There was some bad news and a bit of good news around the Pittsburgh Pirates system today. Here’s a rundown of a busy day.
Endy Rodriguez has been placed on the 7-day IL. He had a throw yesterday that went erratic, then got a visit from the trainer and left the game. It was said that he wasn’t showing signs of a significant injury, but we won’t be seeing him for at least a week now. I’m sure there will be some update soon.
Rodriguez is hitting .263/.333/.456 in 14 games this season.
Travis Swaggerty has been placed on the 7-day IL, with the move made retroactive to yesterday. No word on his injury.
Swaggerty is hitting .231/.310/.442 over 14 games this year.
UPDATE: Updates from the Pirates say that Rodriguez has a right forearm injury. There are no details on the severity. Swaggerty is out due to illness. He missed a game last week after leaving the previous day early due to illness. No word on if the two are related, or something else came up.
The outfield spot for Indianapolis was taken by Josh Palacios, who was down at Altoona, despite having big league experience. He hit .265/.324/.324 in eight games for the Curve.
Brenden Dixon was called up from Greensboro to help out the infield, which was already short a player before Rodriguez went down. While Rodriguez has been playing only catcher this year, he has first base and second base experience. Dixon has been a backup for Greensboro, which leads you to believe this move is temporary.
Termarr Johnson has returned to Bradenton. He has not played yet this year due to a hamstring injury suffered during Spring Training. Last year’s #1 pick for the Pirates saw some brief time with Bradenton at the end of last season. He was the youngest player in team history at the time.
He comes back the same day another top prospect goes down with injury. Both Johnson and Rodriguez have been named as the Pirates top prospect by various sources.
Travis MacGregor was placed on the Temporary Inactive List due to family matters. He’s been pitching in long relief for Altoona this year.
Altoona activated both Fabricio Macias and Claudio Finol for the first time this year. They have been with the team on the Developmental List since Opening Day.
Braxton Ashcraft has been promoted to Greensboro after two rehab starts that went great for Bradenton. He’s been out since 2021 with Tommy John surgery.
Johan Montero joined Bradenton, where he pitched last year full-time as a reliever. He has not yet pitched this season.
If anything else pops up, we will add it here. Our Prospect Watch will have more on some of these moves later tonight.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
I don’t like the words “forearm injury”
Esp with our top prospect!
Saw Termarr got pulled from the game in the 6th. PLEASE tell me he’s not injured again already
Maybe limiting his innings?
Terreo is on fire😁. After going 0 for 17 to start the season he has locked in. With Lopez out for the year Terreo is my must watch player.
the going to call up Tank?
That is my exact question. Challenge the kid, let’s go!!
Termarr’s second AB, two run single.
Funny play here. Leadoff guy in the 3rd, for Daytona, lines one to the right of the 3Bman. Deivis Nadal makes a very nice pick. I couldn’t tell whether he caught it on the fly. Nadal thought he did and just stood there like, play’s over. But the plate ump is signaling safe. Nadal could have thrown the guy out by 40 feet, but it’s a single.
So the next pitch produces a 6-4-3 DP.
Braxton Ashcraft LFGGGG
Interested to see how he does back at a more suitable level talent-wise. Tommy John kinda made him slip through the cracks and become a forgotten prospect for awhile but we shouldn’t be sleeping on him. I think he can provide some pitching depth for the big league club in August/September.
Very much agreed. TJS was the icing but even before that he really never saw the bump they’d expect out of an upside pick. This new velo tho is exactly what we were waiting for. Fingers crossed!
Now we may not see Endy until well after Super 2. 🤬
Hope Endy isn’t out long.
Termarr is in the building.