The Pittsburgh Pirates placed outfielder Bryan Reynolds and IF/OF Cole Tucker on the COVID-19 Injured List prior to Tuesday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Outfielder Jack Suwinski and infielder Tucupita Marcano were recalled to take their place. Both players have been playing in Altoona and they’re on the 40-man roster.
Suwinski was just named as our Player of the Week today. We wrote about him here this morning. This year he is off to a .353/.421/.686 start in 13 games. This is his first trip to the majors.
Marcano has prior big league experience, seeing some time with the San Diego Padres during the 2021 season before joining the Pirates in the Adam Frazier trade. He was hitting .250/.364/.333 this year in 11 games.
The proximity to Pittsburgh was the likely reason that the Pirates went with these two players instead of players from Indianapolis. Plus, these COVID-19 IL trips are sometimes over much quicker than a normal 10-day IL trip. Altoona is closer to Pittsburgh than Iowa (where Indianapolis is playing), but the Curve are even slightly closer (at least according to Mapquest) to Pittsburgh right now than they would be at home, playing a series in Akron.
