The Pittsburgh Pirates announced that they have picked up the 2020 options for outfielder Starling Marte and right-handed pitcher Chris Archer. Marte will receive $11.5 M next year, while Archer gets $9 M.
Roster Moves: The Pirates announced we have exercised the options on the contracts of Starling Marte and Chris Archer for the 2020 season.
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) November 4, 2019
The Pirates also announced that Chris Archer, Nick Burdi, Kyle Crick, Chad Kuhl, Jason Martin, Gregory Polanco, Edgar Santana and Jameson Taillon have been reinstated from the 60-day IL, while James Marvel, Alex McRae, Yefry Ramirez & Wei-Chung Wang have been sent outright to Indianapolis. That now puts the active roster at 39.
The decision to drop Marvel is what stands out most now. Obviously he isn’t going anywhere and will be right back in the Triple-A rotation like we assumed, plus he will get a Spring Training invite I’m sure, but it seems like a questionable move now with who they left on the roster. There still needs to be more moves before they add players to protect them from the Rule 5 draft, so you will see some of those questionable guys still around, get dropped at that point. Today was about getting the roster down to 40, while other moves still have over two weeks before they need to be made.
