The Pittsburgh Pirates optioned shortstop Cole Tucker back to Indianapolis prior to Monday’s game against the Washington Nationals. Tucker was up with the Pirates for three games while Jose Osuna served out his five-game suspension, which is in the final day today.
Tucker was designated as the “26th man” for yesterday’s game, which means that he was going back to Indianapolis today, as per the rules of adding an extra player. The Pirates actually sent Tucker down prior to yesterday’s game so they could add a pitcher to the active roster (Montana DuRapau), then recalled Tucker as the extra player.
The 26th man rule for the Little League Classic states that teams can call up a position player. It turned out to a complicated roster manipulation that didn’t help them, while also resulting in a short bench today and Tucker being sent back a day earlier. That last part is okay because all he did was come off the bench in all three games, getting a walk, hit-by-pitch and going 0-for-1. So at least now he will see some game action in Indianapolis over the final two weeks before returning on September 1st or shortly there after. The Triple-A season ends on September 2nd, so all of the September call-ups will be up by the 3rd of the month.
Jose Osuna will be back tomorrow, then Kyle Crick will serve his three-game suspension Tuesday through Thursday.
