The Pirates announced Thursday that they’ve placed right-hander Colin Holderman on the 15-day IL with a right wrist sprain, selected the contract of righty Ben Heller from Triple-A Indianapolis and opened a spot on the 40-man roster by designating outfielder Edward Olivares for assignment.
Olivares, 28, was acquired from the Royals in the offseason when Kansas City needed to open a roster spot after signing right-hander Chris Stratton. Olivares had qualified for arbitration for the first time and he agreed avoid arbitration by accepting a $1.35MM salary from the Pirates.
Unfortunately, his tenure in Pittsburgh was a bit less than what the club was expecting. He had slashed .270/.322/.439 with the Royals over 2022 and 2023 for a combined wRC+ of 106 in that time but he hit .224/.291/.333 with the Pirates this year, with that production leading to a wRC+ of 75. He was optioned to Triple-A about a month ago and is hitting .245/.305/.321 at that level for a wRC+ of just 64.
He is in his final option season and will be out of options next year. Between that and his performance, it seems he was getting pushed out of the club’s plans. They fortified their outfield mix by acquiring Bryan De La Cruz and utility player Isiah Kiner-Falefa prior to the deadline.
With the trade deadline now in the past, the Pirates will have to put Olivares on waivers in the coming days. It’s possible that a club could view this year’s downturn as simply bad luck, as his batting average on balls in play is just .250 this year. That’s a drop from the .306 BABIP he had over the two prior seasons and this year’s .290 league average. His 8.2% walk rate this year was actually a noticeable increase from the 5.7% rate he had in the two preceding campaigns. His exit velocity and hard hit rate are down a bit but not drastically so. His speed and arm strength are above average but he’s received poor defensive grades overall.
If some team does put in a claim, Olivares can be optioned for the rest of this year and then retained beyond this season via arbitration. But as mentioned, he will be out of options by next year. If he clears waivers in the coming days, he will have the right to elect free agency as a player with more than three years of service time. But since he is below the five-year mark, heading to the open market would mean forfeiting what’s left of this year’s salary. With roughly $375K still to be paid out, he would likely accept an outright assignment and stick with the Bucs in a non-roster capacity.
As for Heller, this is the second time this year the Pirates have selected him to the roster. The last time resulted in him being designated for assignment and outrighted after allowing 11 earned runs in two innings. His time in the minors has gone far better as he has a 3.55 earned run average in 33 Triple-A innings pitched this year while striking out 40.7% of batters faced. He’s out of options but can be retained via arbitration beyond this season if he manages to hold onto his roster spot.
Holderman should never be allowed back… period!
Why? He was bad for a week and a half, and prior to that, had the most IP and lowest ERA of any Pirates reliever this year. He was also good for the most part last season. Way too early to give up on him after that.
Okay you defend Holderman and I understand your point, Bednar has been even worse than Colin, how do you defend him?
Not really anything to say about Bednar except he hasn’t been good this year. I really don’t know why. No huge change in overall stuff, the injury in Spring Training set him back early in the year, but his location all year has been inconsistent.
His strikeouts per 9 innings is down and his homers per 9 innings are up and he should be removed as the closer in favor of Chapman
They can’t afford to take the risk of him pitching in 1 run games if they have any chance of winning a playoff spot
“They can’t afford to take the risk of him [Bednar/Holderman] pitching in 1 run games if they have any chance of winning a playoff spot”
You could say the same about Chapman.
I expected some regression in the home run department. He had a 3.8% HR/FB ratio in 2023 compared to 8.7% in 2021-2022, but now he’s up to 12.7%. He’s gotten knocked around the yard and has an 11.4% barrel rate compared to 5.9% in 2021-2023. His command has been way off this year. I don’t know what changed from last year to this season, but something has been off all year. All I am really hoping for now is that it’s not a major injury and he can return to form next season.
Chapman has given up 1 run over his last 5 innings with 10 strikeouts
He’s unable to master his spin pitches, first and foremost. Hitters sit on fastballs that are too often dead red. His injuries played a big part in this of course, dating back to spring training. Have to agree with TheMan3 at this point, as it may be time to flip Chapman into the closer role
Honestly, I really don’t care who closes games at this point. Like I said in my previous comment, I’m just hoping Bednar can get through this season and the off-season without a huge surgery, and do whatever he needs to do to settle down and can return to form next year.
Sure, Chapman’s a lock to keep that up. He never wavers, does he…
How about the ones before that when he blew several leads in short succession?
Chapman will break your hearts if he’s the closer.
Yeah, agreed. I never understood the need to spend $10M on another closer for a .500 team and one who often has control issues
But in looking at all of this, you wonder if Pirates brass saw something in Bednar
His speed isn’t down but again, batters adjust to one trick ponies and they’re sitting on his fastball
The only way I’d put Chapman in the closer role is if they hit a really hot streak here within the next week or so. If they don’t, then there’s really no reason not to see if Bednar can regain form before the end of the year.
And this is likely what they’ll do.
Holderman is a supreme disappointment at this stage and Chapman can implode in a close game at any point
My sense is that they are grooming Nicolas to be a closer at some point but here again, he’s a young guy with control and confidence issues
They have the home stretch ahead and a difficult road trip ahead. I don’t know that the closer issue is really that important
no more breaking of fans’ hearts when Bednar blows saves and has an era of 5.17
I am a big Bednar supporter but he doesn’t have it this year and is a risk every time he takes the mound
Read Joe Starkey’s column in the PG online. It’s almost comical in describing some of the recent losses
SenorFigs and I have recently been exchanging comments about how lackluster certain hitters are on this team, and in today’s game, Cruz crushed a ball off of the right center field wall and basically took his sweet time running to first until he realized that he could have easily had a double but didn’t pour it on until he reached first base.
The score would be tied right now if he wasn’t so lackadaisical about hustling
Yet Shelton high fived in the dugout while never saying a single thing about it
Cruz was thrown out trying to reach second base
Wasn’t a fan of Billy Martin, but I can imagine how he might have reacted as manager. Minimum benching of Cruz, perhaps a brawl in the dugout. (See Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson.)
Bob Walk observed that in today’s game many players show that lack of hustle. They admire their hit before getting a move on. It is not just a Pirates’ thing, though it is definitely bad on this team.
I am fine with a .500 team here. To me, that’s all you can expect under Nutting, at best
But I wouldn’t stand for a cell phone popping out of a pocket on the basepaths, a player with a handful of seeds while a ball is live in the outfield, lackadaisical throws from the catcher back to the pitcher with runners on base or the continual jogging on basepaths at the high school level, let alone with an MLB roster
Billy Martin, sure. But I remember Atlanta’s manager removing Acuna from a game for a similar stunt just last year.
Shelton tries to be friends with the players and allows them to be lazy on the base paths and admiring their towering fly balls
Tellez hit what he thought was a homer in a game this year and just stood at home plate, until realizing that it had hit off the top of the wall
Instead of having a triple, he had to settle for a double
As much as I like Rowdy, he should have been disciplined but wasn’t
and Bednar blew yet another save opportunity
Looks like all of this has gotten into his head now.
And why Cruz made that throw…. Sheesh
Ironically it was Bednar that broke hearts in today’s game while Chapman pitched a perfect inning
Starting to wonder what’s going on between Cruz’s ears. He’s a freak athlete but I don’t like him. To many Brain farts on a regular basis.
Sell high on relievers
Pirates never do this
Got zilch for Felipe Lopez/Vasquez
Hanrahan deal worked out, but prob could’ve traded minimal in a seperate deal to acquire Melancon, while getting a better haul for Hanny
Not sure what they got for Melancon or if he left as a FA
Bednar could’ve fetched a teams top 5 prospect last offseaon
If you have a 24 mil budget, you don’t spend 10 mil of it on Chapman to not be your closer
He only throws 2 pitches, needs to come up with a changeup if some kind
He has 3 pitches he throws 20%+ of the time. A fastball, curveball, and splitter. He’s not really a two-pitch pitcher. Part of the issue may be that he’s sort of put his curveball on the backburner. In 2022 and 2023, he used the pitch 29.5% and 25.4% of the time, respectively. This year, he’s used it 20.1% of the time. All of that usage has gone to his splitter, which he has used 20.9% of the time, compared to about 17% in 2022-2023.
Holderman had a .212 BAbip April-June and has a .437 BAbip since July. A .290 BAbip is about average, so I expect Holderman to trend that direction.
At least Heller will have the chance to drop his ERA into the mid-40s.
I bet Skenes hopes not to see him warming up in the bullpen .
Not happy to see Olivares get DFAd. He was good in KC the prior two seasons, and while I understand he struggled, he didn’t even get to 200 plate appearances and has a .282 xBA and .331 xwOBA in that small sample size with the Pirates, both of which are almost identical to his xBA and xwOBA with the Royals last year. Plus they don’t have very many outfielders, so I don’t fully understand this move. Seeing Heller back is certiantly interesting. He did horrible when he was here last time, but he was put in a pretty bad situation. Since getting DFA’d and demoted back to Triple-A, he has a 1.84 ERA, has only allowed 1 homer in 14.1 innings, has struck out over a third of batters with an 8.9% walk rate while recording four saves. The huge worry is he has a .148 batting average on balls in play since getting sent back to Triple-A, which is completley unsustainable. But since he’s been the best reliever at Triple-A, might as well see if he can do better than last time.
They should have dfa Taylor instead and brought Oliveras back up or sent Bae back to Indy
Neither bring any offense to a team that needs offense and I don’t care about how Taylor plays center field, he can’t even hit his weight
Well, your options are two guys who can’t hit very well, one who can play Gold Glove defense in center field and another who can’t play defense in either outfield corner. Are you really trusting Bryan Reynolds to move back to center field for the rest of the year and not have something catestrophic happen?
Taylor sucks at the plate no matter that he won one GG in center field
Cruz has committed 21 errors but at least doesn’t suck at the plate
You can’t defend Taylor while ignoring Cruz’ fielding issues
Cruz having trouble with the glove in recent games doesn’t mean that they should have called Olivares up. He had a .624 OPS when the Pirates first gave him a shot in the Majors and a .657 OPS since getting sent to Triple-A. Since they demoted Olivares, MAT has a higher OPS than Olivares did when he was here or at Triple-A. I guess if you want a guy who’s a bad defender in the outfield corners with a .600 OPS rather than a great defender in center field with a .580 OPS, then sure, call up Olivares and DFA Taylor. I really don’t see what difference it makes when Olivares hasn’t been much better than Taylor with the bat this year.
Your comments on defense are well taken. But aren’t you putting the cart before the horses?
You have a Gold Glove 3rd baseman who is woeful at the plate on most occasions, and now you note two other guys in the outfield who play good defense in the outfield who rarely hit. Would I trade putting Reynolds back in center for one or two guys in the corners who can take? In a heartbeat
Bae is absolutely atrocious in the OF. That 3 hopper to the plate last night was embarrassing. He consistently seems to have issues transferring the ball from his glove to hand and get his throw off.
I’d say Triolo is another one that has no business on the roster.
The Pirates had a lineup with 4 of 9 batters hitting .200 or less last night.
BC has been a failure when it comes to identifying talent to add in the off season. None of his signings or acquisitions worked. Chapman while scary has been the lone bright spot.
This team flirted with a WC spot because of its pitching. Looking at the last 2 series between ARI and SD and you can see the major gap in talent
Exactly.
I’ll give Cherington credit for re-stocking the minors and stop there. Clearly, they have a lot of guys who are somewhere between “works in progress” or “maybe someday they’ll show some ability to land on. MLB roster”
They’ve produced no impact players under this GM, testament to both their scouting and player development departments
And there’s no cavalry coming over the hill
They’re going to hope Keller/Skenes/Jones and two others can keep them in games through ‘25 without spending. Amazing
Hard to get a sense of the GM position here because we’ll never know what financial constraints have been placed on him.
You’re absolutely correct about the players that have no business being on the roster but the choices at Indy to replace them are slim to none because of the failed player development under the leadership of Cherington
Cherington has at least done one thing right when it comes to player development, and that’s pitching. The only reason we’ve stayed close this late into the year is because of the starting pitching. Skenes, Jones, and Keller are ovbiously the big 3, but Falter has been a nice surprise this year, Luis Ortiz’s last two starts haven’t been great, but he’s definitely taken huge steps forward. You have a ton of pitching up and coming throughout the farm system as well. Even some of their scrapheap pickups like Ryan Borucki last year, Dennis Santana this season, and even Jake Woodford to a degree have been solid.
you can’t win games on pitching and defense alone. Scoring runs is essential and this team doesn’t have enough firepower to make up for good pitching and defense
It’s that simple
Like Huntington before him, Cherington has subscribed to the Rays blueprint for success as a small market team
Neal went off script at the end, of course, and chucked the entire model as he traded away a great deal of his blue chippers in favor of a win now approach that failed miserably
We all remember the Archer fiasco
For his part, Cherington seems reluctant to part with any minor league prospect with any sort of promise.
I get that, especially when the jury is out about a number of guys on your big league roster. That includes the few areas where there seems to be great depth like pitching and middle infield
I don’t pretend to have the answers here and don’t know what constraints the GM is under here.
You laud Cherington for pitcher development and I can concur but it’s a much more difficult proposition in developing MLB-caliber every day players. Here, he’s failed miserably. Is it scouting, development, or both?
Despite drafting high for a number of years, there’s a difference between the types of players coming into this organization and others like Baltimore
More pointedly, there’s a difference between the kinds of players ascending to the big league team as opposed to what you see in other organizations.
Must be a reason, no?
It really comes down to the Pirates not being able to help their position players make that next step from the minor leagues to the Major Leagues. Cruz is so far the only one who has taken his talent from Triple-A to the Major Leagues successfully. Bae has a .843 OPS at Triple-A, Henry Davis has a 1.016 OPS at Indy, Triolo has a .844 OPS at Triple-A. All have an OPS below .650 in the Majors so far.
On top of that, they’ve had a lot of guys have sever fall-offs from 2023. Between MAT, Triolo, Jack Suwinski, Edward Olivares, and Ke’Bryan Hayes, they each had a wRC+ of at least 96, with Taylor having the lowest at 96. None are even within 20% of that this year. Joey Bart might be the only guy they have brought in who has actually improved.
On top of that, you’ve had multiple guys say they’ve gone beyond the organization to find help with their hitting, and have subsequently improved after doing so. It was Oneil in 2022, Hayes last season, and Tellez this year.
If one or two prospects become busts, and one or two guys take a step back, that’s to be expected of any Major League team. But now you have like over a half-dozen guys, both home grown and brought in via trade/free agency, having horrible or career worst years, regressing significantly from career best years last season, or not making any progress from Triple-A to the Majors.
There needs to be a hard reset of what’s being taught to the Pirates’ hitters at the Major League level. If this team is going to win, it’s going to be on the backs of their pitching. But you still need at least a semi-competent line-up. The talent is there, get the help it needs to be better.
Agreed 100%
I’m just not convinced that the talent is there and more than ever, have little faith in a manager who prefers to be kind and nurturing over one who demands focus, intensity and professionalism
Knowing what I do about running teams, allowing complacency is like a disease that quickly spreads
You see that here on a daily basis
That’s an exacting point. Until/unless the administration is willing to accept that the hitting program is ineffective at best they’ll be no changes. Nearly everyone has regressed under the tutelage of Matt Canada, oh sorry, Andy Haines, wrong ineffective coach.
Jeez the only guy that ever had success with Hayes was Jon Nunnally and they fired him for it.
Everyone seemed to love Eckstein, players hit, team scored, well we definitely need to put a stop to that. Especially if we’re getting close to arbitration years.
The help that’s needed to get the most out of this talent is getting rid of Haines
He was fired by the Brewers for the same reasons he was this team struggling to score runs
Bednar is trying to earn a save in this game and it’s not looking good
I blame Shelton for not having the guts to make changes in this situation by making Chapman the closer
They are averaging 5 runs per game in their last 13 games. The current slide is on Shelton and the pitching staff except Keller and Skenes.
Apparently scoring 5 runs against teams that score more doesn’t win many games
Right. Because of the pitching staff. Again, they are not the ’27 Yankees but right now, this is not an offense problem.
They have the second lowest offensive stats in MLB
They routinely have a batting order that features two guys batting over .250
I mean, you can’t be serious.
The current slide is on relief pitchers, defensive lapses, poor hitting and Shelton
Quite serious. Of the 4 problems you correctly listed, offense is 4th. Again, RIGHT NOW.
Why did they cut Honeywell loose when he is better? Pitching decent for the Dodgers.
And was he pitching hurt which led to his struggles?
That’s not how it reads but I was curious.
ot won’t matter, the Padres will sweep this series and the Bucs will finally be revealed for what they really are
A poorly managed organization starting with the GM and hs failed player development program and an equally failed hitting coach who hasn’t improved this offense since arriving
The Bucs are proving you correct after 6 innings today. 4-0 Padres.
oops, that was after 5 and a half. Bucs made it 4-3.
Interesting to see who would hold a possible Bucs lead today.
And it was Bednar.
And the result? … You can guess.
They brought in two guys who just weren’t the answer to a struggling offense. Again, it appears their MO moving forward is to place all their chips on starting pitching. That’s nice but on one hand, starters can only give you 5-6 innings and then your relievers have to perform. But on the other, you have to grind out runs. They just don’t have enough guys who can put runs on the board with any consistency. It’s a recipe for trouble and it’s been clear in this home stand
All they have is a stellar starting staff coming into focus through ‘25. I can’t see them suddenly spending on big time hitters. As such, what you’re seeing is what you’re going to get
you have a habit of twisting people’s opinions to suit your narrative, MLB1225
Taylor sucks at the plate and this team needs offense. Through 5 innings in this game they have 2 hits against a pitcher with an ers of close to 5. And I just proved my point with Taylor as he struck out something he’s crafted well this season
What narrative am I pushing? Taylor sucks at hitting, but Olivares doesn’t? I’m not sure what you’re arguing here. I agree, this team needs offense, but does Olivares really bring that to the table? He’s done horrible at Triple-A and aside from like the first two/three weeks of this season, didn’t do anything in the bigs for the Pirates. I’d rather have the outfielder who can at least defend his position to a good very well than one who can’t hit or field.
If you’re going to bring up anyone from the minor leagues to help the offense, let it be Matt Gorski. At least you’re still getting good defense in the outfield and first base, and someone who might be able to run into a few, even if he strikes out like 35%+ of the time. If Olivares looked good at Triple-A, I’d be 100% on board with bringing him back up. I don’t like they DFA’d him, but I also don’t think he’s going to help the offense anymore than Taylor does right now.
I dont understand the reason for continuing to play infielders in the outfield… this year its Bae and occasionally Triollo. Bae is worthless, a complete liability in the field, and his 500 OPS doesnt do much at the plate. Send him back to Indy and let him hit. His numbers dont translate to the big club
They should have signed bell…they had nothing to lose
instead they traded for de la cruz who has gone 3 for 29 with 9 strikeouts
Ironically he fits right in to this offense
There were better options out there but as usual we went with the cheapest.
Not money this time but prospects.
Hoarding prospects will not get you into the playoffs since you always have holes to fill.
Ben Heller was very over matched his last time in the majors. I hope that is different now.
Cruz should be lifted in the field in save situations, his throwing errors are becoming too costly
I feel bad for Bednar but the blame really falls on Shelton
He’s gutless
They should of traded Bedar for coby mayo of Baltimore at the trade deadline. Holderman was overworked. Shelton doesn’t know how to manage a bullpen….too many of these asinine starting games with bullpen by demand.
Shelton doesn’t know how to manage, period
9.1 innings in July and 3 in August is overworked? The most innings he pitched any month was 11.1 Never pitched more than 2 days in a row. If he can’t handle that he better find another job.
He’s lost confidence and that’s truly a shame. The way he pitched to Merrill in the 9th made it pretty clear as the kid homered off him the night before
Funny thing was that as he started the inning he seemed to have his heat and threw a couple of nice spin pitches. Then the roof caved in for him mentally
Cruz sure didn’t help matters did he? Sheesh
At this point in the season, don’t know where you go with closers until he gets a couple of good outings. If he gets them. Confidence is a funny thing and we can say pitchers have to have short memories but human beings are all different. No prescription. Hope he overcomes this period
“Stick a fork in them, they’re done.” Probably the best thing that can happen now is a complete collapse. It would give them a higher probability of getting a good draft position and maybe, just maybe lead to either Haines or Shelton gone, perhaps both.
I seriously believe that the Pirates have underperformed this year. The fault lies with Shelton, Haines and the coaching staff and, ultimately, with Ben Cherington as he hired them. Bring in a better hitting coach and a better manager and this team would perform better. Oh, please down “round up the usual suspects” and bring in a manager or hitting coach who is available because he couldn’t perform elsewhere and got fired. That seems common in MLB
Also the GM should go. He does not seem to have the ability to take us to the next level.
We are better than we were but this is as good as it will get unless a change is made.
On the contrary, they performed about as well as I expected. I predicted 78-82 wins because as I’ve wondered for two years now, where were the runs going to come from?
It’s elementary. Baseball isn’t that hard to understand where winning and losing is concerned
Resign yourself to the fact that this is as good as it gets. A .500 team
Had the bullpen not imploded, blew saves and Cruz’ errors not cost the team wins, they might actually have a winning record
#rebuildover
Yeah, rebuilds are funny. You hope you’ve built a solid foundation. This one looks kind of shaky
Well if you are good at what you do then you wouldn’t be available.
I will say this though. For the first three months, the Pirates were pathetically boring. Now, they may be frustrating but most of their games are at least interesting.
Notice that walks are up in both leagues. The umpires are squeezing the plate. It was so obvious in skenes last start. I’m not a big fan of the new rule changes…but maybe they need to use the computer or camera to call balls and strikes. Umpires behind the plate should be obsolete
Tiredolddude here
Agreed. And Angel Hernandez isn’t even in business anymore. Plate umps have been incredibly inconsistent this season. Their union carps about being replaced but they sure haven’t made a case this season
MLB has wanted more offense in the game for some time and the beauty of 1-0 or 2–1 games has gone the way of the dinosaur but umps no longer calling corners and pinching the strike zone is certainly a thing it seems, game in and game out
Heller is a walking disaster. They should have strengthened the bullpen before the trade deadline. There were numerous good relievers available but they just stuck their head in the sand. So disappointing that they have probably blew their playoff chances.