The Pittsburgh Pirates have placed second baseman Josh Harrison on the 10-day disabled list with a fracture of the 5th metacarpal on his left hand. Harrison suffered the injury after being hit with a pitch in last night’s game. As a corresponding move, the Pirates have called up Chris Bostick from Indianapolis.
We’re in September now, which means the Pirates didn’t necessarily need to make a corresponding move, especially since they are currently over 25 guys on the active roster. However, they would have been short on position players without calling up Bostick, due to the fact that they’ve left their prospects down in Indianapolis for a week for the Triple-A playoffs.
Bostick was called up briefly earlier this year, going 0-for-4 with a walk in three games. He has a .294/.362/.418 line in 486 at-bats during his time with Indianapolis this year. I’d expect Bostick to be behind Max Moroff on the depth chart for playing time, and would expect Sean Rodriguez to benefit the most from the extra playing time with Harrison out of the lineup. That has already happened today, with Rodriguez playing third base and Moroff playing second as David Freese gets a day off.
+ postsTim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.
Can Bostick play third base?
OK. I have a question. What benefit is there to putting him on the DL? There is no 25 man limit and it does not open up a 40 man spot. Are there insurance implications?
Not that any of this matters.
Yes, insurance purposes. With a broken hand, it makes sense. If he had something minor that kept him out a couple weeks, they would have just called up Bostick and not made a move with Harrison.
Long past time to give this organization a major overhaul. Perhaps the farm system drifting into mediocre status coupled with a very bad team at the MLB level will be the impetus for Nutting. But somehow I expect NH to be extended.
y u do dis, meadows
Josh you are the only reason I have been watching the buccos. See you in April and heal my friend. Spring training for SROD.
He had an excellent year – 16 HR after only 4 last year, and probably a career high of 28 W. He struck out 90 times so about 1 W for every 3 K which is down from the 1/4 of last year. Defense was very good.
Do the Pirates keep him through his final year, or try to dump the $10 mil of 2018 salary? With this unfortunate occurrence, it puts the Pirates in the position of bringing up Kevin Newman to get a 30 day preview at 2B, but that’s what other teams might do if they were interested in the future.