In the Dominican on Friday night, both games had one player from the Pirates on each side. In the first game, Jason Rogers made his debut for Tigres del Licey at first base, while Eric Wood was on the other side in left field. Neither player had a good day, with Rogers going 0-for-5 with two strikeouts, despite his team scoring 13 runs and picking up 17 hits. Wood went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and his fourth error of the season. He is hitting .204 through 15 games, with a double, home run, eight walks and 15 strikeouts.
In the other game, Willy Garcia and Pablo Reyes both got starts. Reyes went 0-for-4 before being pinch-hit for in the ninth inning. He is 1-for-12 in his last three games, but he still has a .333 average through 20 games. Garcia went 0-for-2, but unlike the other three Pirates in the Dominican, he reached base twice on walks. Garcia was pinch-run for in the ninth inning by Michael Martinez.
In Venezuela, Elias Diaz went 0-for-3 and caught the entire game. He left Tuesday’s game early with a strained intercostal muscle on his right side. After sitting out Wednesday, Diaz caught five innings on Thursday. He is hitting .282/.310/.436 through 12 games.
Jose Osuna went 1-for-4 with a single and a strikeout. He has a .702 OPS through 48 games.
In Mexico, Carlos Munoz went 1-for-3 with a two-run triple in the sixth inning which tied the score, then Munoz came around to score the go-ahead run in his team’s 3-2 victory. He is hitting .188/.282/.260 through 37 games.
In Australia, Sam Kennelly went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and two errors.
In Puerto Rico, Danny Ortiz went 2-for-4 with a walk, raising his league-leading average to .380 through 24 games. He is still a free agent.
For the second article in a row, we have a departure to announce for a winter league player. Yesterday it was Cesilio Pimentel being taken in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft. On Friday night, Jhondaniel Medina announced that he signed with the Chicago Cubs as a minor league free agent. He has spent the last four seasons with the Pirates, topping out at Indianapolis this season. Medina has been able to put up strong results in the minors, despite not having the best control. He has a chance to make the majors, though there isn’t much upside due to his control issues, which have shown up this winter with 11 walks in 16.1 innings.
Medina had two of the more interesting streaks over the past few years. In 2014, he didn’t allow a single earned run after April 30th, posting a 0.00 ERA in May, June, July and August/September. The other streak was 92 consecutive appearances, and 128.1 innings without allowing a home run. As far as time, he went from June 29, 2013 until August 18, 2015 without serving up a homer.
