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Pirates Prospects Daily: Roster Cuts Give More Clarity To Potential Opening Day Roster

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The Pittsburgh Pirates made another round of roster cuts on Tuesday, and are now down to 40 players in their Major League training camp.

With more players on their way to minor league camp, it starts to paint a picture as to what the Opening Day roster might look at, at the very least when it comes to the pitching staff.

The rotation was more or less decided going into camp, especially after the free agent signings of Vince Velasquez and Rich Hill. So Luis Ortiz getting optioned to Triple-A wasn’t really a surprise, as the rotation was mostly set.

That just leaves a decision on how they plan on using Johan Oviedo this upcoming season. If they like him as a starter, Triple-A would be the best option, but they could use him as long relief/spot starter in the majors if they wanted to get him straight up and playing for the Pirates.

When it comes to the bullpen, the path to Angel Perdomo potentially becoming a second lefty reliever took a little clearer with another southpaw getting sent to minor league camp, Daniel Zamora.

That leaves just Jose Hernandez, Perdomo, and Rob Zastryzny as the only left-handed relievers in Major League camp still.

Yohan Ramirez was also optioned, leaving about 11 pitchers remaining for eight bullpen spots – and that’s also depending what they want to do with Oviedo.

Now here are the players that are fighting for a potential bullpen spot:

Dauri Moreta

Colin Holderman

Chase De Jong

Duane Underwood Jr

Yerry De Los Santos

Wil Crowe

Tyler Chatwood – NRI

David Bednar

Plus Hernandez, Perdomo, and Zastryzny as the left-handed options.

More Prospects Assigned

Two of the more impressive players in camp up to this point remain prospects, Cody Bolton and Carmen Mlodzinski. The Pirates announced that Bolton would shift to the bullpen full-time, and while we haven’t gotten confirmation on Mlodzinski’s role, his usage in spring may suggest the same.

Chavez Young was one of the standouts in the World Baseball Classic for Great Britain, but with so many other outfielders on the 40-man roster, it would have taken a lot for him to make the roster anyways.

The numbers didn’t stand out with the Pirates, but was an exciting player to watch nonetheless, and may have put himself in a position to be an eventual call-up at some point during the season. 

Pirates Prospects Daily

By John Dreker

Pirates are off today. Their only other day off this spring is the day before Opening Day, which is now eight days away.

Pirates won 4-3 over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday. Andrew McCutchen’s homer was the big highlight. Here’s the boxscore.

**Pirates Trim Eight Players from Spring Training Roster

**Pirates Hitting Prospects Who Could Take A Big Step Forward In 2023

**Pirates Pitching Prospects Who Could Take A Big Step Forward In 2023

**Pirates DVR: Miguel Andujar Home Run, Travis Swaggerty RBI, Luis Ortiz Strikeout

**Pirates Prospects Daily: Nick Gonzales’ Strong Spring is a Good Sign

Song of the Day

Anthony Murphy
Anthony Murphy
Anthony began writing over 10 years ago, starting a personal blog to cover the 2011 MLB draft, where the Pirates selected first overall. After bouncing around many websites covering hockey, he refocused his attention to baseball, his first love when it comes to sports. He eventually found himself here at Pirates Prospects in late 2021, where he covers the team’s four full season minor league affiliates.

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