The Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t announced their Opening Day roster yet. As of right now, there are still 29 players active on their Spring Training roster. Three of those players are hurt, but the remaining 26 aren’t necessarily the guys who will be available tomorrow afternoon when they take on the Cincinnati Reds. The deadline to set rosters is noon on Thursday.
Here’s a look at the 29-man roster, followed by some notes.
Starting Pitchers
Mitch Keller, Roansy Contreras, Rich Hill, Vince Velasquez, Johan Oviedo, JT Brubaker
Bullpen
David Bednar, Wil Crowe, Jose Hernandez, Chase De Jong, Duane Underwood Jr, Jarlin Garcia, Robert Stephenson, Rob Zastryzny, Colin Holderman, Dauri Moreta
Catchers
Austin Hedges, Jason Delay
Infielders
Carlos Santana, Ji-Man Choi, Ji-hwan Bae, Rodolfo Castro, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Oneil Cruz
Outfielders
Canaan Smith-Njigba, Bryan Reynolds, Andrew McCutchen, Connor Joe, Jack Suwinski
What We Know
Brubaker, Garcia and Stephenson are all injured. They will start the season on the injured list. That would seem to leave a 26-man roster, but…
What We Don’t Know
Jason Mackey had this note about the bullpen battle for the last spot.
Funky situation for Rob Zastryzny. He said he's "traveling with the team and waiting for word." I asked if there was any sort of internal deadline for letting him know he had made it.
"I’m hoping by first pitch I know."
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) March 29, 2023
Zastryzny is in limbo now, while the Pirates wait to see if someone better becomes available. Either way, it would mean that two 40-man roster spots have to be opened up. One will be for Jason Delay. The other will be for Zastryzny, or a mystery player.
Jarlin Garcia is out for some time, so he will be one of those players going to the 60-man roster to open a roster spot. There hasn’t been any update on JT Brubaker yet, other than he will be on the injured list.
