The Week's Notes: Cutch, Starling, Gerrit, Jung-Ho, S-Rod and Other Off-Season Stuff...

And in this week's news...

• Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports says that Cutch was in play for a deal with the Nats during the 2016 deadline. Adam Berry of MLB.com writes that Pittsburgh isn't actively shopping Andrew, but will listen to offers.
• Starling Marte won his second straight Golden Glove award. The Partay boy had 17 assists this year (16 w/o the use of a relay middle man), one more than he had in 2015.

Gerrit Cole (image Positively Pittsburgh)

• Several reports have Gerrit Cole in shut-down mode for the time being, but they expect that he should be able to get in his regular off-season routine and return at full strength for the 2017 campaign. That process will bear some watching as the winter goes on.
• Not a surprise, but Jung Ho Kang is on South Korea's World Baseball Classic roster, with its first game March 6th.
• Mike Petriello of MLB.com selects the low-cost version of touted FA's; he looks at Sean Rodriguez and ex-Bucco Steve Pearce as strong value buys.
• Charlie Wilmoth of Major League Trade Rumors takes a peek at what the Bucs have and what they need moving forward.

Dovydas Neverauskas - 2016 Futures Game (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

• The Pirates added RHP Dovydas Neverauskas and 1B/OF Jose Osuna to the 40-man roster. Dovy represented the Bucs in the Futures Game and in 2016 slashed 4-4-5/3.10 ERA, with 8.7 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 in 58 IP at Indy and Altoona. He would have likely debuted this September if he hadn't joined in a barroom brawl. Jose's line was .279/.331/.457, also split between the Curve and Tribe. Osuna has shown a steady bat over his minor league career (.278/.330/.479) and could stick as a utility corner guy.
• The Pirates, per Baseball America, have 10 minor-league FA's this year: RHPs Juan Diaz, Jason Erickson, Justin Masterson, Jhondaniel Medina and Drew Rossi; LHPs Jim Fuller, Kelvin Marte and Rinku Singh & OFs Stetson Allie and Danny Ortiz.
• Rob Biertempfel of the Trib reports that Derrick Holland's agent says the veteran righty has the Pirates on his short list. We wouldn't read a lot into it; drumming up business is an agents job.

• Pirate-Fest will be December 10-11th at the Convention Center.
• The Blue Jays have announced that they’ve exercised RHP Jason Grilli’s $3M 2017 option.
• The Angels inked a 1yr/$5.75M deal with RHP Jesse Chavez, with an extra $3M in incentives possible.
• Greg Schiltz, who began his scouting career at Pittsburgh in 2004 and worked his way from amateur bird dog to Northern Regional Supervisor, was hired away by the Phils to become their National Scouting Coordinator.