wise). The issues would be in-division trading (Additional prospect cost) and what to do once cervelli comes back. Maybe something along the lines of meadows, mcquire, and Kuhl? Then they could trade cervelli once he comes back?
Sure, why not just throw in Marte and Polanco too
Maybe this pushes them into the Lucroy market? They have the prospects and he has a nice cheap contract that would appeal to Pittsburgh. There would be the in-division charge and the question of what to do once cervelli comes back (I would say trade cervelli to recoup some of the trade cost). Perhaps meadows, mcquire, and Kuhl?
The guy just signed a extension. He’s not getting traded. They aren’t getting Lucroy. You all are out of your mind if you think either is going to happen. Dream on and keep fighting the fight to get out of the one game wildcard. Be a shame to make it four straight years and be 0-4!
Actually, they won the Wild Card game in 2013 but then lost to the Cardinals in the Division Series.
Pirates fan live in a dream world…they could have a combination of Johnny Bench and Gary Carter rolled into one and would not make a difference with that pitching staff. Your so called ace Gerrit Cole can’t win big games and your best hitter has 0 RBI’s in playoff games….bring up the kids from Indy …time too cut loose Nicasio and Locke…see what you can get for McCutchen…while he his cheap and available…Pirate fans your ship has sailed time too build a new one….
If you’re going to rip on another team and their fans, use correct grammar.
Absolute rubbish. The Pirates excellent core of young position players are locked up. The pitching is fairly awful, but they have high end players very close to MLB ready. And Cole had one bad game in the wild card last year, but was excellent in other playoff outings. Why expose your ignorance, you clearly don’t know what you are talking about.
I agree 100%. The pirates have done as good a job as any club developing talent and signing them to extensions ‘early.’ I don’t think they have missed on any of their ‘arb buy out’ contracts .. The cervelli and polanco extensions were the latest of a series of brilliant moves
Cole got outpitched by bumgarner and arrietta, both of whom were on ridiculous hr streaks .. Nothing to be ashamed of (any team would love to have him)
And talk about living in a dream world, Giants fans think that just because it’s an even numbered year, they already have a championship locked up.
cole showed his colors on a gomez triple last year i think it was or the year before. gomez stood at plate admiring his home run that stayed in the park, hit off the wall. gomez got to 3B and cole said something to him and gomez challenged him. cole wanted no part of him. cole was good last year but he is not a killer.
This comment is too absurd to seriously respond to.
what i meant was cole backed down after opening his mouth. he is a puss.
Or he is just young and got caught up in the moment in talking to a reporter after a game where he just shut the Cubs down… I like him (and I am not from Pittsburgh)
Reese McGwire?