Pirates Notes: Five Weeks Of Stuff

OK, some stuff has happened since the Bucs rocked the Nats on October 1st. Most of it is housecleaning and administrative, but now that the World Series is over – nice job, ‘Stros – it’s time to team-build for 2018.

People Stuff:

• Pittsburgh free agency: The Pirates held team options with Andrew McCutchen ($14.5M), Chris Stewart ($1.5M) and Wade LeBlanc ($1.25M). The Pirates exercised the option on Cutch and declined those on Stew (backup catcher Elias Diaz is out of minor league options) and Frenchy, who was outrighted to Indy. John Jaso & Joaquin Benoit are also FA’s.

• RHP Drew Hutchison, the return for the Liariano/Reese/Ramirez trade with Toronto, has elected to go the free agent route for 2018. He was joined by a small army of once-upon-a-time Buccos: LHP Tony Watson, Frankie Liriano, Jeff Locke, Zach Duke, Ollie Perez, RHPs Juan Nicasio, Jhan Marinez, Jason Grilli, Joe Blanton, Rob Scahill, Jesse Chavez, Chris Volstad, Bronson Arroyo, Ernesto Frieri, OF Jaff Decker, Rajai Davis C Erik Kratz, 1B Michael Morse, IFs Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez, Steve Lombardozzi, Chase D’Arnaud & Phil Gosselin. Former farmhand Pirates on the market include LHP Joely Rodriguez, RHP Jean Machi and OF Diego Moreno.
• MLB Trade Rumors hot take on who the Pirates may be after: OF’er Jarrod Dyson, thought to be available for two years/$12M. The speedy Dyson served as a part-time center fielder for the Royals for seven seasons before they traded him to the Mariners for Nate Karns in January this year. Just with baserunning and defense, Dyson can be a two-win player, as he was in 111 games for the Mariners this year. He’ll require a platoon partner (career .215/.293/.259 against lefties) but can bring plenty of value to a team as a fourth outfielder or a platoon option at any outfield spot. Let the rumor mills begin…
• Jose Osuna, who got a little work but no game time at third, is supposed to get serious about the position during the offseason. 
• MLB granted RHP Nick Kingham a fourth minor league option, which means the 26-year-old could open the 2018 season at Indy instead of looking at making the club straight out of camp or face clearing waivers.

• 3B Coach Joey Cora will not be joining his brother Alex, the new Red Sox skipper, at Boston. However, Indy skipper Andy Barkett will. The Red Sox named Barkett assistant hitting coach on the club’s major league staff.
• Tom Prince (bench), Kimera Bartee (1B/OF/running), Cora (3B/infield), Jeff Branson (hitting), Jeff Livesey (ass’t hitting), Ray Searage (pitching) & Euclides Rojas (bullpen) all had their contracts extended through 2019 and keep their same roles, as are bullpen catchers Humberto Andrade and Jordan Comadena.
• Cutch is the Pirates nominee for the Hank Aaron Award for offensive excellence. Each league has a winner based on the votes of fans and an ex-player panel. 
• David Freese was nominated for the Rawlings Golden Glove award, as are Nolan Arenado and Anthony Rendon. Arenado, of course, is the prohibitive fav to take the GG.
• OF Jordan Luplow and LHP Steven Brault were chosen as MLB Pipeline’s Pirates Prospects of the Year.

• The Sporting News announced its All-Star team; not only did no Pirate make the squad, but none even received a vote.
• SS Cole Tucker was removed from the Arizona Fall League roster; his broken hand, tho progressing well, didn’t knit together quickly enough to meet the schedule.  He was replaced by Bradenton 2B Mitch Tolman. The team also sent RHPs JT Brubaker & Mitch Keller, LHPs Brandon Waddell & Taylor Hearn, IF Kevin Kramer and OF Logan Hill to Glendale. Keller (2-0, 1.72, 0.77 WHIP) and Kramer (.314, 2 HR) were named to the All-Star team.
• Charlie Morton is the first MLB pitcher to earn wins in seventh games in the LCS & WS in the same year, per @EliasSports. Tony Watson also earned two of LA’s three WS wins, tossing six shutout innings in the NLCS & WS after being nicked by Arizona in the NLDS.

• PirateFest will shift from the Convention Center to PNC Park this year. It will be a one-day affair held on Saturday, December 9th. Season-ticket holders get in first, from 9-to-noon with general public entry from noon-6 pm. Good news in one way, though – it’s free admission!
•  Teams have to set their 40-man rosters (or reserve lists) for the Rule 5 draft by 11/20. Tenders for all 40-man roster players who are arbitration eligible or still in their pre-arb years must be offered by 12/1. The hot stove league kicks off with the Winter Meetings starting on 12/10 at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and concluding with the Rule 5 draft on 12/14.
• The Bucs have announced their camp and regular-season schedules. Spring games begin 2/24 v the Yankees, the Opener is 3/29 at Detroit and the Home Opener will be 4/2 v the Twins.
• Pittsburgh will pick 10th in the amateur draft, which will be held from June 4-6th, 2018. 

• The Bucs collected 460,000 pounds of supplies (generators, bottled water, health & hygiene products, etc) and $225K to send to Puerto Rico; they had to get a second plane to get all the stuff there. Bob Nutting, Frank Coonelly, Joey Cora, Francisco Cervelli, Sean Rodriguez, John Candelaria, Omar Moreno and Mike Gonzalez (Cultural Initiatives ass’t to GM, not the former LHP) flew along to help distribute the items. In another relief drive, the Clemente Museum, backed by Mayor Bill Peduto, Manny Sanguillen (he also helped in the Pirates effort) and Cervy, also raised $76K and two trailers of goods. The Steelers and Pens each sent $25K to the relief fund.
• The Pirates TV ratings on AT&T SportsNet were down 27% compared to last year, the fifth largest drop in MLB according to Forbes Magazine. This is on top of a drop of 579,449 (23%) in attendance from 2015 (2,498,596) to 2017 (1,919,447). Note to FO – the on-field product matters.