The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Thursday morning that outfielder Miguel Andujar has cleared waivers. He was also given a non-roster invite to Spring Training. He was designated for assignment last week when the Pirates officially announced the Andrew McCutchen signing.
Andujar was acquired by the Pirates in September of 2022, joining the team just in time to get in nine games before the season ended. Between that time and his 27 games with the New York Yankees, he put up a .235/.257/.311 slash line in 2022. He has a career .272/.302/.447 slash line in 268 big league games over six seasons.
Andujar had a big 2018 season, putting up 2.9 WAR in 149 games as a rookie. His career WAR stands at 1.4, so that season has been an outlier, though he has dealt with some injuries over the years.
There are two interesting things to consider here. He likely cleared waivers because of his $1.525M contract for 2023, which took away some of the gamble of designating him for assignment.
If he doesn’t make the big league squad out of Spring Training, but he regains some of his previous success in the minors early in the season, the Pirates will gain an extra year of control out of him. He’s current at four years and two days (4.002) of service time, so a minimal amount of time in the minors pushes back his free agency a year. That only matters if he has success, but it’s a nice little bonus possibility added to this situation.
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now, how many of these guys are AAAA vs better than a 0.5 WAR
A few years back there was a Pirate reliever that was on like a $1 million contract, out of options, but we sent him up and down between the big league team and AAA a few times because no one wanted to pay him above league minimum. It is an accidentally good way to keep a player that could still help, and nice for Andujar that he is making 1.5 million this year. I liked what I saw of him in the few games late last year, I’m guessing he will be with the major league club at some point this year.
As an aside, for all the comments about how the team needed to add more players to protect them from the rule 5 draft, and the supposed dead wood that was on the 40 man roster then, I think it can be seen how that would have been a mistake, the team is already needing to DFA players that may be able to help them in 2023 and beyond. The “dead wood” was obviously place holders for when someone like Cutch unexpectedly joined the team.
I don’t know about that pitcher, but this Andújar contract was likely no accident. If you go to arbitration and the team then decides to waive the player, they don’t have to pay the whole amount. In this case, they do. So the contract protected him from teams that just wanted to take a flyer at no cost.
I assume Cherington planned this. No reason to think he paid andujar and then “accidentally had to drop him when cutch signed. He was the next to be DFAed no matter what and it is shrewd.
It was Vin Mazzaro, in 2013. You don’t pay someone 1.5 million to be off the 40-man, Cutch was a surprise, not planned by Cherington, and made Andujar redundant for now.
how bad is his defense at third base?
if Hayes is still hitting .203 in June, I certainly will be on the phone with my sources about a platoon situation
seems like this has been planned since November
master class in roster manipulation
At this point I feel like they’re going to have to have everyone draw a name out of a hat to see who is in Indy and who goes to Altoona. Will Mason move down a level? And I still wouldn’t be surprised if they attempted to bring in a true SS backup option, that’ll push Joe to Triple-A (he’s my last man on bench right now)
i think there’s a good chance that Castro is the roster casualty in the case of “extra SS makes the roster”.
i could see Bae getting the 2b shot (he’s the big side of the platoon, anyway), with a true backup shortstop taking castro’s roster spot.
with cutch saying that he’s “mostly a dh” now, and with Joe’s flexibility (i wouldnt be shocked if he’s the backup 3b as well) i think Joe is on the roster.
Agree with this. No idea about the metrics but I like Bae’s defense better than Castro’s at 2B. Our pitching staff will need all the help it can get.
Lessee, 13 position players . . .
C — Hedges, somebody
1B/DH/whatever — Choi, Santana, Joe
IF — Hayes, Cruz, Castro, Bae
OF — BRey, Cutch, Jack
That leaves one. Marcano? Swaggerty? Mitchell? (For heaven’s sake not Vilade.)
Or somebody just blows up ST and forces his way in. Triolo? Nunez? (Triolo, btw, would be a perfectly capable backup SS.) Worst case is another VanMeter signed during ST. I’d put the risk of that at 50+%, based on BC’s history and Shelton’s desperate need for veterans who know all about bourbon. It’d be too bad, because every other guy I’ve mentioned here except the catchers and Vilade has a non-zero chance of doing something useful at the plate.
sorry, a few days late on this. only issue i see with that depth chart is that cutch has outright come out and said that he’s more of a DH than a OF. That definitely makes it necessary to make that last spot a OF that you feel pretty good about starting a lot.
that leaves the same SS hole that i’m talking about probably needing to fill, unless they pick tucupita.
honeslty i kinda hope they just hand Andrelton Simmons a milb contract with an opt out date and a handshake promise to be added on opening day. they can send castro down for a bit to marinate and hand 2b mostly to bae.
its just a liiiiittlleee hard to believe that they’d go Cruz with castro and bae as the only other short options
Though it would create an even bigger logjam at Indy, I think the roster makes more sense with Bae as the everyday CF. Reynolds-Bae-Cutch/Suwinski platoon from left to right. I doubt Triolo makes the team on opening day but I’d like to see it. I could see Jose Iglesias or Andrelton Simmons getting a spring training invite deal and getting the last bench spot though.
Slightly inaccurate:
C: Hedges- Rodriguez
1b: Choi and Santana
2b: Bae/Castro
SS: Cruz
3B: Hayes
DH: Cutch/Santana
OF: Reynolds/Suwinsky/Bae/Joe once a week Cutch
August:
C: Rodriguez, Hedges
1B: Nunez, Choi,
2b: Castro, Gonzalez
3B: Hayes
SS: Cruz
OF: Suwinsky, Joe, Bae, Mitchell
DH: Choi,
Traded: Brey, Cutch, Santana
I don’t think they will trade McCutchen. It wouldn’t be worth the PR hit and I’m guessing there is at least an implicit agreement he will be in Pittsburgh the whole season.
wish we´d have signed Segura
thought maybe Brendon Rogers for Brubaker but that guy really stinks outside of Coors field
Suwinksi for Gleyber Torres would be interesting
for what purpose? What would we even do with him?
Huh, just hit me that Joe has two options. Andujar, of course, has none.
I have to think that they’ll be looking for opportunities to make minor moves with all these guys they have piled up at AAA, or wherever they’re going to go. There’s got to be some team that decides during ST that they need a bench or platoon bat.
Andujar can he sent to AAA now though so the lack of options is moot until they call him back up or if he makes the team. Likely means he has no chance to make the team.
Yeah, which I think played a part in why Andujar was the casualty. I think the current makeup of the team essentially assures Bae a spot, in part out of necessity for a super utility guy. Like Anthony mentioned in the roundtable, they have 3 players effectively tied up for 1B/DH, which shortens the roster. Joe feels kind of redundant, but could very well open as a starting corner spot. The Cutch signing while great, kind of threw a monkey wrench in the roster makeup.
Yeah, I said before that the guy who really seems superfluous now is Choi, despite the LH thing. They need lots of help against LHPs, plus Joe and Cutch should both help the OBP problem.
If it makes them carry Bae, so much the better. He’s easily one of their 26 best players. I figure once he’s on the roster, he’s likely to force his way into playing time, so the tired old “he needs to play regularly” excuse for letting a guy rot in AAA should go away.
I mean Bae is your leadoff hitter, he HAS to be playing. There is no excuse for him not to be unless he goes blind
And Bae is actual super utility quality, where you should be able to actually put him anywhere, as opposed to Vanmeter and Diego who not only weren’t hitting, we had to begin questioning if they should be allowed on the field as well.
Next leads into why I believe the Pirates should open with an OF of Swaggerty, Reynolds, and Jack lol
swaggerty sucks, so….no. Mitchell would first be chosen.
Swaggerty had 12 games between 2019 and the beginning of 2022 season. Took him a month or so to get going, and after he did, his numbers were identical to Bae who has jumped into fan’s projected lineups. People’s disdain for Swaggerty is all perception.
Mitchell sucks too.
I love me some Mitchell, but he’s unfortunately a one-trick pony.
That’d be a good defensive OF, whatever you think of BRey.
That’s what I’m going for, mostly. Then back to Bae being perfect super utility role. Assuming Heineman backup, Santana (just going by Cutch DH and Choi 1B in this scenario), Bae, and whichever bat earns the final spot.
yes but three 1b/DH types means some nice options to pinch hit for Hedges or Hayes late in the game
Hayes doesn’t need to be hit for if he’s healthy. He had back issues the ENTIRE season.
That got a real LOL!! Thanks. Our $70M man getting PH for…..I feel ya.
True, but also means we don’t need 4 lol
I guess sometimes you get to have your cake and eat it, too.
Nice guy to have around off the 40. If he doesn’t hit with some consistent AAA PA then we REALLY know it’s time to move on.
And start hitting him some grounder at 2b add see if he takes to it.
we see those notch shot doubles he´s hit as a positive or negative (bc they didnt go over the fence) ?
It seems that this has worked out well for the club. Maybe he shows up with a chip on his shoulder and uh, actually plays well.