June 18: Sullivan cleared waivers and was outrighted back to Indianapolis, according to the MLB.com transaction log. It’s not clear if he’ll elect free agency or accept the assignment.
June 16: The Pirates announced that right-hander Dauri Moreta has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis. To open a 40-man roster spot, catcher Brett Sullivan has been designated for assignment. Sullivan was on the active roster, so the Bucs now have an open spot there. That perhaps suggests that catcher Joey Bart will be reinstated from the IL. The club is off today so that may not be official until tomorrow.
Pittsburgh called Sullivan up last week to add depth behind the plate after losing Endy Rodríguez to injury. Bart has been out since late May, so the Bucs needed a backup catcher behind Henry Davis. Sullivan picked up three starts behind the dish. He went 1-6 with a walk and three strikeouts. It marked his third straight season logging limited MLB action. Sullivan appeared in 40 games with the Padres as a depth catcher in 2023-24. He’s a .204/.250/.291 hitter through 112 plate appearances at the highest level.
This is the second DFA of the season for the 31-year-old Sullivan. San Diego outrighted him off the 40-man roster during Spring Training. They traded him to the Bucs for outfielder Bryce Johnson a couple weeks later in a swap of non-roster players. Sullivan has spent the majority of the year in Triple-A, where he’s hitting .218/.254/.318 in 30 games. He’ll be traded or placed on waivers this week. If he goes unclaimed on waivers, he could elect free agency in lieu of an outright assignment back to Indianapolis.
Moreta last appeared in the majors in 2023. The 29-year-old reliever has been on the injured list since undergoing UCL surgery in Spring Training 2024. He’s been on a rehab assignment since late April. Pitchers typically can spend 30 days on a rehab stint but that is sometimes extended for those coming back from elbow surgery. Moreta is evidently healthy but struggled to command the ball on his rehab stint, walking nearly 17% of batters faced. The Pirates will keep him in Triple-A for now as he tries to find more consistency.
While Bart is a decent hitter, his catching skills leave a lot to be desired. Davis should be the everyday catcher. With Bart catching occasionally and platooning at first with Horowitz.
Bart has never played at first base before, it would further hurt the team if they platoon him there with Horowitz
They were counting on Endy to platoon at first base
I agree that the player who should be dfa is Pham, he’s just not a decent offensive player, it will probably be Canario
Does it matter if he never played first base at this point in a lost season. It can’t hurt to platoon them. It would be like spring training. And I agree with giving suwinsky another chance. Getting rid of pham is the right way to get rid of waste. His defense will not get him on base
BART doesn’t play 1B and Henry has hit better this time up… much more productive than BART. BART should be #2 catcher for now or until Henry proves he can’t do it. And Bart isn’t good at all defensively. SF gave up on home after a long time. They know what they were doing.
Davis also has a stronger and more accurate arm
Hoping padres jump on Sullivan to rejoin the depth. Seeing as they don’t trust Campusano to catch.
The other logical roster move would be to keep Gallagher and dfa pham. Of course cherrington won’t do that. It would be admitting he made a mistake in signing him.
Have you not seems Pham’s work in the outfield?
You’re obsessed.
This team needs offense. Pham doesn’t provide any
As long as it’s the Pirates anyway, why not bring in Joey Chestnut, the hot dog eating champion?
It probably won’t help the everyday lineup, but hot dog sales could go up substantially.
Keller, Reynolds, Hayes and Heaney all gonna be gone! Kalefa also!?
IKF will also be traded, no doubt.
He’s a free agent after this season
I am not sure what they could get in return for Hayes and even more importantly, I don’t trust Cherington to make trades that would improve this team’s offense
Remember DLC anyone?
San Diego who received Bryce Johnson in a trade for Sullivan from the Bucs was called up yesterday to the Padres
Joey Bart’s BB%, K%, Hard Hit Rate, Line Drive Rate, and Exit Velocity are all better than they were last year when he had a .799 OPS. He has, however, hit too many groundballs this year.
Jack Suwinski has 9 homers in 35 games with Indy and is batting .267
It’s time to give him another chance at the major league level and dfa Pham
They need to call up cook not suwinski
I don’t disagree, dfa Canario and promote Cook
All Canario does is strike out
TheMan 3
.267 at Indy might only equal .200 or lower in MLB. If he gets it up to closer to .300 and cuts down his strikeouts I would say he learned something and deserves another chance.
I am rooting for him to get his act together but don’t want him to come up too soon and fail again.
Suwinski YES.
The pitching is very good. This offense is embarrassing. A few dollars for some bats this offseason world have changed the entire season. Way to go cheap, hillbilly loser.
Nutting inherited his publishing empire from his father
In other words, he’s not a self made billionaire
Reminds me of another cheap skate
Lol man3..I agree with you on both cheap skates
I have no idea what you are talking about.
Add bats this off season!? How about now? Multiple trades now,do something!
What’s the over/under for strikeouts by the Bucs and runs for this game ?
Kelly needs to revamp the lineup. IKF, the team’s most consistent hitter should be batting lead off and Cruz should be batting third . He strikes out too much for batting lead off
Hayes, regardless of the opposing pitcher, should bat last.
And once again, Kelly misused the bullpen
After Carmen gave up the first homer he should have been removed. Instead Carmen gave up 2 homers and the game was put of reach for the Bucs to come back from
Of course it doesn’t help that they again only scored 3 runs in total
They are currently on pace to win only 64 games. Kelly and the entire coaching staff along with Cherington should lose their jobs if this pace continues
Again Kelly is not the man to be permanent manager. Let him finish the season. Now cherrington should e fired immediately. I don’t want him nowhere near this year’s draft and the August trade deadline.
Kelly is indeed a Shelton clone
This off season the pirates need to do a organizational cleaning. From top to bottom. Minor league coaches, scouts,major league coaches and manager and general manager.
They need to hire externally. To me it’s amazing that the whole organization forgot how to hit. How they forgot about fundamental baseball. I can see 1 or 2 guys not hitting, but the whole team! It has to be an organizational problem.
It doesn’t matter how much a leadoff hitter strikes out, if he gets on base consistently. Oneil Cruz’s .344 on-base percentage is second only to Andrew McCutchen’s .348 among Pirate hitters.
Cruz should eventually bat SECOND in the Pirates lineup because he is their best hitter. The best hitter should NOT bat third because that is the spot in the lineup that comes up most often with two outs and nobody on base.
As opposed to the leadoff spot with the 8 and 9 hitters in front of the only home run hitter on the team.
Then explain how the GREAT ONE, won the 1966 MVP award batting 3rd. Explain how the greatest hitters of all time batted 3rd. You’re post make absolutely no sense.
Richard-I question your stat that the 3rd hitter comes up the most often with nobody on base.
If you put IKF and Cutch first and second and by definition they have the team’s best OBP’s then you have at least about a 2/3 chance that at least one will be on base for the third hitter.
What am I missing?