The Pittsburgh Pirates released five minor league players over the last two days, including Jeremy Beasley, who was just designated for assignment to open up a spot on the 40-man roster. The other players were all in the Dominican Summer League this year, and they include pitchers Reyson Santos and Juan Fuentes, as well as infielders Delfin Ramirez and Pedro Figuereo.
Beasley was released last night according to the Pirates transaction page. He was acquired by the Pirates for cash on August 2nd, but didn’t pitch until late September, and only got into one game with Indianapolis in which all three batters he faced reached base and scored. He was designated for assignment on Tuesday when the Pirates set their 40-man roster ahead of the Rule 5 draft. If you follow our winter coverage, you know he was pitching in the Dominican with poor results, but that stint appears to be done after five innings over six appearances.
Delfin Ramirez is the big name among that group of DSL players. When he signed in 2019, he was considered to have the highest potential upside among the position players in the Pirates 2019-20 international signing class. Both Javier Rivas and Ramirez received that tag. While Rivas had a breakout season in the FCL this year, Ramirez struggled in his second season in the DSL, to the point that went from a high upside shortstop to a part-time first baseman, who also did mop up work as a pitcher. Once you’re doing mop-up work as a position player, the only place to go from there is possibly making it as a pitcher. Ramirez posted a .499 OPS over 77 games in his two seasons.
Figuereo wasn’t a high profile signing and he appeared to be a roster filler from the start, seeing part time work while moving all around the infield. He pitched in a mop-up role in both of his seasons in the system and he never showed any signs of life at the plate, posting a .456 OPS in 70 games.
Santos is 21 years old and had major strike throwing issues in his two seasons. He pitched just 30 innings, but that was his own undoing, as he limited his outings by issuing 46 walks over that short time. He also threw 26 wild pitches. The report on Juan Fuentes is basically the same thing, just not as wild. He was limited to 28 innings in which he walked 30 batters. He’s also 21 years old, and neither player was a high profile signing.
