We just heard about the Pittsburgh Pirates picking up pitcher Tyler Beede off of waivers. The Pirates made that announcement official, while also announcing three other moves. For Beede, the Pirates made room on the 40-man roster by designating pitcher Beau Sulser for assignment. The latter was optioned to Indianapolis yesterday for pitcher Cam Alldred. The Pirates also announced that Cole Tucker has been optioned to Indianapolis, and infielder Rodolfo Castro takes his place on the 26-man roster.
Tucker has been off to a rough start this season and he just announced that he was giving up switch-hitting to concentrate on hitting from the left side, which likely factored into the decision to let him go to the minors to work on that against left-handed pitching. Tucker was hitting .175/.175/.222 in 63 plate appearances over 18 games. Castro has hit well this year, batting .250/.397/.402 in 29 games for Indianapolis. He already has 20 walks, nearly matching the 22 walks he had in three times as many plate appearances last year. Castro hit .198/.258/.395 in 31 games last year for the Pirates. He has made 5+ starts at shortstop, third base and second base this season.
