The Pittsburgh Pirates officially made three roster cuts that were mentioned earlier today to help get the Spring Training roster down to 25 for Opening Day on Thursday. They reassigned outfielder Daniel Nava, catcher Ryan Lavarnway and pitcher Bo Schultz to minor league camp.
Nava was recently re-signed to a minor league deal after the Pirates released him days earlier. He won’t be ready to play until some time in May most likely, so he will continue his rehab at Pirate City now.
Schultz is also rehabbing and will end up at Pirate City most likely. He had Tommy John surgery last year. Schultz pitched a scoreless inning today against the Phillies in his first Spring Training game. He should end up at Indianapolis once his rehab is over.
Lavarnway was signed for catching depth and should platoon at Indianapolis with Jacob Stallings. He hit .250/.379/.542 in 17 Spring Training games.
UPDATE 6:07 PM: Analysis from Tim Williams…
Between the cuts this morning, plus Bryce Brentz being claimed today, Jordan Milbrath going on waivers, and now these cuts, the Pirates have a 25-man roster that is set. The only thing that could change is adding Kevin Siegrist to the roster, or adding someone from the outside.
Siegrist would only be added if another team wanted him on their active roster, and if the Pirates opted to keep him around. They have the right of first refusal, but would have to add him to the active roster in that case.
As for an outside addition, the team did clear three spots on the 40-man roster recently. Brentz had to be waived, since he wasn’t making the team. The same would go for Milbrath. But there was little reason to put Jack Leathersich on waivers, which they reportedly did today, according to Liz Bloom of the Post-Gazette. The Pirates already had two open spots, no one to add, and they could have kept Leathersich as another lefty option.
That move could be as simple as giving him a chance to catch on elsewhere, since he’s now the number three option for that second lefty role out of the bullpen in Pittsburgh, behind Siegrist and Josh Smoker. It could also be a simple reason like the possibility that he wouldn’t be needed in Indianapolis. That roster had 15 pitchers listed today, including Leathersich, with moves still to come to get that group down to 12 (and these numbers don’t include the guys sent down today).
The roster appears to be set. However, they could still make some changes, with a few spots available in the event that they want to add someone from the outside.
