The Pirates have designated right-hander Max Kranick for assignment. The move opens a 40-man roster spot for Martín Pérez, whose reported one-year deal has been finalized.
Kranick, 26, made 11 MLB appearances (nine starts) between 2021-22. The 6’3″ hurler worked to a 5.56 ERA with a middling 17.9% strikeout percentage and a 10.9% walk rate in 43 2/3 innings. Kranick underwent Tommy John surgery in June 2022, an unfortunately timed procedure that essentially cost him a year and a half.
The Bucs reinstated the Scranton, PA native from the injured list on September 1. They optioned him to Triple-A Indianapolis. He spent the remainder of the year there, allowing five runs over 16 1/3 frames. Kranick struck out 12 and walked six in that limited time.
Pittsburgh will trade Kranick or put him on waivers within the next week. While he has never been a high-strikeout pitcher, he owns a 3.55 ERA over parts of seven seasons in the minors. Kranick has been a plus strike-thrower on the farm, walking 6.2% of opponents in his minor league career. He’ll be out of options in 2024, however, so a team would have to carry him on the MLB roster or again designate him for assignment if they acquire him from Pittsburgh.
Hottest move of the day thus far!
Yeah, it’s just another typical hot stove day here in Pittsburgh
It was only a matter of time before they DFA ed someone to sign Perez
Release put them under the “Max”, as they gave him the “ax”.
Heard he was “Mad”. Now Max won’t even get the minimum.
They said the move was, well, “Smart”.
If he was the All-Star Game MVP, he would get a CarMax.
Hopefully he will pass through and see if he can get back to where he was pre injury.
Seems like no one passes through this time of year. They get snagged by someone else and then they try to slip him through and it goes on and on
Seems like the Pirates looking more to 2025 than 24 with the moves they are making.
They had a fantastic off season. Perfect for 2024 contention. Just need 1 more starting pitcher.
We have one of the worst Rotations in baseball! Signed a bad 1B and the best move might be the 4th OF position!
We need to SP just to be competitive and 2 bats! 1B and a corner OF! I see a 90 loss team!
steelerbravenation has finally come around since my prediction in early November. They’re going to tread water this year as guys get healthy, gain experience and aim towards ‘25
Sorry Dream. No team has had a worse offseason than this one. Beyond pathetic
Only thing that could save it is if they sign Keller to an extension
My 3 favorite best free agent signings. Perez Rowdy Cutch. All 3 by Pirates. They also have 3 of my favorite trades.
One of the best off seasons so far.
Every off season it’s said that they want to get players healthy and wait until the following year but every season they end up with players who get injured and it’s a recurring theme
You don’t know who might get injured in 2024 that prevents 2025 from being competitive
Everyone is a year older, injuries become more common and it’s shrugged off until the next season
Sad state signing “mediocre players” to 1 year deals is one of the best off seasons so far.
Definitely not a bad off season by Pittsburgh standards so far. With some time left before spring they could make it a pretty good one.
The average fan won’t be impressed going into the season with out some sort of splash with a sign or trade. This year Cutch won’t pull the crowds as much as last year.
Pirates pr marketing is awful. If you win fans will come but they could have sold more tickets last year and this year. Truly awful.
Rowdy is projected to be a well above average bat. Perez a solid 4. Gonzales I have no idea but he was almost free and if healthy he can be something of use to even good.
I disagree, with Cutch returning, his presence will continue in contributing to attract fans. He’s a magnet for increasing attendance, especially after he hits his 300th career home run
Man does Nutting have you brainwashed
Projected why? He hits for zero average and needs to hit for power to be useful because his defense is bad!
oh yeah he will but unless the pirates are at or near .500 all the way through the season I wouldn’t expect 1.6m people in the seats again.
1.6m seems doable. If at 500 it will be around 2m.
They need a pitcher with more high end potential instead of another 5th starter. I want them to trade for someone like Edward Cabrera without giving up the farm and maybe sign another CF or get one in a Marlins deal.
But why, holecamels? This team is going nowhere unless the entire division hovers around .500 into September, and that’s highly unlikely
I get their methodology this off season. Add some scrap. Scrape by as Brubaker, Burrows and VV come back mid season. Hope Priester and Ortiz can at least provide some starts that give them a chance. And pray Skenes, Solometo, Jones and perhaps Chandler are on the doorstep of arrival
This has been their entire game plan since the season ended. I can’t blame them
But given this path, why they are bringing in guys like Tellez or talking about Frazier, Taylor or Santana is mind numbing. Let the kids evolve. Yeah, TheMan3 is right. Injuries happen and the perpetual rebuild will continue until they have depth everywhere and down through the minors with kids who have bonafide potential to excel at the MLB level. From what we’ve seen, they’re not there yet.
They have a lot of scrap intermingled with a decent core but they seem to have some confusion where their immediate path forward is concerned with these mystery additions
There are no kids for the outfield and 1b.
Frazier is strange because he doesn’t look any better than Peguero. Good news would be they think they can get Frazier back to his .276 average. Bad news is they don’t think Cruz can play SS. Or maybe there just isn’t any market for Frazier.
If they sign a mlb catcher that will tell us how Davis off season has gone. Hopefully they don’t because he needs to be at catcher even if he is just passable.
So you just lay down and die because some people think youre not good enough? What a stupid way to play. Diamondbacks or Orioles the past two years weren’t supposed to be as good, who’s to say a Pirates team with growth from their young players, a full season of Cruz who could be a star, and potentially more additions won’t be good ehough to be in the hunt in a wide playoff race? They already sorted through the trash and have a pretty set team for the most part.
Would Pirate fans be ok with a DeSclafani for Conner Joe trade ?
Seattle would have to throw in a lot of cash, AD gets $12 million for one year, CJ is pre-arb at $1 million
Still free agents available. Cheaper and can keep Joe.
Scranton what it’s the electric city. But he’s not from Scranton. He’s from the Valley View area of that region. Archbald, Peckville and of course the sister home of St Ubaldo… Jessup
He’s going to have a fourth option, for what it’s worth
Surprised. Roster spaces throwing a wrench into the system.
Keller was offered an extension last summer but refused it because it was a “ team friendly deal “. The chances of him staying here before he hits free agency is slim to none
And BC has said that the rebuild is over, but wants to add pieces to make them competitive in 2024
Actions speak louder than words. Signing players to 1 year deal is more of the same
1 year deals are the best deals.
Wasn’t that last spring training? Meaning he bet on himself and will probably do better financially as a result. Seems like starting pitchers have high injury risk and while there are exceptions, most of them don’t get extended. Not only pirates but other teams as well.
The offer made to Keller happened last July
I’m betting they will overpay for Keller
I like Mitch and think he’s a good pitcher. The jury is still out on him however as he has these streaks where he once again has starts where the fastball continually drifts into dead red or his off speed and movement pitches hang down Main Street
But given their current starter situation, what recourse do they have?
One or two of the young guys would really have to jump up this year for them to allow him to walk.
I suppose it’s progress when Pirates have to release a decent SP in order to sign a FA SP. Shows they have some decent depth on the 40-man.
However, I’m not going to call this off-season a success unless they acquire a mid-level SP who is under team control for more than 1-year through a trade or FA signing. It sends a signal to the fan base the FO is trying to compete for a postseason berth this year.
I want a 1 year deal number 4.
Max will pick up somewhere. Hes one of those that are good enough to stick around a bit longer to see what happens and still pretty young.
In an article in today’s edition of the Trib, Bryan Reynolds says that the team believes that they have playoff potential in 2024 and in another article, Cruz basically says the same thing