Morning Rundown: Rule 5 recap, Pirates sign two minor league free agents
A recap of the Rule 5, Pirates signed two minor league free agents
The Pittsburgh Pirates did not select any players during the MLB portion of the Rule 5 draft.
A total of 15 players were selected, with the Atlanta Braves taking two players—RHP Anderson Pilar and SS Christian Cairo. Of the 15 players selected, 11 were pitchers, one was a catcher, and the other three were infielders.
Once it got to the minor league phase, the Pirates selected five players and lost another three.
Players added
RHP Franck De La Rosa
C Aaron McKeithan
LHP Randy Labaut
LHP Steve Hajjar
OF Joel Mendez
Players lost
RHP Darvin Garcia
C Dylan Shockley
INF Isaias Dipre
The Pirates signed INF/OF Nick Solak to a minor league contract. He was a former second-round pick by the Yankees in 2016 out of Louisville.
In 255 games played at the major league level, Solak has hit .252/.328/.372 with 21 home runs, 93 RBI, and 19 stolen bases.
He played in Triple-A Tacoma during the 2024 season, slashing .311/.406/.446 with nine home runs and 10 stolen bases.
Defensively, Solak has played third, second, left field, center field, and first base in the majors.
Wilkin Ramos was signed to a minor league contract. Ramos was originally signed by the Athletics as an international free agent but was acquired by the Pirates a year later for Tanner Anderson.
The Mets selected him in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 draft.
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He struck out 58 batters in 51 innings while posting a 3.88 ERA back in 2022 with the Bradenton Marauders. He’s been in the Mets’ system since then and put up a 3.00 ERA with 47 strikeouts in 51 innings pitched between two levels.
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Just doing a little inventory of BC's trading of our pitchers:
1) Priester for Yorke
2) Patrick Reilly for Cook
3) Ortiz for Horwitz
4) Shim for BLDC (grade F)
Well, 3 out of 4 have good potential. But the 4th was a real stinker. Loved Shim, although he may never pan out w/ injuries.
Say we round out the offseason by signing max kepler, jeff hoffman, a LHSP/swingman flier, LHRP plus the usually flurry of minor league free agent depth signings... I think I would feel like we had a fairly successful offseason given what is actually realistic for us
Santander and Teoscar arent really going to be in play for us and Kepler probably has the best glove/bat combo among the rest given he might be patrolling a very spacious left field at PNC. Luis Robert is the only trade candidate that feels like it is somewhat realistic and brings a higher ceiling for LF but his floor is super low and likely would cost another young starter (Ashcraft?). Missing out on conforto hurts there