Morning Rundown: Pirates trade for Brett de Geus, have busy opening day of the International signing period
Pirates add another pitch, sign 23 international amateur players
The Pittsburgh Pirates traded for right-handed pitcher Brett de Geus on Wednesday in exchange for cash considerations.
Designated for assignment last week to make room for Jeff Hoffman, de Geus heads to the Pirates now with two minor league options remaining.
de Geus, 27, has a 7.48 ERA in 61.1 innigs pitched in the majors while playing for the Texas Rangers, Arizona Diamondbacks, Seattle Mariners, Miami Marlins, and Toronto Blue Jays.
Statcast credits him with a sinker, knuckle-curve, cutter, splitter, and four-seam. The first three are his primary pitches, the splitter and four-seam he threw less than 10% of the time.
The International signing period began on Wednesday, with the Pirates signing a good amount of players on the opening day. Johan De Los Santos and Darell Morel received bonuses of over a million dollars.
In total, 23 put pen to paper on Wednesday, with two more that should be doing the same in the next couple of days. To see the entire list, check out the link below.
Support the site by becoming a paid member, and get access to all of our premium content, including our Top 25 list with complete player write-ups and video breakdowns, which come out weekly.
It will also give access to my player feature articles from on-site trips.
We have monthly and yearly plans available, with the latter costing an average of $4.16/month.
Good lord, Roansy just got dfa'd again.
There’s a long article in the Athletic on Muhoozi. The author went all the way to Uganda to report it. The gist is more or less as you could expect: he lives with his mother and siblings in his grandmother’s two-room house. One meal a day. He was exposed to baseball through the Dodgers Uganda academy (yes, the Dodgers have an academy in Uganda) and found a place there a few years ago. All the players signed by major league organizations have been through that academy.
Muhoozi didn’t want to sign with the Dodgers because they wanted him as a pitcher, whereas he wants to be a position player. Pirates lead global scout Tom Gillespie saw his YouTube video and felt it was worth following up with a visit. He signed him for $45,000, which needless to say is life-changing money in Uganda.
So in a few days Muhoozi is off to the Pirates academy in the Dominican. Unreal.