Roster Set - Figueroa Makes the Cut; P-Flo, Big John, Jake DFA'ed

The team made the following moves to set its active roster for the season:

Active Roster:
Pitchers (12): Arquimedes Caminero, Gerrit Cole, Neftali Feliz, Frankie Liriano, Kyle Lobstein, Jeff Locke, Cory Luebke, Mark Melancon, Juan Nicasio, Jon Niese, Ryan Vogelsong, and Tony Watson.
Position Players (13): Fran Cervelli, Cole Figueroa, David Freese, Josh Harrison, John Jaso, Matt Joyce, Starling Marte, Andrew McCutchen, Michael Morse, Gregory Polanco, Sean Rodriguez & Chris Stewart.

Cole Figueroa is the last man standing (photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates)

Last Cuts:
The last two to meet the Turk were Jason Rogers, who has an option & will go to Indy (David Freese made him redundant) and Pedro Florimon, who had a good spring but was beat out by Figueroa in a fairly heated competition. Both are versatile middle infielders whom the Bucs introduced to outfield play in camp. They hit pretty similarly (P-Flo .277, Figgy .260) but Figueroa is not only lefty, but will take a walk and put the ball in play. Pedro whiffed 15 times in 47 ABs w/o drawing a single free pass.

15 Day DL:
Jung Ho Kang (leg), Jared Hughes (lat) and Elias Diaz (elbow). JHK appears to be on track for a late April return, Hughes' timeline is unknown (backs traditionally take a while to heal, then rehab follows), and Diaz is slated for Indy when he's ready to go. All three were retro-dated back to March 25th.

40 Man Roster:
Pittsburgh had to make three moves as the 40-man was filled and spaces for NRIs Matt Joyce, Cory Luebke and Cole Fugueroa were needed. Pedro Florimon, Jake Goebbert and John Holdzkom were DFA'ed. Florimon and Goebbert were predictable; Big John was a bit of a surprise.