12/20 From 1980: Foli/Kemp, Silva, Young Deals; Elster, Loiselle, Peters, Igarashi, Clements Sign; Class of '04 Stays Together; Ka-Ching

• 1984 - SS Tim Foli, OF Steve Kemp and cash were sent to the Pirates by the NY Yankees in exchange for SS Dale Berra, OF Jay Buhner and LHP Alfonso Pulido. Buhner went on to have a 15 year career with 310 homers, mostly with Seattle, while not much else was gotten out of the other guys involved in the deal. 
• 1988 - Big day for the Bucco bank account - the team announced that the Pirates posted an operating profit of $2,850,660 during the 1988 season, the first time since 1971 the Bucs ended the year in the black. The team set a club home attendance record of 1,866,713, an increase of more than 700,000 over the previous year. Pittsburgh had an operating loss of $1,756,838 in 1987. 

Kevin Elster 1997 Circa Thunder

• 1996 - Pittsburgh signed 32-year-old free agent SS Kevin Elster to a one-year/$1.65M deal. The veteran infielder was coming off a career season in Texas, hitting .252 with 24 HR and 99 RBI. But he never got a chance to carry that mojo forward. Elster hit .225 for the Bucs with seven homers, getting into just 39 games after breaking his wrist in mid-May. He never returned to duty and was released at the end of the campaign. His injury put a big dent in the “Freak Show” attack, with the 1997 club still managing to compete into September before finishing five games off the pace. 
• 1999 - The Pirates signed RHP Rich Loiselle and LHP Chris Peters to one year deals; both were arb-eligible and had missed the previous season with arm woes. Loiselle agreed to $400K while Peters took home $550K. Rich got into 40 games and went 2-3/5.10; he would pitch 18 big league games in 2001, which would be his last of six campaigns in the show. Peters worked 18 games, going 1-0/2.18, then closed out his MLB stay in Montreal the following season after six years of service. They also added a couple of depth catchers via minor league contracts, Tim Laker and Randy Knorr. 
• 2001 - In a minor deal, the Bucs sent RHP Jose Silva (one day after his birthday) to the Reds for minor league RHP Ben Shaffar. Silva pitched one more year in the big leagues while Shaffar never made it to the show. 

Chris Young 2002 Upper Deck minor league (Hickory)

• 2002 - RHP Chris Young and minor leaguer Jon Searles were traded to the Montreal Expos for RHP Matt Herges. The 6’10” Young, a third round pick of the Bucs in 2000 who was given a $1.65M bonus to lure him from basketball, went on to win 32 games between 2005-07 and landed an All-Star berth before injuries threw a series of speed bumps at his career, while the Pirates cut Herges in spring training and he was claimed by the Padres. He went on to make over 350 more appearances in the next six years as a journeyman middle reliever. 
• 2004 - The Pirates tendered all seven of their arb-eligible players: SS Jack Wilson, OF/1B Craig Wilson, 1B Daryle Ward, UT Rob Mackowiak, and P’s Josh Fogg, Kip Wells and Brian Meadows. All seven played for the Bucs throughout 2005. They had signed RHP Salomon Torres earlier in the off season to a two year/$2.6M deal to avoid arbitration. 
• 2011 - The Bucs took a chance with RHP Ryota Igarashi, the fastest pitcher in Japan with a 98-MPH heater with two years as a Met under his belt, by signing him to a minor league deal with an invite to camp. He was sent to the minors in March and told the media he was “shocked” by the demotion (even though he had surrendered nine runs in 9-⅓ spring innings). The Bucs sold their disgruntled reliever to the Toronto Blue Jays the next day; he eventually returned to Japan. The Pirates also inked Jeff Clements to the non-roster invitee list. He started at Indy and made it to Pittsburgh in late August, but hit just .136 to end his Buccaneer days.