The Pittsburgh Pirates traded outfielder Eury Perez to the Miami Marlins on Thursday afternoon. The 27-year-old was hitting .336/.400/.433, with 22 steals in 50 games with Indianapolis this season. He was signed as a minor league free agent this off-season. Jordan Luplow was activated for tonight’s Indianapolis game.
No return was announced for Perez, so this could just be one of those moves where a player is traded to a team that will give him a better opportunity. Moves like those always look good when teams are looking to sign the best minor league free agents during the off-season. Players are more willing to sign with teams that will trade them to a place where they could get more playing time (possibly big league time) if nothing opens up with their signing team. Perez was deep on the outfield depth chart at this point for the Pirates.
UPDATE: Perez was traded for cash. As I have noted in the past, some of these cash deals are for $1 (Phil Coke last year) and the only reason it’s that much is that there has to be a second part to complete the transaction. It could be more, but probably not.
West Virginia added the two players the Pirates acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Both Oneil Cruz and Angel German are active for tonight’s game. To make room on the roster, lefty reliever Jordan Jess was promoted to Bradenton, and infielder Nick King was assigned to Morgantown. Bradenton already had one open roster spot and will have another once the Mitch Keller move to Altoona is made official.
Jess has a 2.92 ERA in 49.1 innings over 30 appearances with the Power this season. He had 59 strikeouts and just 11 walks. He was the 31st round draft pick last year. King has played a total of 20 games this season, splitting his time between Morgantown and West Virginia.
If any other moves come up today, we will post them here.
