Saturday, August 31, 2013

Stolmy Pimentel Up, Andrew Lambo, Jared Hughes Down

The Pirates, as expected, optioned OF Andrew Lambo to Altoona to clear a space for 1B Justin Morneau on the active roster. In a more surprising move, they also sent RHP Jared Hughes to the Curve and called up RHP Stolmy Pimentel (6-9, 3.35 Altoona/Indy) from the Tribe. Both demoted players were sent to Altoona because its season ends Monday, so they can be returned to the roster on Tuesday, along with Tony Sanchez and Jeff Locke.

Pimentel's promotion a day ahead of time is the poser. Is he another bullpen arm or will he start Sunday's game? LHP Kris Johnson (10-4/2.39) is also supposed to be in Pittsburgh, so he'll be added to the roster tomorrow and remains the odds-on favorite to go against the Cards, as he's both lefty and has worked in the show, albeit for six innings.

The main difference is that Pimentel now can be added to the playoff roster, so maybe the FO simply decided they'd prefer Stolmy to Jared as an October option. Tim Williams of Pirates Prospects offers some speculation that it might be a procedural move if Hughes is the PTBNL in the Morneau deal.

Well, been an interesting couple of days; welcome to the wild and wacky world of playoff baseball.


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