It takes until after the World Series ends for the offseason to really kick into high gear.
Major league players become free agents immediately after the final game, but they are not the only group reaching the open market once the season is over.
On the fifth day following the end of the World Series, players will become minor league free agents. Any player that has spent time in the minors for any seven seasons—they need not be consecutive and whole years in the majors don’t count—will be part of the class. Also, seasons start to count when players are assigned, not signed.
Every now and then teams will select a particularly valued player before they leave the organization, just as the Pirates did last offseason with Diego Castillo. More often than not it’s just a group of lesser-known players looking for new opportunity—and since it’s often the first time in their careers they have a chance to test the market, a bigger pay day.
From the best I can tell, this should be the group of players reaching minor league free agency this offseason for the Pirates:
Matt Eckelman
Oliver Garcia
Travis MacGregor
Drew Maggi
Zach Matson
Hunter Owen
Kevin Padlo
Lolo Sanchez
Eckelman had been toying around with a knuckleball towards the end of the season, if that’s something that interests you.
Matson, a Rule 5 pick from last offseason’s minor league portion, ended up in Indianapolis and started ten games there, but strictly in an opener/bullpenning role.
The two biggest names are probably MacGregor and Sanchez.
MacGregor was a former second-round pick who many fans often dreamt about, but he didn’t pitch for two full years after missing 2019 due to Tommy John and 2020 due to the pandemic. He finally found some success in Altoona this season, but struggled after moving up to Triple-A.
As for Sanchez, he has always been seen as a talented player, but he just hasn’t always been able to put it all together. He played well in Low-A in 2019, but struggled upon a promotion that season. He then repeated the level and had a successful season in 2021. We was not able to build off that same success this past season after being promoted to Altoona, missing some time with injury and struggling when he did play.
It should also be mentioned that Cristofer Melendez should be in this group as well; however, it’s my understanding he was signed to a two-year minor deal before hitting minor league free agency last offseason.
Offseason Calendar Update
No updates here as of this week
Pirates Payroll Updates
—The only roster move that happened this week was the outright assignment and subsequent free agency election of José Godoy after his jettison from the roster last week.
It’s likely that the transaction log isn’t a completely correct representation of how this transaction actually happened. It’s more likely that the assignment and election happened simultaneously—if the assignment actually happened at all.
Either way, the result is still the same—Godoy is a free agent.
—For 2023, the payroll estimate stands at $44,479,116 for the Labor Relations Department, while it’s $60,895,783 for CBT purposes.
