Notes: What Happened This Week

Notes heading into the winter meetings:

• Pedro Alvarez and Jaff Decker were not tendered contracts, making them free agents and paring the 40 man roster to 38 players. Alvarez is expected to land in the AL, w/Baltimore, Cleveland, Texas & Houston thought to be the most likely destinations.
• Per Evan Grant of the Dallas News: Pittsburgh is the most aggressive suitor for 1B Mitch Moreland, who is being dangled as trade bait. The question is whether there is a realistic trade fit with the Pirates or if the clubs might have to involve a third team in talks. Moreland is a solid lefty bat (.278/23 HR in 2015) and would presumably platoon with Michael Morse.
• ESPN's Buster Olney reported that the "Pirates are among the teams being considered by Trevor Cahill. He's looking for a one-year, bounce-back deal and PIT's free agent Ps tend to get paid." In prior post, he noted "Near-FA pitcher needing turnaround? PIT/Searage can help make you a lot of money. Happ $36m, Burnett $16m PHI, Volquez $20m, Liriano $39m." Notice a theme?
• Buster's been busy; in his Insider's column, he chose Starling Marte as the best LF'er in baseball. He also rated Cutch as the #2 CF'er, Fran Cervelli #4 behind the dish, Gerrit Cole #9 among pitchers and Gregory Polanco #10 in the RF race.
• The Trib's Travis Sawchik tweeted "The Pirates are interested in free agent RHP Justin Masterson, who is likely seeking a one-year deal to rebuild his value, per source." He's been mentioned as a Bucco target for the past two seasons; his ERA and control have been terrible, but he is a ground ball machine.
• Pittsburgh re-signed RHP Clario Perez, 23, to a minor league contract. Perez had a 2.65 ERA at Bradenton and Altoona in 2015, pitching 85 innings as a reliever. 
• Alex Kraft of MilB.com selected the Pirates' All-Organizational team; there might be a couple of names on the list that flew under your radar.
• The Trib's Travis Sawchik (writing for BA) explained why the Pirates were Baseball America's Organization of the Year.
• ESPN's Tim Kurkjian noted that "the 2015 Pirates won 98 games without a complete game, the most wins ever (in a single season) without one. The previous high was 83 wins by the 2012 Brewers."
• The Pirates’ playoff pot was $1,048,232.24, with a full share worth $15,884.20. The team handed out 57 full shares, 8.9 partial shares and one flat cash award.
• PirateFest is right around the corner, on December 12th. Here's the 411. 
• The most Instagrammed spot in PA? Well, we knew it - PNC Park, natch.
• RHP Vance Worley signed a $2.6M deal with the Orioles. Sure would love to know the backstory of his fall from grace in Pittsburgh.
• The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese Pacific League signed RHP Radhames Liz to a one-year deal worth an estimated $815K. No surprise there; he tossed from 2011-13 for Seoul's LG Twins. The 32 year old lit it up in AAA but couldn't carry it over at the MLB level and had his 2016 club option with the Bucs refused.
• Remember Ollie Perez from back in the day? The lefty reinvented himself as a bullpen arm and just inked a two year/$7M deal w/Washington. 
• John Lackey signed a two year/$32-34M deal with the Cubs. The top of their rotation is now Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester and Lackey.
• Plum High OF'er Alex Kirilloff was named one of Baseball America's Top 100 high school players; he's going to Liberty University. Kirilloff, the WPIAL Baseball Coaches Association Quad-A Player of the Year for 2015, played in this summer's in the Perfect Game All-American Classic and was a final cut of the U-18 Team USA club.