The Pittsburgh Pirates announced 17 non-roster invites to Spring Training on Thursday. Included in the group is veteran infielder Chris Owing, who signed as a minor league free agent.
We have announced the following players will attend big league camp as non-roster invitees. pic.twitter.com/1MdbvDY9rz
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) February 2, 2023
As you can see by the group above, you have a mix of minor league vets and top prospects, to go along with the top prospects already on the 40-man roster, as well as minor league free agent signings announced earlier this off-season.
Unless someone else is added, it looks like the backup catching battle will be between Tyler Heineman and Jason Delay, who split most of the catching in 2022. Carter Bins, Henry Davis and Endy Rodriguez are the only other catchers in camp, besides starter Austin Hedges.
Quinn Priester, Nick Gonzales, Henry Davis and Termarr Johnson are consistently ranked as top ten prospects in the system, as are Endy Rodriguez, Liover Peguero, Mike Burrows, Ji-hwan Bae and Luis Ortiz, who are on the 40-man roster. That’s going to make for a very interesting Spring Training, not to mention the other interesting prospects there, such as Matt Gorski, Jared Jones, Malcom Nunez, Kyle Nicolas, etc.
As for Chris Owings, he has played 710 games over ten years in the majors. He saw limited time with the Baltimore Orioles last year, and did poorly, finishing with a .107/.254/.143 slash line in 26 games. That was quite a departure from his limited time with the Colorado Rockies in 2021, when he had a 1.048 OPS in 21 games. His career numbers show a .239/.287/.366 slash line.
Owings has mostly played middle infield, but he has played everywhere except first base and catcher in his career. Not including the shortened 2020 season, his last full season in the majors was 2017.
