#pittsburgh-pirates

#pittsburgh-pirates

Valdez hit .209/.294/.363 across 31 games before sustaining a season-ending dislocation of his left shoulder, which required surgery. He is healthy but no longer had much of a path to playing time on the Pittsburgh infield.

Cincinnati ranked 21st in Major League Baseball with 167 home runs and had a .391 slugging percentage last season, fueled by 440 extra-base hits.

"That's what kept his arm in shape because he hammered, and did everything that he had to do, and he used the saw, and it kept his arm in the condition he kept it in, that's what he always said," Jackie, his younger sister, said.

After spending 12 of his 18 Major League seasons with the Pirates, Andrew McCutchen said back in August that he wanted to return for another season in the black-and-gold, while acknowledging that his shortcomings during the 2025 season. " I have to do what I need to do to...show that I was able to have a good year and still can play the following year," McCutchen said, noting that he didn't want to be just " filling in a spot " and not contributing.

They've spoken in the past about wanting to lure more free agents and make impact additions in the lineup, but both comments from Pittsburgh brass and the reporting surrounding their early offseason endeavors struck a different tenor. The Pirates' reported willingness to offer Josh Naylor in the vicinity of $80MM was a genuine surprise, given the lack of spending to which we've become accustomed from owner Bob Nutting.

After making his MLB debut in the form of a single inning of work for the Rockies during the 2022 season, Davis has now played in each of the last four Major League seasons, albeit with not a ton more playing time than that initial cup-of-coffee appearance. Davis has 27 games and 62 1/3 innings under his belt, with a 9.53 ERA, 18.5% strikeout rate, and 9.2% walk rate.

The Pirates are designating reliever Chase Shugart for assignment, reports Jason Mackey of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. They needed to create a 40-man roster spot for Ryan O'Hearn, whose two-year free agent contract was finalized this afternoon. Pittsburgh acquired Shugart in a minor trade with the Red Sox last offseason. The Texas product had only six games of MLB experience at the time. He made it into 35 contests in his first and potentially only season as a Pirate.

This team has a surplus of young, controllable outfielders, with Jarren Duran's name the one that has come up the most in trade rumors. What's more, Triston Casas and Masataka Yoshida have less of a path to playing time now that Contreras is in the fold. Breslow recently told reporters (including Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com) that roster logjams like this "tend to work out," but one such way these things can work themselves out is through a trade or two.

Most notable is the hiring of Thomas Whitsett as an assistant pitching coach under Bill Murphy. Whitsett has ties to Murphy from the Houston organization. He had coached in the Astros system as a pitching coordinator and was most recently their Triple-A pitching coach in 2024. Whitsett had come through the college ranks after working at the University of Arizona. This is his first job on a big league staff.

Soto, 30, spent the 2025 season split between the Baltimore Orioles and New York Mets. In his tenure with the American League East team, the lefty posted a 3.96 ERA and 3.33 FIP in 36.1 innings pitched, with a 27.5 K% and an 11.3 BB%. Before the 2025 trade deadline, he was sent to the Mets, where he had a 4.50 ERA and 3.55 FIP in 24 innings pitched, with a 21.8 K% and 5 BB%.

In his latest piece about the Pirates trading away Johan Oviedo, Ken Rosenthal reported that the Pirates are open to trading another starting pitcher not named Paul Skenes. So while it still feels like it's only a matter of time before that domino falls and Skenes gets shippied out of Pittsburgh, it isn't likely to happen this season. Despite having perhaps the best pitcher in baseball, the Pirates finished in last place in the NL Central with just 71 wins.

The Toronto Blue Jays have had their eye on Japanese talent for a long time. They are determined and poised to make an impression in that market. Sometimes, the Blue Jays need to be careful about flouting the rules in pursuit of these goals. Maybe this year though, they could land someone who is actually motivated to play on a roster like theirs.

The right-hander has just 11 MLB appearances on his resume between the 2020 and '21 seasons. He posted an 8.64 ERA in six appearances for the Tigers at the big league level before being plucked off waivers from the Twins in 2021 and turning in a 12.54 ERA across 9 1/3 frames for Minnesota. Burrows has identical 12.5% strikeout and walk rates for his career and has allowed eight home runs in 17 2/3 career innings of work.

The Pirates enter this winter on a quest to augment their offense in a way that could allow them to contend while superstar hurler Paul Skenes is still in town. Skenes is backed by a solid group of pitching options, including veteran Mitch Keller as well as young arms like Braxton Ashcraft and Bubba Chandler in the rotation along with closer Dennis Santana in the bullpen.

Marin, who served as the Pirates' pitching coach from 2020-25, will take over for Matt Tracy, who's moved from bullpen coach to assistant pitching coach. Last year's assistant pitching coach, Simon Mathews, was hired away as the Nationals' new pitching coach earlier this week. Marin broke into pro ball back in 2010 with the Rangers, working as a coach and assistant in their minor league ranks for seven years.

"We have put ourselves in a position based on the improvement we made in 2025," Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said, per The Athletic. "We think we can put together a really exciting team for 2026 and also continue our quest to build a foundation of talent at all levels that will allow us to stay good for a long period of time."