A Look at Upcoming Minor League Free Agents

Upcoming minor league free agents for the Pittsburgh Pirates

Photo Credit: WTM

While major league free agents garner more attention, they aren’t the only players who hit free agency at this time of year.

As I laid out earlier, eligible players will become minor league free agents at 5 pm on Monday—the fifth day after the end of the World Series.

Eligible players are those that have spent time in the minors for any seven seasons—they need not be consecutive and whole years in the majors don’t count. Also, seasons start to count when players are assigned, not signed.

Every now and then teams will select a particularly valued player before they leave the organization; however, more often than not it’s just a group of lesser-known players looking for a new opportunity—and since it’s often the first time in their careers they have a chance to test the market, a bigger payday.

Here is the list of players reaching minor league free agency this offseason for the Pirates:

Francisco Acuna

Seth Beer

Brad Case

Luis Cessa

Yoyner Fajardo

Brady Feigl

Geronimo Franzua

Abrahan Gutierrez

P.J. Hilson

Grant Koch

Jake Lamb

Jose Maldonado

Cristofer Melendez

Michael Plassmeyer

Connor Sadzeck

Aaron Shortridge

Beau Sulser

Blake Townsend

Josh Walker

A few other players would have been eligible—Valentin Linarez, Malcom Nuñez, and Eddy Yean—however, they signed Successor Contracts after the season, avoiding free agency and sticking in the organization for at least another year.

The Pirates seem to be keeping around the most notable players, as Nuñez has been a hyped prospect since arriving in the José Quintana trade—despite not exactly fully meeting the excitement—while Linarez and Yean had solid seasons in 2024. After struggling to find much success after arriving from the Washington Nationals in the Josh Bell trade, Yean has gained some steam among fans who feel he could be a future bullpen piece. He may be able to get that opportunity now that he’s sticking around the organization.

Cristofer Melendez is on the list after losing 2023 on the Restricted List, delaying his free agency a year. The same would have happened again; however, he showed up late in the season, keeping the process on track.

As for the rest of the list, there are some notable names, but none that should be considered a major loss—quite frankly, they wouldn’t be on their way out if they were.

Seth Beer and P.J. Hilson were Minor League Rule 5 selections that didn’t make much of an impact, even though Hilson showed some Greensboro power.

Several players who made major league cameos—Brady Feigl, Grant Koch, and Josh Walker (just not for the Pirates)—are gone, while organizational soldier/podcaster and Twitter personality Brad Case is finally saying goodbye.

International man of mystery Blake Townsend is departing after pitching a mere five games with Altoona.

Aaron Shortridge was a notable starting pitching prospect early in his career but was never able to pick up the steam he lost after the pandemic and Tommy John surgery.

Sure, if you follow the organization closely, you’ll recognize each name on some level, but even compared to a typical year there’s not much to write home about when it comes to this particular group of players.

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