Morning Rundown: Pirates Trade Deadline Recap And Minor League Debuts And Roster Shuffle
The Pirates made three separate trades on deadline day, and did some roster shuffling throughout the minors which included some draft picks making their debut.
It was expected that the Pittsburgh Pirates would be busy on the Trade Deadline, just not as much as some of the national media pundits thought they may be.
They already got one of the trades out of the way, moving Carlos Santana to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for Jhonny Severino. They followed that up by making three separate trades during the deadline, shipping away four players and bringing back the same amount plus something extra.
Traded Away
Rich Hill
Ji-Man Choi
Austin Hedges
Rodolfo Castro
It wasn’t too much of a surprise that Hill and Hedges were traded, as they were both signed in the off-season to one year deals. Pairing Choi, who has some control left, with Hill to the Padres allowed them to get an intriguing return, along with continuing to add to a very specific type of player, one that I’ll highlight later this week.
Hedges was brought in and did exactly what the Pirates hoped he would do, provide some veteran leadership and hold down the catching job until they felt Endy Rodriguez was ready.
Maybe the biggest shocker was Castro getting moved, he still had plenty of control left, and there is a lot of power in the bat for a middle infielder. He was struggling in Triple-A after getting sent down and was continuing to slide down the organizational depth chart.
Acquired
Jackson Wolf
Estuar Suero
Alfonso Rivas
Bailey Falter
International Cap Space
The first three listed was acquired in the Hill/Choi trade, with Suero and Wolf two of the Padres top prospects (10 and 11, respectively) on Fangraphs and Rivas having major league experience already.
Wolf is a towering 6’7” lefty with some solid breaking stuff, and Suero is a 17-year-old outfielder that was playing in the Complex League out in Arizona. He’s shown some decent pop in his bat and fits an obvious point of emphasis for the system.
Rivas has a career 88 wRC+ with four home runs in 353 plate appearances at the major league level. He has played primarily in Triple-A this season, where he’s posted a wRC+ of 154.
Falter is a left-handed pitcher that played in eight games this for the Phillies, seven of which were starts. He doesn’t strike out a lot of hitters (28 in 40.1 IP in the majors) but does rank in the 93rd percentile when it comes to walk rate.
Mainly a fastball/curveball pitcher, he did have some success with the slider that if the Pirates push him to use it more, could help. It would probably be safe to say he will factor into the rotation to some extent this season with an open spot up in the air after Hill was traded.
The International cap space is interesting because, again, it lines up with an area of focus for the Pirates. It will allow them to go a little bigger in the International signing market if they already have their eyes on someone.
Minor League Roster Shuffle
The Pirates also did some reshuffling in their minor league system, promoting some players to new levels, as well as having some recent draft picks make their professional debut.
Termarr Johnson was the big name, moving from Bradenton to Greensboro. The team’s first round pick in 2022, Johnson was able to erase a slow start to the season and was showing that advanced approach to the plate, as well as really hitting the ball hard.
Joining him in Greensboro was Nick Cimillo, a college senior draft pick the same year as Johnson, who was also hitting the ball well in Bradenton.
Moving on from Greensboro was Will Matthiessen (Altoona) and Brenden Dixon (Indianapolis).
Three players made their professional debut with the Marauders on Tuesday, Charles McAdoo, Garret Forrester and Landon Tomkins. Former West Virginia closer Carlson Reed pitched in the Complex League as well.
Minor League Recap 8/1
Indianapolis Indians - 7 vs Gwinnett Stripers - 5
Top Hitter - Miguel Andujar: 4-5, 5 RBI, R, 2B
Top Pitcher - Duane Underwood Jr: 2 IP, BB, 4 K
Altoona Curve - 1 vs Richmond Flying Squirrels - 0
Top Hitter - Connor Scott: 1-3, RBI, BB
Top Pitcher - Beau Sulser: 5 IP, H, BB, K
Greensboro Grasshoppers - 4 vs Asheville Tourist - 2
Top Hitter - Tres Gonzalez: 1-4, R, 3 RBI, HR (6)
Top Pitcher - Thomas Harrington: 7 IP, 4 H, ER, BB, 11 K
Bradenton Marauders - 6 vs Tampa Tarpons - 15
Top Hitter - Lonnie White: 2-3, 4 R, RBI, 2B, 3B, 2 BB
Top Pitcher - Landon Tomkins: IP, H, 2 BB
FCL Pirates - 3 vs FCL Rays - 5
Top Hitter -Jeral Toledo: 3-4, 2 RBI, BB
Top Pitcher - Michael Kennedy: 5 IP, 5 H, 8 K
DSL Pirates Black - 1 vs DSL Red Sox Blue - 4 Game Suspended
Top Hitter - Cristian Jauregui: 2-2
Top Pitcher - Janderson Linares: 3 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, BB, 4 K
DSL Pirates Gold - 2 vs DSL Tigers 2 - 0
Top Hitter - Juan Machado: 2-2, R, RBI, 3B
Top Pitcher - Patterson Rosa: 3 IP, BB, 6 K
Just in case anyone here needs to hear it, because I saw it misunderstood so many times yesterday. When you make a trade for international bonus pool space, you don't get any actual money. You get the ability to spend more money on international players.
The international bonus pool has a hard cap. The Pirates nearly spent all of their approx. $5.9M cap space at the start of the signing period. Their signings since then have been hopeful diamonds in the rough, possibly not even counting against the bonus pool if they were $10,000 or less.
What the Pirates got from the Rangers was part of their cap space. The Rangers had $526,000 left a few months ago, but apparently they acquired more recently, so the number was a little higher. The Rangers gave up their ability to spend $776,000ish more on international players by December 15, 2023. They now have nothing, so all they can sign is guys for $10K or less. The Pirates had $250K or less, depending on recent bonus amounts.
If the Rangers had no targets for the rest of the year, then that bonus pool space is completely worthless to them. You can't roll it over, you don't get anything for not spending it. The Pirates likely have a target in the Pacific Rim (Asia/Australia) because I heard about a scouting trip recently with higher ups going, so don't be surprised if they sign someone of note soon. I have no other details than that, could literally be any country out that way. I'm sure what I was told was vague on purpose. They may have found a hidden gem on Kangaroo Island (an actual real place)
One more move — Alessandro Ercolani to 7-day IL. Unfortunate. He’s had ups and downs this year but he’s shown some promise.