Winter League action has been fairly quiet for the Pittsburgh Pirates over the last few days because of a trio of issues. Two players saw their off-season play end on October 31st, there have been some weather issues postponing games, and the three leagues with the most Pirates players haven’t started yet.
Things will soon get busier with seven Pirates prospects playing in Colombia, five in Puerto Rico, and six in Australia. All of those leagues start this month.
The league in Colombia provides an interesting match-up. With only four teams in the league, clubs see each other a lot during the season and possibly in the playoffs. Young power-hitting outfielder prospect Rodolfo Nolasco will play in the league this year. He’s not advanced enough to play in the Dominican yet, but he can see regular playing time in Colombia. The match-up part is that one of his opposing teams will have Eddy Yean, Johan Montero, Cristian Charle, Oliver Mateo and Diego Chiquillo. That’s five Pirates pitchers on their staff, who will all likely face Nolasco during the season.
The Sydney Blue Sox announced that Ernny Ordonez will join their team. They already announced Dylan Shockley and Sammy Siani as imports, while Australian outfielder Solomon Maguire will also be playing. Sydney still has two more players to announce, one being a fringe top 30 prospect, and the other a player from the FCL Pirates. Both are position players.
Liover Peguero and Dariel Lopez both saw their seasons end according to their team in the Dominican. Peguero hit .293/.326/.415 in nine games. Lopez had an .826 OPS in 18 plate appearances and wasn’t playing recently because veteran players were joining the team. The Pirates limited both players from the start, but the team lost a few games due to weather.
Osvaldo Bido had two nice starts to begin his winter, then ran into trouble on Monday night. He allowed three earned runs over 2.1 innings on four hits, one walk and three strikeouts.
In Mexico, Fabricio Macias homered on Sunday. He has a .266 average and a .690 OPS in 16 games. Video of that homer wasn’t posted, but his team did share this catch from an earlier game
AEROLÍNEAS MACÍAS✈️
Que atrapadón, Fabricio
Jared Oliva has hit a bit of a slump and he’s now down to a .279 average and a .644 OPS in 17 games after a strong start to his winter.
