Adios Pedro, Hello Alex & Assorted Stuff

The beat gang reports that Pedro Ciriaco has been returned to Indy. Since May 21st, the poor guy got into six games, had six at-bats, six innings in the field, and generally seemed to be invisible to Clint Hurdle.

Anyway, it smooths the path for Alex Presley to join the club at Toronto, presumably to DH (he was officially promoted in the late afternoon). During his September call-up last season, he hit .261/0/0 in 25 plate appearances and generally took a back seat to John Bowker. This year he kept up his minor league raking, batting .336/8/36 at Indy, and will likely DH against the Blue Jays.

We'd frankly be surprised to see him get a lot of time in the OF. Our guess would be that Xavier Paul will take Tabata's place. He's hitting .267 with nine stolen bases and a nice glove, though he does K too much and walk too little. But there is really no reason to replace him as a table-setter short of an implosion or Presley flashing a sudden burst of muscle. And the Pirates like Paul; after all, they claimed him in late April when they could have promoted Presley.

On the other hand, the FO thought Neil Walker was gonna be a utility guy, too, so Presley has a punchers' chance if he can impress the people in Pittsburgh as much as he has the folk in Indianapolis. And he did force his way onto the big team through performance, so that's not an entirely far-fetched possibility.

How long Presley stays on the roster will depend on the health of Jose Tabata. JT's quad was examined today, and the Bucs haven't announced what's up with his situation yet. It's widely thought that he'll go on the DL.

That would be a handy move, if unfortunate for Tabata, because with Ciriaco's demotion, Brandon Wood becomes the sole back up infielder on the roster. If JT goes on the DL, that gives the Pirates an opening to recall Josh Harrison (.283/0/4), who was sent down for Chase d'Arnaud. If not, the next likeliest scenario has Harrison returning July 3rd to replace Brad Lincoln or whoever is called up to pitch on the 2nd, a doubleheader date with Washington.

Other happenings:

• Jose Tabata's status is still uncertain; they'll probably wait until after the Toronto series to reach a decision on whether or not to DL him retroactively, according to Jen Langosch of MLB.com.
• Pedro Alvarez played some third for the GCL Pirates and will continue his rehab with Bradenton.
• RHP Mike Crotta has been recalled from his rehab assignment, reinstated from Pittsburgh's DL and then optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis.
• The beat gang reports that RHP Kevin Hart visited Dr. Andrews and was told to stop pitching activities for four weeks and focus on rebuilding his arm strength.
• The Pirates have picked up minor league C Miguel Perez from the Nationals for a PTBNL or cash. The 27 year old was a Bucco farmhand in 2008-09. Lotta catchers in Indy right about now - Kris Watts, Dusty Brown (if he clears waivers), Wyatt Toregas, Perez, Jason Jaramillo on the DL...