The Pirates opening-day roster is not yet official, but it took shape Monday morning when the team optioned Jose Osuna and Kyle Crick to Class AAA Indianapolis and reassigned Kevin Siegrist, a non-roster invitee, to minor league camp.
Heading into Monday, the Pirates were deciding whether to bring an extra relief pitcher or a fifth bench player to Detroit. The moves clarified their plans; the Pirates will carry 13 pitchers, including eight relievers, on opening day.
Left-hander Josh Smoker and right-handers Edgar Santana and Dovydas Neverauskas will make the opening-day club, barring any last-minute moves. Michael Feliz, George Kontos, Steven Brault, Tyler Glasnow and Felipe Rivero already had guaranteed spots. Right-hander A.J. Schugel, who is out of minor league options, will start the season on the disabled list.
“We are going to go with an eight-man bullpen,” general manager Neal Huntington said. “We just feel it’s the best way for us to get off to a good start from a pitching standpoint.”
The rotation will include opening-day starter Ivan Nova, Jameson Taillon, Trevor Williams, Chad Kuhl and Joe Musgrove. The Pirates will keep four bench players — Sean Rodriguez, David Freese, Adam Frazier and Elias Diaz — for the opening series in Detroit, which begins Thursday, and possibly long after that.
The Pirates also reassigned outfielder Daniel Nava, catcher Ryan Lavarnway and pitcher Bo Schultz, who is rehabilitating from Tommy John surgery, to minor league camp.
Huntington said optioning Osuna will allow him to work on his defense at third base. Osuna had yet another strong spring offensively; he hit .327/.370/.637 in 49 at-bats with a team-leading five home runs.
“We had a handful of hard decisions as we near the end of camp,” Huntington said. “Jose was one especially, with what he did last year basically the whole year with us. ... He’s a good man, he’s gotten better, he’s worked hard.”
Manager Clint Hurdle said the extra arm in the bullpen will give the Pirates the “manpower” they need, especially because Brault and Glasnow are not expected to pitch on back-to-back days. The Pirates also don’t have a true two-inning reliever in their bullpen, and bringing an extra reliever in effect creates that role for the Pirates.
“We’ve had guys this spring in the two-inning outings, one inning’s been dynamic and the other inning hasn’t been so good, so we haven’t had anybody really jump out and just corral that opportunity to be that guy,” Hurdle said. “The extra man, maybe we just cut it up where it’s one inning apiece for a while to cover those two innings.”
Additionally, Rule 5 draft pick Jordan Milbrath and left-hander Jack Leathersich are on waivers, according to a source, and the New York Mets claimed outfielder Bryce Brentz off waivers. If Milbrath, a right-hander, clears waivers, the Pirates will have to offer him back to the Cleveland Indians due to the restrictions of the Rule 5 draft. The Pirates and Indians then could work out a trade to remove the restrictions and keep Milbrath, but teams usually do that to send a player to the minors.
To evaluate the pitchers vying for the open bullpen spots, Hurdle said the Pirates relied on various metrics, including previous spring-training performances, in comparison with the current spring; projections based on arm strength and velocity; and video of games from last season, particularly in the case of Crick and Siegrist, who were not with the organization in 2017.
Huntington said Siegrist’s velocity had not reached a place where the team was comfortable putting him on the major league roster, and Sunday pitching coach Ray Searage also said he had concerns about the lefty’s command. Nevertheless, Siegrist himself said Sunday that he felt ready for the season and thought his velocity would tick up with the adrenaline of regular-season games.
Siegrist has a clause in his contract — which Huntington referred to as an “upward-mobility clause” — that will allow him to consider deals with clubs that would add him to their major league roster. If he received another offer, the Pirates would be able to keep him only if they put him on their major league roster.
Crick, a right-hander who joined the team in the Andrew McCutchen trade, pitched in more spring-training games than any other Pirates thrower. But he allowed eight runs and 13 hits in 11 innings, and batters hit .310 against him.
“It was more where Santana, Smoker and Neverauskas have in our minds the ability to help this club with weapons, with the totality of what they’ve done, what they’ve done this spring, what we anticipate them doing, and that’s the hard part,” Huntington said.
Neither of the players acquired by the Pirates in the McCutchen trade — Crick and outfield prospect Bryan Reynolds — will be on the opening-day roster.
“It would’ve been easy to put Kyle on the club because of who he was traded for, but we took the players that we felt put us in the best position to win games early in the season,” Huntington said. “Kyle’s going to help us, and our belief is still there. He’s going to be a really good major league reliever for years to come. Bryan Reynolds is a young prospect that we think the world of, and this club, this decision was about a longer-term view with the attempt to keep our short-term [view] in a similar area.”
Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG. Elizabeth Bloom: ebloom@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BloomPG.
First Published: March 26, 2018, 2:25 p.m.
Updated: March 26, 2018, 6:18 p.m.
