The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Wednesday night that they have signed outfielder J.B. Shuck to a minor league deal and invited him to Spring Training. They also officially announced the signings of right-handed pitchers Brandon Maurer and Vicente Campos, which were reported earlier today.
The 31-year-old left-handed hitting Shuck has spent parts of six seasons in the majors since making his debut in 2011 with the Houston Astros. He has a career .244/.294/.316 slash line over 433 games. He played for the Miami Marlins in 2018, hitting .192/.255/.231 in 70 games. Shuck has seen decent playing time at all three outfield spots, though his dWAR according to Baseball-Reference is -2.0 over his career, including a -0.5 mark in 2018.
Shuck should get a chance to compete for the final bench spot this spring, but will likely serve as outfield depth at Indianapolis.
Ken Rosenthal also reports that the Pirates are still looking at adding an outfielder.
Even after signing free-agent outfielder J.B. Shuck to a minor-league contract, #Pirates still looking at other OFs – Brandon Guyer, Cameron Maybin, etc. – on similar deals.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 31, 2019
