Morning Rundown: Pirates have interest in another starter, three more invited to camp.
The Pirates reportedly met with another free agent starting pitcher.
According to Mike Rodriguez on Twitter, the Pirates are one of the teams that have met with free agent right-handed pitcher Domingo German, who has spent his entire career with the New York Yankees.
German, 31, posted a 5-7 record last year with the Yankees with a 4.52 ERA and 0.9 WAR across 108.2 innings pitched. He also threw a perfect game against the Oakland Athletics on June 28.
In over 500 career innings, German has posted a 31-28 record and 4.41 ERA (4.14 xFIP).
Last year, he threw his curveball over 40% of the time, getting a whiff rate of 39.3%.
He was also suspended for 81 games for a domestic violence incident that took place in 2019. German was also suspended for 10 games for being caught with a foreign substance on the mound in 2023.
The Pirates announced three more invites to Spring Training on Monday, all right-handed pitchers.
Despite signing minor league deals, Wily Peralta, Brent Honeywell Jr., and Connor Sadzeck will all be in camp with the major league team.
Peralta spent last year in the Washington Nationals organization, making 24 starts with the Triple-A club.
A former top prospect, Honeywell Jr. pitched 52.1 innings out of the bullpen last year with both the White Sox and Padres.
Sadzeck has a 2.75 ERA in 36 innings pitched during his major league career but hasn’t pitched at the highest level since 2022.
FanGraphs went into a little more depth about what it would take for Rowdy Tellez to get back on track and hit like he did in 2022.
After being non-tendered by the Milwaukee Brewers, the Pirates quickly moved in and added the slugger to play first base for them.
AdminSky's random prediction of the day, jack will go 30/30 this year and not be the most impressive offensive stat line on the team
Random and unrelated…. Just read in a scheduling article on the Athletic that the Bucs have the least travel miles in MLB this upcoming season. (Cut to backscene of Bob using his pull at MLB HQ to tweak their schedule algorithms to save on his charter bills 😋)
In reality though, the optimist in me will add ‘less travel and jet lag’ to my list of sneaky, under the radar factors and angles that will contribute to the Bucs’ shocking level of success this season. 👍