The Pittsburgh Pirates recalled pitcher Miguel Yajure ahead of Monday’s game in Washington, and he will make the start tonight. To make room on the 26-man roster, lefty reliever Anthony Banda was designated for assignment. The Pirates also brought back Josh VanMeter from the injured list. They optioned outfielder Cal Mitchell to Indianapolis to open up a roster spot. In addition, Heath Hembree was released and Jason Delay was added to the taxi squad. Hembree was DFA’d last week.
Yajure hasn’t pitched much this year between his bullpen role early on for the Pirates, along with an injury that kept him out of action briefly this year twice. He gave up 13 runs in 10.1 innings with the Pirates over six games, and he has a 4.26 ERA in 12.2 innings with Triple-A Indianapolis, making five starts and one relief appearance.
Banda had a 6.41 ERA and a 1.98 WHIP in 19.2 innings over 23 appearances this year. He faltered yesterday by allowing two runs and all four batters reached against him, but he was coming off of three outings in which he tossed five shutout innings on two hits and no walks.
VanMeter has been in Indianapolis on rehab from a fractured finger earlier this month. He hit .111/.273/.111 in five games. He was hitting .214/.280/.357 in 35 games before the injury.
Mitchell was getting his first big league trial and he struggled after a nice start. He hit .193/.227/.325 in 88 plate appearances. At the time of his call up, he was the leading hitter for Indianapolis.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
To appease Pirates Prospects, Cherington’s next move will be to relocate the Indianapolis Indians to Pittsburgh and rename them the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Hahaha.
Just glad to see that the more things change, the more they stay the same. VanMeter? Won’t be long before Newman, “Sugo, and every other piece of deadwood returns to the fold.
3 weeks until the AS Break and the unofficial beginning of the trade deadline of Aug 2.
I don’t really mind Cal for Van Meter here. Cal could use more consistent ABs still and Van Meter was hitting just well enough to get some ABs here and there until the deadline or before.
Pirates management cannot get out of their own way, although I full support the long overdue releases of Hembree and Banda. Now add Stratton to the list….Toribio needs to be fast tracked to Pittsburgh.
Bae is hitting .300+ and offers speed and defense – but we keep Park and bring up VanMeter? BC is an idiot.
Sending down Mitchell makes sense…unless he can play first base, he doesn’t have a position.
Yajure doesn’t excite me – his stuff is average at best.
It’s that trade deadline game every year. I had hoped we would not hold onto all the trash until Aug 2, but bringing up VanMeter is an indication we are trying to max out trade values for all the deadwood. Quintana, Vogelbach, Gamel, Stratton, Underwood, and Chavis are guys who may be interesting to contenders. We cannot get a bag of practice balls for VanMeter, Newman, ‘Sugo, Allen, etc.
Toribio at 22 has some unique numbers for so young a BP prospect.
Fangraphs has Kranick up on the MLB 60 day IL.
Unfortunately with Mitchell’s defensive limitations he’s going to have to tear the cover off of the ball to ever stick in the bigs, and unfortunately for him he’ll never play consistently enough to get in a grove the way the roster is set up right now. Might be better off as trade bait.
Less than thrilled to see VanMeter back, but Shelton seems to love him so he’ll get every opportunity to keep a roster spot. I assume Chang is DFA’d when Newman return’s.
Slightly surprised to see them parting with Banda. Aside from yesterdays performance he seemed as if he had been pitching better as of late. Spot start from Yajure, then I’d guess he gets sent down so that Underwood can return.
Khris (not Chris) Davis had the same issue. Guys would go first to third all the time on him and he was in left field. BUT, he hit dingerz and plenty of them (and had a knack for batting .247 iirc).
The first game Mitchell played, I had a little poker party at my house with friends. One of my buddies is mid-story and I’m half game/half story and see this… this “throw” from RF. “WHAT THE F-.” My friends look at me. “Yo, look at this throw.” I rewind the footage. And this… this “throw” is replayed. Candy arm. I dunno if I’ve ever seen a weaker arm? Is that harsh? It really was an actual event. On just a single to the outfield. Maybe it scored a run. I forget. But I don’t forget seeing Cal Mitchell’s first throw from RF.
Huntington hid Adam Frazier extremely well in LF with the same issue, no clue who thought putting Cal in right field made the least bit of sense.
I like how the love to move players all over the place in the name of versatility, Gorski who by all accounts is legit Cf gets move to 1b, but Mitchell, let’s keep him in RF!
Hahaha, dude, thank you.
The Pirates will sign some random 16 yo and the first half dozen comments on the thread will be about why he isn’t already being promoted but nobody will say a word about actual development decisions anymore.
This place sometimes…
You’re expecting common sense? That’s been out of style for awhile.
I know exactly which throw you’re referring to and my reaction was similar. It legitimately reminded me of Gregory Polanco towards the end of his tenure here. At least Polanco had an excuse..
The big ? mark I feel is what to do with Newman and Cruz…
Can’t complain about Banda and Hembree gone. Yajure will spot start then probably go back down.
Still have Gamel, Marisnick, and Marcano. Oof. Tough. Gamel back. Madris has earned his stripes. Marcano goes back down? Castillo could probably use some time down. Yu Chang has no business on the team. Hoy Park is a question mark.
So Newman, Gamel, and Marisnick come back.
Chang, Castillo, Marcano, and VanMeter are all possible send downs. I don’t see the Bucs parting w/ Marisnick.
Sheesh. Tough calls.
No room for Marisnick with Gamel back and Jack/Bligh established as good enough.
Not sure what to do about Castillo. Marcano, in just 68 PAs is tied for 4th highest WAR. He’s the new Pedro Ciriaco.
No point in holding onto VanMeter, Chang, Sugo, or Park. Newman is still cheap and may still have potential to build some value. At least more than VanMeter does.
Marisnick has no place on any MLB team. Just can’t hit enough to justify his glove.
Right now they don’t have a true 4th OF, so when Gamel returns, I think it’ll be Park who goes down. Park is kind of redundant with VanMeter anyway.
Newman creates a ripple on both the 26-man and 40-man roster. Chang being DFA’d settles that score neatly. I also think Newman plays a bit more 2B upon his return because you really have to stick with Cruz at SS from this point to the end of the season.
Marisnick is as good as gone. To me they telegraphed the plan when they put him on the COVID IL when he was already on the 10-day IL. The team is overstocked with OFs on the 40-man as it is, they don’t need Marisnick taking evaluation time away from anyone.
I don’t know if there’s room for Marcano, unfortunately. He’s another one they’ll have to create space on the 40-man for. My guess is he winds up back at AAA.
And Castillo is probably going down when Yoshi returns.
They’re going to play Yoshi, Newman and Gamel enough to try to get some return for them at the trade deadline, then expect playing time for Mitchell/Swaggerty, Marcano and Bae to open up after that.
Who and why would any team give anything of value for those three players?
I agree with everything except Yoshi. I think he gets DFA’d and Marcano stays up instead of Castillo.
Oof, I think they sooner keep Marisnick than Yoshi. Yoshi has looked abysmal. Marisnick at least allows you to have a true defensive replacement guy in later innings, which is what he’s always been. But if Marisnick is gone, I see Yoshi going too. Although it is a $5 million dollar question.
I’m not sure Marisnick’s value to the team is as high now with actual outfielders playing out there. When the options for LF and RF were Castillo and Park he was a nice defensive replacement.
Yoshi is this year’s Polanco. The money commitment is definitely a factor. Plus, he was actually good last year, which sets a baseline expectation higher than what they should expect from Marisnick. Three weeks of a hot Yoshi >> three weeks of a hot Marisnick, and that’s the operative thing.
Yoshi actually has a .996% at 1B, which surprises me, I thought it was much worse after watching him wander the outfield. Given the lack of 1B depth, you might be right. But again, he’s hitting .177 w/ 2 home runs in 112 AB’s. I dunno if anybody stays on a ML roster with those numbers. But here we are with VanMeter and debating whether or not Marisnick stays w/ a .163 BA.
It basically comes down to this. The Pirates aren’t competing for a playoff spot. 2022 wins don’t matter all that much. Yoshi’s not coming back, and neither is Marisnick. And you’ve got a trade deadline in 5 weeks.
If Yoshi channels his late 2021 self and pulls a 134 wRC+ the next month, he’s tradable, and it’s worth keeping him around for most of that month to see if he maybe possibly goes on a tear. You got nothing to lose. If he continues to hit .177 with no power (seriously, EVERYTHING he’s hitting in the air is to the opposite field), then all you’ve lost is time…and it ain’t like he’s blocking anyone.
Or maybe if I put it this way: More Yoshi = Less VanMeter?
Can’t really complain about any of these moves, except maybe replacing Mitchell with VanMeter. If Mitchell can make the adjustments he needs in AAA that’s fine but he might be better off working on those things in the majors.
I’d give Mitchell a first baseman’s mitt and see what he can do with it. There still isn’t a clear option in the system for 1B drilling all the way down to A ball.
To me Madris and Mitchell should both be getting reps at first. If everyone has a second position that is obvious for both of them,