Morning Rundown: David Bednar returns, Injury updates, two optioned to minors
David Bednar returns plus an injury update on several players.
Pirates’ director of sports medicine, Todd Tomczyk, gave another injury update on Thursday with plenty of information.
Dauri Moreta underwent Tommy John surgery and will be out for the entire season. This wasn’t much of a surprise, as all signs were pointing to this happening.
Ji-Hwan Bae has resumed all baseball activities. He hasn’t played in a Spring Training game since March 5.
Colin Holderman has been dealing with an illness but is still throwing.
Thomas Harrington has a right rotator cuff strain. He won’t throw for 2-3 weeks.
Yasmani Grandal won’t start running until next week at the earliest. That would probably mean he will begin the year on the IL, but there’s no official word.
Carman Mlodzinski hasn’t pitched since March 13 due to tightness in his right forearm. He’s throwing from 120 feet currently, with the bullpen in the ‘coming days.’
The Pirates announced that they have optioned Nick Gonzales and Josh Palacios to Triple-A Indianapolis.
Gonzales had a solid camp, going 9-35 with a home run and three doubles. After getting a late start to Spring due to injuries, Palacios failed to pick up a hit in 12 at-bats.
The Pirates dropped their game on Thursday by the score of 3-2. Home runs by Bryan Reynolds and Jared Triolo put the only runs on the board for the Pirates.
Bailey Falter struggled again, allowing three runs on three hits and one walk while striking out four in 3.2 innings pitched.
David Bednar made his first appearance of the Spring, allowing two hits and striking out a batter in the fifth inning.
Seven total pitchers combined to shutout the Blue Jays the rest of the way out. This included six potential bullpen pieces that combined to pick up 16 whiffs on 36 swings (44%).
The Pirates will head to Sarasota to face the Baltimore Orioles, with gametime around 6:05 pm Et.
Top Exit Velocity
Bryan Reynolds - 109.6 mph - Home Run
Jared Triolo - 103.5 mph - Home Run
Jack Suwinski - 102.7 mph - Lineout
Grant Koch - 99.9 mph - Double
Jack Suwinski - 98.4 mph - Groundout
Top Pitch Velocity
David Bednar - 97.1 mph
David Bednar - 96.9 mph
David Bednar - 96.5 mph
David Bednar - 96.4 mph
David Bednar — 96.1 mph
Most Whiffs (Whiff%)
Ryan Borucki - 6 (75%)
Roansy Contreras - 6 (66%)
Bailey Falter - 4 (10.2%)
David Bednar - 2 (25%)
Jose Hernandez - 1 (20%)
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FG CF rankings have the Pirates 25th. That’s heavily bolstered by Jack being projected for a quarter of the PT.
So Ben’s big position player additions have the Pirates ranked 19th, 25th and 28th at C, CF and 1B. And the two “better” ones would be much worse if not for Jack and Davis. Dave Littlefield would be embarrassed.
Tyler Bleede is back in the bigs, with Cleveland…..I liked the arm when he was here even though he sucked. Anyway, wouldn’t be shocked if Cleveland helps him figure it out.