Morning Rundown: Week in review: Oviedo Tommy John, Gilberto Celestino, catching prospects
Morning Rundown: Week in review: Oviedo Tommy John, Gilberto Celestino, catching prospects
A look back at what happened last week on Bucs on Deck
It was a busy week for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who made their first free agent signing, even if it was just a minor-league deal.
They signed outfielder Gilberto Celestino to a minor-league contract. The 24-year-old played over 100 games for the Minnesota Twins in 2022 but spent all last season in Triple-A.
I did a breakdown of what Celestino could bring to the Pirates should he make it to the majors. He provided strong defense and even hit the ball harder in Triple-A last year, although it was mostly in the dirt.
There is even more pressure on catchers now to control the run game better after new rules were put in place that increased stolen base numbers.
I looked at who did the best at throwing out runners in the Pirates system last season and who got better year over year.
Richard Ramirez threw out over 50% of would-be base stealers in the DSL this past season. Bradenton had a pair of catchers who fared well last year in Geovanny Planchart and Omar Alfonzo.
Of course the big news that forced the weekly recap a day back, after learning that Johan Oviedo was dealing with elbow issues previously, it came out that he would indeed need Tommy John surgery.
Oviedo won nine games for the Pirates this past season and pitched a career-high 177.2 innings.
I took each position group and looked at what might need to be upgraded based on their Wins Above Replacement (WAR) for the 2023 season.
Shortstop should get better by default with Oneil Cruz coming back, but a few surprising positions could use some help.
Every Monday during the offseason, we will be doing a mailbag article. You can send your questions to bucsondeckqa@gmail.com or leave a comment with ‘mailbag’ written in it. The email would be easier to track, but you can comment, and I will add it to the list.
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Everything goes towards making the site as good as possible, with eyes on a few trips out to see games live, like Greensboro at the end of this past season.
Erod, severino, lugo, VV is my dream and its intact (for now)
My Cardinal friend said his Cardinals are the only team that could lose a 41 year old starter(Wainwright), but yet have an older rotation than the year before. (adding a 34, 36 and 36 year old.)