Notes: Roster Moves, Pirates Prospects Rated, Skenes ROTY & His Card To Be Auctioned, Season Previews, Ex-Bucs & MLB News

Winter wonderland, as in it’s winter & we wonder when they’re going to do something?

Pirates Stuff:

• RH reliever Ryder Ryan, 29, re-signed with the Pirates. It’s a minor-league agreement with an invite to MLB camp. Ryan was 1-0/5.66 last year in 15 big league outings, spending most of his time at Indy before becoming a FA.
• DH Andrew McCutchen was officially added to the Pirates’ 40 man roster after his recent signing; IF Tristan Gray was DFA’ed to create a spot on the filled roster.
• RHP Bubba Chandler was ranked #7 in Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects list. Joining him were 2024 first-rounder SS/Konnor Griffin at #57 and RHP Thomas Harrington at #74. Bubba was also ranked #5 among RHP prospects by MLB Pipeline. Pipeline’s Top Hundred has Chandler at #15, Griffin at #43, Harrington at #80 and Termarr Johnson at #83.
• The always-in-the-news Paul Skenes received the 2024 Jackie Robinson NL Rookie of the Year Award at the 100th annual New York BBWAA dinner.
• An 11-year-old from LA pulled Skenes Topps 1/1 Chrome Update Patch Debut card. The Pirates have a standing offer of two season tickets, two autographed Skenes jerseys; a softball game for 30 people at PNC Park with alumni coaches; a meet-and-greet with Skenes plus BP and warmup with the Pirates at their Bradenton complex in exchange for the card. Of course, the cash value is…well, who knows? It’s value is estimated to be six figures on the card market. The kid collector and his fam have decided to auction the card, which sounds solid.

ZiPS chart – Pirates 2025 Fan Graphs/Dan Szymborski

• The Pirates ZiPS is out, and compiler Dan Szymborski “…sees the Pirates as a .500 team, but…they just have less upside than the rest of the division.” MLB.com picks the Bucs as one of the more improved teams thx to pitching & a predicted Oneil Cruz breakout, with depth being the main concern. Be patient scrolling; they’re the last team on the list.

Other Stuff:

• RF Ichiro Suzuki, pitcher CC Sabathia and reliever Billy Wagner were elected into the HoF. The trio join Classic Era electees Dave Parker and Dick Allen. 
• Francisco Cervelli has been named Italy’s new national baseball team manager, replacing Mike Piazza. Cervy will also be in charge of the new academy.
• Bobby Cuellar passed away; he was the Pirates bullpen coach from 2006-07 for Jim Tracy. He spent over 35 years in coaching from the Seattle Mariners to the Great Lake Loons.
• C Andrew Knapp retired. He was a Bucco for 10 weeks in 2022, getting into 11 games and batting .129. He played seven years, five with the Phils, and posted a .209 career BA. 
• RHP Beau Sulser has signed up to pitch in Taiwan. He has 10 MLB outings, all in 2022 and four with Pittsburgh, where he posted a 3.72 ERA in 9-2/3 IP. Since then, he’s pitched in Korea and in the Pirates/Blue Jays systems.

Roansy Contreras – 2022 Topps

• The Roansy Contreras tour continues; he was claimed by the Yankees.
• The Cubs signed C Reese McGuire to a minor league deal. He’s played for three teams over seven seasons (.252 career BA) after leaving the Pirates system in 2016 as part of the really weird Frankie Liriano – Drew Hutchison trade with the Toronto Blue Jays.