The Pittsburgh Pirates have made some room on their 40-man roster by parting ways with Travis Snider and Travis Ishikawa, while also sending Deolis Guerra outright to Indianapolis. Snider and Ishikawa elected free agency rather than accepting the outright assignment to Indianapolis. The 40-man roster is currently at 42, though it still includes upcoming free agents, as well as A.J. Burnett and Aramis Ramirez, who are both retiring.
Snider was traded to Baltimore prior to the 2015 season in exchange for minor league prospects Steven Brault and Stephen Tarpley. While they both had excellent seasons, further establishing their prospect status, Snider had a good first ten days of the season, then really struggled. He ended up coming back to the Pirates as a minor league free agent after being let go by the Orioles in mid-August. With Pittsburgh, he hit .192/.276/.423 in 18 games, mostly off the bench.
Ishikawa was the other Travis who returned to Pittsburgh after playing for the team in 2014. He hit .224/.318/.328 in 38 games, seeing most of his time off the bench as well. Ishikawa was picked up off waivers from the Giants in early July.
Guerra was lost during the season to the Indians on waivers, returning without playing a game for Cleveland after a pre-existing knee injury landed him on the disabled list. He didn’t pitch the rest of the season. Guerra pitched ten times out of the bullpen for the Pirates, posting a 6.48 ERA in 16.2 innings.
