The Pirates made a number of moves before tonight’s game in Arizona. Outfielder Andrew McCutchen and third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes were both placed on the 10-day injured list. To take the active roster spots, Pittsburgh reinstated first baseman Ji Man Choi from the 60-day IL and recalled right-hander Cody Bolton. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, Pittsburgh designated reliever Rob Zastryzny for assignment after activating him from his own IL stint.
McCutchen’s placement is retroactive to July 6 and on account of right elbow inflammation. He’d been nagged by elbow soreness dating back a few weeks, and the club apparently decided to give him some time to rest it completely. Next week’s All-Star Break means McCutchen could miss as few as five games if he’s able to return when first eligible.
Signed to a one-year deal over the winter, the former MVP has had an excellent return season in Pittsburgh. He’s hitting .268/.383/.425 with 10 homers across 316 trips to the plate. He’s walking at an elite 15.5% clip while striking out only 20.3% of the time.
Hayes is dealing with lower back inflammation. The same issue sent him to the IL on June 28. He was reinstated last night but evidently isn’t fully healthy after all. The Pirates used Jared Triolo as their primary third baseman while Hayes was out, so the rookie infielder figures to draw back into the starting lineup.
Choi will try to get his first Pittsburgh campaign rolling heading into the Break. Acquired from the Rays over the offseason, the lefty-hitting first baseman only appeared in nine games before a strained Achilles tendon in his left foot put him on the shelf. Choi was ice cold in the season’s first couple weeks but reached base at a quality .341 clip for Tampa Bay last year. With Carlos Santana at first base, Choi draws into the starting lineup tonight at designated hitter. He’ll hit fifth against Arizona ace Zac Gallen.
With Choi coming back from the 60-day IL, Pittsburgh needed to clear a 40-man spot. That’ll be at Zastryzny’s expense. The 31-year-old lefty cracked the Opening Day roster after an offseason minor league deal. He made 18 appearances, working to a 5.29 ERA through 17 frames. Zastryzny had as many walks as strikeouts (13 apiece) and twice landed on the IL.
The more recent of those stints came three weeks ago, when forearm inflammation put him on the shelf. Zastryzny is apparently now healthy, but the Bucs elected not to carry him on the roster. He’s out of minor league option years, so Pittsburgh needed to either plug him back into the MLB bullpen or take him off the 40-man.
Within the next week, Pittsburgh will trade him or put him on waivers. Zastryzny has cleared outright waivers in the past, so he’d have the ability to test free agency if he goes unclaimed again.
UGH in PGH
Goodbye Z Man.
excited to see what Ji Man got
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse….
Kinda best case scenario. Cutch gets an extended rest without missing many games and Choi gets a chance to hit his way out of the dog house.
Essentially all of the veterans are already trying out for their slot on next year’s roster.
Essentially all of the vets, perhaps with the exception of Cutch, are auditioning for trade deadline teams.
Like the swallows return to Capistrano, it’s a yearly event here in Pittsburgh
They should have released Shelton and Haines, two of the most incompetent people on this team’s management
Someone needs to explain first, why a team that suffers from lack of offensive doesn’t teach players how to bunt to get on base and second, how a team in general is constantly in a hitting slump ?
And can someone also explain why Shelton can’t stay with the same lineup every game?
Don’t say anything about how your best hitters will get more ABs at the top of the lineup because that logic doesn’t work
Should have traded him
Dream on.
Not good enough for Texas anyways
Minor correction. Choi has played this year. not sure if it was in pittsburgh city or not but he has played.
@joew: Yes it was with the Pirates.
McCutcheon killed our Cardinals last series. Glad he could have a good homecoming season.
This year, the Cardinals are doing the best job of killing the Cardinals.
Well, that’s unfortunate, but at least the timing was good. They’ll only miss this series, and maybe part of the first series after the break.
After a hot start that got the Steel City rocking, the 2023 Bucs have resembled Bucs teams of the recent past.
Not gonna sniff the playoffs again. Aging vets will be thrown to the curb at the trade deadline and Buc fans will spend August and September watching the kids play.
Like “cornwhisperer” noted above, “It happens every year.”.
If you are blind to the upward trend with the Pirates, you don’t want to see it.
Yep, the Bucs do have some exciting prospects. My comment was more about this year than 2024 or 2025.
I do like Gonzalez, Quinn Priester, Cruz, Davis, Contreras, E. Rodriguez et al
It’s a repeated cycle every year with the Bucs
next year, next year and next year Funny how next year never happens
The “ upward trend” means they have a core of players in place, nothing more. Unless Keller can go on two days rest next year, it won’t matter for a couple years
After consecutive 100 loss seasons, I can live with 72-75 wins, if they can limp to that type of finish
If this “upward trend” means being two years away from being two years away, hey, great, I see it
I wonder about Contreras and Ortiz and even a PG columnist made note of their tailspins this year, most notably a real loss of heat on their fastballs. I think Marin has done a good job overall but he can’t go out and pitch for them nor can he can control what’s going on between the ears
Reflective of bringing young guys up to the majors by necessity, of course, when in all likelihood they would be getting a lot of experience on the farm before coming to this level
But again, the Pirates prioritized drafting middle infielders for years meaning that their stud pitchers are just now coming up through the lower levels
Given what we’ve seen from Contreras especially, it’s a legitimate question as to whether he’ll ever be the pitcher he once looked to be
Contrares needs to go back to Indy to try and find his former self and they should give Priester a chance at the major league level, he can’t be any worse
And while they’re shuffling the deck demote Castro.He’s not worthy of a spot on the roster
I still believe complacency is part of the problem with this offense. They might be trying to make contact with the ball but more often than not they swing wildly at pitches nowhere close to the strike zone and until Shelton starts discipling the players instead of kissing their behinds this offense will continue to struggle
Lastly it’s apparent that they brought Hayes back too soon. He has a history of lower back problems and they know that
I’m having doubts about reaching 70 wins with this half roster of misfits
There’s players on the major league roster that wouldn’t be starting on the majority of any other team
Whenever I see outfielders and elbow issues, I keep having Carl Crawford nightmares.
Just have a question:Do all of these injuries to Pirates and all MLB teams drive you all crazy. Your ideas as to why this is happening so much would be worth reading for me. Point: Pirates healthiest pitcher is 43 year old Rich Hill. Google his workouts. He conditions to be baseball ready, not to throw 100 mph, nor increase his exit velocity nor launch angle, etc. My opinion is, trying to physiologically get too much torque out of these guys. They get it, but they break more. My truck can go 140 mph, but it will break sooner if I run it that way too consistently.
you raise a valid point, Knownotsomuch
Growing up to pitchers such as Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Denny McClain and Ferguson Jenkins for example, I don’t recall any of them having injuries to their throwing shoulder, ligament injuries or needing Tommy John surgery
Each year they pitched effectively without any major injuries
But in this era of baseball, injuries are abundant to pitchers who throw 100 MPH
When we were young, our parents or coaches were told not to teach us breaking pitches until we were in middle school. The idea was that the mechanics needed were detrimental to a youngster’s arm
Fast forward into this era, where literally everyone and their grandmother has a heater over 90 and has been throwing breaking pitches since they started pitching
And on top of that, the comment you hear all too often: yeah, go have TJ surgery. You’ll come back throwing even harder
No doubt in my mind that the stress placed on the arm due to both doing everything possible to max out speed on the fastball and the need to throw movement pitches has put baseball players—namely pitchers—in the straits they are in
Yeah. There were outliers like Ryan. Bob Gibson. Even Sudden Sam McDowell.
But that was a different era, where players weren’t bionic men and salaries were somewhat minuscule.
I do believe that teams are more prone to put guys on the IR for much more minor things than the olden days. Million dollar contracts being what they are, a lot of what puts a guy on the shelf were just “Play through it” variety back then
In today’s game, Shelton’s lineup again makes no sense
Marcano is playing shortstop and Joe isn’t even in the lineup
The Diamondbacks’ pitcher is a lefty
Yeah, I think he’s pulling names out of a hat at this point
And this is a bullpen game for D-backs pitchers today. Nonetheless, we’re seeing some of the weakest, most feeble at bats of the year. Suwinski and Choi looked so sick that you’d think they could have thrown it underhand.
Not hard to fathom that the DBack’s bullpen thus far has held us to 2 hits while striking out 8 Pirates over the first 7 innings
While it’s good that Suwinski hit a double off left handed pitcher what is Choi doing in the lineup?
My fear today which historically makes sense, Keller losing this masterpiece because we can’t score more runs for him. I don’t trust Shelton enough to make the right decisions to ensure a win
Fun fact
Keller leads the league in strikeouts looking
Suwinski leads the league in strikeouts looking
14 strikeouts by DBack’s relief pitchers and Shelton didn’t disappoint
He should have allowed Keller to pitch the 8th inning. It should have been his game to lose having given up just 1 hit through 7 innings
It’s pointless to even waste your time writing about it, TheMan3. There are so many automatic outs in the lineup that it’s mind boggling, and throw in the Shelton mystery moves and you get a headache very quickly
I get that Walker made a nice play on Palacios to strand two runners—that’s what good players do. But again, some of these at bats….can’t any of these guys lay off cutters and sliders in the dirt.
Since from here on out I’m just going to focus on their core for the future, yes, Keller deserved better. Was Shelton trying to make pitching an inning in the All Star game possible by giving him the hook?
Davis and Gonzales showed very little today with the bat and Triolo actually pushed a single around a shift. Nice touch
Suwinski continues to look sick but I’ll give him this: he’s slowly improving against left handed pitching. Slowly
And I have to ask it: is it time for Reynolds to abandon hitting from the right side?
I believe Shelton removed Keller because he thought Mitch was running out of gas so he gambled on his relief pitchers to throw against one of the league’s best hitting team
As I have said ad nauseum, he tinkers with both the pitching staff and lineup far too often.
There’s no reason why Joe wasn’t in the lineup yesterday considering he has the team’s best batting average against lefties
I get why he didn’t use Castro, he’s become an automatic out lately and yes, Cornwhisperer, it’s time for Reynolds to abandon switch hitting
Reynolds looks like a different, and all too average, hitter from the right
I’m going to confine myself to just talking about the core that’s here moving forward. Wins, losses, Shelton, Nutting and guys like Castro, who are bench at best, just aren’t even going to enter my thinking anymore
What the Pirates do with this core is more important, whether it’s the evolution of their kids on the farm or the draft is worth the discussion. One can only hope that the twin hazards here, the continual losses and being called up by necessity when in other organizations they might still be on the farm, will be something to watch
I still believe that Reynolds should not be batting 2nd in the lineup. Two years ago he was the #3 hitter and posted double digits in homers and led the league with triples
He also drove in over 90 runs
His slump in my opinion can be linked to where he bats in the lineup and the pressure he’s putting on himself to get on base because the #1 hitter, whoever Shelton pencils in, isn’t getting on base
I know others will say that your best hitter should bat second because he’s probably going to get more ABs and it’s worth repeating, basic analytics doesn’t work with this team and the offensive numbers prove that
Striking out 16 times as a team yesterday was a huge embarrassment
Even the young core players are swinging at pitches out of the strike zone,
Does Shelton demand discipline? It certainly doesn’t seem that way
Davis and Gonzales apparently have never seen breaking pitches, given the combination of wild swings or being caught flat footed when a spin pitch lands in the strike zone. And Jack…well, I don’t think I would ever throw the kid a fastball anywhere near the plate
Triolo seems to battle at bat, at the very least. Don’t know that he has power or not but his problem more than anything else has been understanding that MLB pitchers use all parts of the plate that an umpire will give
I’d mention Marcano here as another guy who can’t pick up spin very well
Agree 100% about Reynolds. He’s not a setup man but in this line up, a guy who with Cutch and Santana, has to be the guy driving in runs. Maybe someday Suwinski or Davis will ascend to the power hitter position when they improve. They’re not anywhere near that point in terms of consistency. And I just don’t get batting Davis at lead off
I never understood why Bae doesn’t bat leadoff. for that matter and why he doesn’t bunt more often.
Come to think about it, I don’t understand Shelton’s style towards the lineup at any given time
Today should be interesting, the Bucs starter is I believe a reliever.
It’s my fervent hope that Haines is fired after the AS break. Someone must be held accountable for this team’s perpetual lack of offense
Your question of Davis batting lead off in today’s game must have been heard by Shelton, Suwinski is batting first
Marcano brings very little to the plate, yet he’s in the #7 hole, ahead of Gonzalez
What’s the over/under for runs scored?
It’s ok, TheMan3. Joe Block just proudly told the audience that this the best Pirates record going into the break since 2019. Wow. Feels good
Was just going to say that Davies is the type of garbage pitcher that gives this team fits. Utter garbage. And then, Suwinski strikes out
and he struck out on 3 pitches no less and not to be undone he strikes out again while looking.
I was taught in Pony league that you protect the plate even by half swinging that fouls off the pitch. This team swings at pitches only if they’re thrown down the middle or completely out of the strike zone
I hate announcers that sugar coat this team’s offense, and hate it more when they’ll claim a hitter doesn’t chase bad pitches only to see them strike out on pitches nowhere close to the plate
another double digit strike out performance by the lackluster, in consistent slump offense by the Pirates
four hits through 7 innings, again having to depend upon the relief pitchers to keep them in the lead and overall game, it’s an embarrassing time to be a Pirate fan
Does anyone know why Connor Joe hasn’t been playing? I would have thought he’d have pinch hit against a lefty this series
Yeah, strange
But on the bright side, Choi’s offensive outburst today all but guarantees him a ticket out of town at deadline time. And while I like the character of guys like Santana , Hedges and Hill, I’d have to think they’ll be moving in, too
Your point about this anemic offense is on target, of course. I’ve never seen Reynolds look this sick, for one. But again, you wonder why so many here can’t pick up spin pitches, don’t know the strike zone and are clueless about pitch counts.
I’ll salute Triolo for the second day in a row, going the other way to beat the shift and plate a run