Weekly Mailbag: Edward Olivares upside, Mascot power rankings, roster adds

Another weekly mailbag discusses multiple topics.

AdministrativeSky236 - For this week's mailbag, I would like a power ranking of each mascot among the org's affiliates, the less logic, the better.

1. Bradenton Barbanegras - This isn’t exactly a mascot, but this felt like the perfect time to mention that this is my favorite hat/jersey combination that any of the affiliates do.

2. Marauders - I guess you can just combine the two, so that’s why they get number two here. Maybe it’s a knockoff of the Pirates but the Marauders and Marty the Mastcot, A+.

3. Grasshoppers/Guilly - He’s a Grasshopper. Enough said. This was actually close, but I had to go with the bug. Might be unpopular, but that’s where we are going.

4. Loco/Curve - Loco’s back story on the Altoona site is actually pretty fun, which actually is what made it closer than I originally had it. Even if it plays into a baseball theme, ‘Curve’ hasn’t always resonated with me as much.

5. Rowdie/Indianapolis Indians - Rowdie is a bear, apparently, and while the design is cool, it picks up the rear here.

Also for the mailbag, if you could add $15m AAV to the team's payroll today, what would you do to make the roster better/round out the offseason? (this was before the Chapman signing, FWIW).

This question was submitted before the news of the Aroldis Chapman signing, but even looking past that, you have to go starting pitcher. Or starting center fielder.

With $15 million, you could probably do both, or at least address both positions, but I’d rather pour all of that into a starting pitcher.

I don’t think Priester or even Luis Ortiz (and, to an even lesser extent, Roansy Contreras) are as bad as they showed in 2023, but that doesn’t mean I want two of the two final rotation spots potentially taken up by them. I would rather have one there and either slide Ro to the bullpen or send Ortiz and Priester to Triple-A to start the season.

Todd Schneider - When is the date when the Pirates are allowed to put guys like Endy, Oviedo, and Burrows on the Injured List? Do you think there will still be a talent of free agents available? What moves do you see the Pirates making as a result of the open roster spots?

This answer is coming with an assist from Ethan, who pointed me to one of his previous tweets. Based on the start of the season and what the rules say, February 14th should be when teams can start adding players to the injured list.

With the way the offseason has gone, there will be names left, I just don’t know if they will be in the range of what the Pirates will want to go.

But there are still quite a few big names out there who still haven’t signed.

JT Brubaker will likely go on the 60-day once again. Johan Oviedo will as well. The Pirates were able to avoid putting Mike Burrows on the 60-day last year to keep him from gaining any service time.

Generally injured players aren’t allowed to get optioned, but as Ethan mentioned on Twitter, there is a rule that would allow it in Burrows’ instance.

Burrows and Endy Rodriguez would be the other two. That’s up to four potential roster spots that can be created through the injured list.

George Hareras - I have a pretty good feeling about Olivares and I feel like people are sleeping on him as getting a good amount of time in RF. I feel like he could be a sneaky 20/20 candidate. Am I wrong for thinking this?

I actually really liked this move for the Pirates. He isn’t an extreme platoon player, so he could steal some plate appearances against righties as well if he’s hitting enough. He had 13 home runs and 11 stolen bases in 107 games last year, so there is some potential there.

His sprint speed was in the 82nd percentile, which is good, but he did chase a lot, and didn’t hit the ball very hard.

If given enough at-bats, I’d bet more toward him reaching 20 stolen bases before 20 home runs, but for either to happen a lot has to go right.

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If I didn’t get to your question here, I have it lined up for a future edition of the mailbag. Thanks for sending in your questions! If you want to ask anything, comment below with ‘mailbag’ written in, or email me at bucsondeckqa@gmail.com