Notes Before the Winter Meetings - Players Rap FO, Rumors, Moves & Stuff

Notes as we head into the Winter Meetings looking for a random log or two to toss into the Bucco not-very-hot stove:

• Rob Biertempfel of the Tribune-Review reports the Pirates have expressed some interest in non-tendered lefty Xavier Cedeno. He was effective for the Rays in 2015-16 as a set-up arm, but only got nine games (three IP) in last season before getting a PRP treatment and losing the year. Cedeno is tough on lefties (.226 lifetime) but not so much against righties (.301), and Clint is not a LOOGY fan, so we'll see.

Is J-Hay in someone's sights?

• The Mets are expected to kick J-Hay's tires at the winter meetings as they examine the second base marketplace. They seem to like Pirates 2B even though Neil Walker and Dilson Herrera didn't fill their bill.
• This doesn't qualify as a bona fide rumor, but a couple of New York outlets have mentioned in passing that the Yankees, pressed to the luxury tax limit with the acquisition of Giancarlo Stanton but short on pitching, can't dive very deeply into the FA pool and may try to work a deal for the more affordable Gerrit Cole.
• Felipe Rivero's agent hopes to sit with the Pirates front office during the meetings. Rivera is a Super Two (four years of arb, through 2021) and is open to a longer-term deal.
• S-Rod had an interesting interview with the Post Gazette's Liz Bloom; he takes a rap at the FO (while qualifying that he gets the business side) for personnel moves in 2016 that ate away at the Pirates core lineup. Sid Bream told Tim Benz of the Tribune-Review basically the same thing; the FO sometimes waves the white flag instead of sounding the charge.

Preach it, brother! (2017 Topps)

• Pittsburgh signed minor league FAs, RHP Richard Rodriguez and OF Todd Cunningham. Both will be non-roster invitees to spring training. Rodriguez, 27 (he'll be 28 in March), has been effective at AAA as a set-up guy with a 10.2 K/9 innings and 1.047 WHIP last year but was ripped in a handful of outings with the Orioles last season. Cunningham, 28 (he'll be 29 in March), has 130 MLB at-bats (.207) with his last sighting in 2016 with the Angels. He plays everywhere and has been an OBP machine in the minors for the past couple of seasons, with no power to speak of. 
• Wayne Cavadi of Minor League Ball says to watch these three guys - Jordan Luplow, Stephen Alemais and Luis Escobar.
• Neil Huntington quotes from FanFest:

  On Jung Ho Kang returning this season: "It would be huge. We don't think it's going to happen."
  On Cutch: “We want McCutchen to retire a Pirate. We also want to win World Series. At times those two are contradictory. The challenge becomes how do we sign McCutchen and then build around him?”
  On Juan Nicasio (sounding a bit revisionist): “We kept Juan through the deadline because we wanted to give team a chance.” His $600K salary savings, NH added, were put into this year's budget.

Don't hold your breath (2017 Topps)

• The Cards have signed RHP Miles Mikolas, who the Pirates had for a bit in 2013. He came over with Jaff Decker in the Alex Dickerson deal but was flipped quickly to Texas for 1B Chris McGuiness. Miles has spent the past three years kicking butt in Japan and he gives the Redbirds some depth in the rotation and some flexibilty if they do any wheelin' and dealin'.
• No surprise but Shohei Ohtani went to the Angels and Giancarlo Stanton to the Yankees. They weren't heading here, so no loss, and didn't end up in Chicago or St. Louis, so their bidding wars ended about as well as the Bucs could hope. And now there may be some long looks at Cutch by the teams that lost out, especially SF.