A look at upcoming Pirates Minor League Free Agents

Minor League free agent preview for the Pittsburgh Pirates

Photo Credit: WTM

While free agents like Andrew McCutchen and Vince Velasquez 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 p.m. on Monday—the fifth day after the end of the World Series.

Eligible players are those who have spent time in the minors for any seven seasons—they need not be consecutive, and whole years in the majors don’t count. For example, Wil Crowe has been active for seven years but was in the majors for all of 2022, thus not eligible for minor league free agency. Also, seasons start to count when players are assigned, not signed.

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

Claudio Finol

Santiago Florez

Oliver Garcia

Jacob Gonzalez

Wei-Chieh Huang

Domingo Leyba

Travis MacGregor

Mason Martin

Dante Mendoza

Michell Miliano

Juan Minaya

Cal Mitchell

Dom Nunez

Braeden Ogle

Lolo Sanchez

Caleb Smith

Jake Stevenson

Beau Sulser

Tahnaj Thomas

Noe Toribio

Ryan Vilade

Chavez Young

Daniel Zamora

A few other players would have been eligible—Joe Perez and Geronimo Franzua—however, they signed two-year deals, so they are still under contract. Abrahan Gutierrez would also be on that list, but he signed a successor contract after the season, avoiding free agency and sticking in the organization for at least another year. After spending all season on the Restricted List, Cristofer Melendez’s free agent status rolls over from 2023 to 2024.

Also, after Thursday’s news that several players were placed on waivers, it needs to be mentioned that Yerry De Los Santos will join this list if he goes unclaimed on waivers.

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.

The biggest names are probably Mason Martin and Tahnaj Thomas, at least regarding prospect status. These are two players that fans—and some evaluators—had high hopes for but were never really able to put it together.

Santiago Florez was once on that level but has struggled for the last several seasons.

Jacob Gonzalez was a Minor League Rule 5 selection who put up strong numbers in 2022 but is on the older side and still hasn’t been able to advance past Double-A.

Travis MacGregor was a minor league free agent last year that the team eventually brought back, and he had a solid season in relief between Altoona and Indianapolis—well, at least in Altoona.

Add Dante Mendoza to Thomas, and the Max Moroff/Jordan Luplow (and Erik González) trade tree is officially snipped.

Michell Miliano was a tertiary piece in the Adam Frazier trade who pitched better this season than he has in his first few years in the organization.

Some had high hopes for Cal Mitchell, but he couldn’t prove much in his short time in the majors.

Ryan Vilade is a hot topic among many fans, if only because they felt he ate up a valuable roster spot all of last offseason before ultimately being outrighted before the season started.

If you had an affinity for an unmentioned player, I’m sorry.