Morning Rundown: Jordan Montgomery signs, pending roster moves, Bucs on Deck schedule

The top free agent available signs with team, awaiting roster moves for Pirates, and new site schedule.

While some exhibition games are still ongoing, the Pirates haven’t played since Monday’s finale against the Toronto Blue Jays.

And as the exhibition schedule winds down, one more domino piece fell regarding free agency, as left-handed pitcher Jordan Montgomery signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Montgomery, 31, posted a 10-11 record with a 3.20 ERA (4.3 WAR) in 188.2 innings pitched last year between the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers.

He was a big piece in the Rangers run to the World Series, where they defeated the Diamondbacks.

The deal is a one-year deal worth $25 million that comes with a vesting option for 2025. It then becomes a $20 million second-year deal if he reaches 10 starts, $22.5 million for 18 starts, and $25 million for 23 starts.

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With a day until Opening Day, the Pirates have announced their initial roster but have yet to release the corresponding moves.

They need to create three 40-man roster spots since they will add three non-roster players - Ryder Ryan, Hunter Stratton, and Jared Jones.

Ali Sanchez appears to be one of those moves, as it was reported his locker was cleared out before the final Spring Training game.

Since he was out of options, Bailey Falter seemed like a potential option, but he will start in the rotation instead. The Pirates DFA Canaan Smith-Njigba once, so they could go with that again, although they lost him initially when they did.

A reliever like Colin Selby would be another option if it were going to be another pitcher.

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This will be the first full season that Bucs on Deck will cover the Pittsburgh Pirates.

If you were with us during the last half of the season, you have an idea of what to expect.

Around 6 am ET, our ‘Morning Rundown’ will continue to be released, which will recap the prior day’s news and notes. There will also be a brief recap of the Pirates games, statcast leaders from the night prior, which will include the minor league teams once their season starts, as well as scores from each minor league affiliate and its top performers.

The daily feature will be released around 10 am ET. I’ve been messing around with what time to release it and have finally settled for this time.

The ‘10 Observations’ feature will return next Monday and continue throughout the season. If you are new, this feature is a group effort where we write down our thoughts and observations from watching games throughout the week.

I love this feature, as we get a few unique looks at the games. WTM is at most Bradenton/FCL games, so we have a first-person account of a level where there aren’t many eyes on. Nola watches his fair share of things, and watching minor league games, is almost all I do.

The MLB draft feature will continue but gets shifted to Wednesdays. There will also be at least one premium video breakdown article per week, but a second or even third could get added on a week-to-week basis depending on what’s going on in the system.

They could be as simple as a pitcher striking out many pinumber, and I recap, what worked so well from them with video. It could also be trends of stuff pitchers/hitters are doing well or maybe why they are struggling.

We have a sale going on where you can get 30% off a yearly subscription, so lock in your price now so you can enjoy that feature.

The mailbag will return after a break, and that will be sandwiched in on Thursdays. The rest of the week we will still have features, mostly just player updates. As I make my way out to check out some games live, those features and look-ins will also fill those games.

Finally, we will have our Gameday articles that will go up at 11 am ET during day games, and 2 pm ET other nights. This article is really for you as a great place to come chill and talk about the Pirates games with other fans. The participation was great last year and I’m looking forward to continuing that.

So that’s three articles per day that you are going to get, and by subscribing they will all be emailed to you when they come out. Each paid subscription comes with a free seven day trial to try things out.

I’m really excited for this season to get going, I have a lot of things planned, even some that are still in the early stages.

Thanks for being along for the journey, and I hope you enjoy what we have for you.