The Pitchers + Catchers Cheat Sheet & Notes

The 40-man roster pitchers are starboard slingers Chris Archer, JT Brubaker, Nick Burdi, Luis Escobar, Michael Feliz, Clay Holmes, Keone Kela, Mitch Keller, Nick Kingham, Chad Kuhl, Jesus Loranzo, Jordan Lyles, Joe Musgrove, Dovy Neverauskas, Richard Rodriguez, Edgar Santana, Aaron Slegers, Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams. The port-siders are Steven Brault, Kyle Crick and Felipe Vazquez. Lyles and Slegers are the only new pickups.

Jamo, Archie, Willie and Big Joe are in; the fifth spot is Lyles to lose. The Nightmare, Kyle, Keone, Rich Rod and probably Kingham, who is out of options, are also going to break camp and head north. Cool Chad and Santana will spend the season rehabbing from TJ surgery, as will minor-league signee Tom Koehler.

Big Joe plans to be a go for Opening Day (image Pittsburgh Pirates)

The non-roster pitching invitees are righties Dario Agrazal, Roberto Gomez, Brandon Maurer, Alex McRae, Eduardo Vera and Blake Weiman. Southpaws are Elvis Escobar, Francisco Liriano, Tyler Lyons and Brandon Waddell. Gomez, Frankie, Lyons, and Maurer are on minor-league contract deals; the others are from within the system.

Frankie is the most likely to earn a MLB paycheck of this group. But the bullpen will be a storyline in itself; the back end is set, but the early-to-mid inning squad can go a variety of ways, depending on where Lyles ends up, how many men Clint carries, L/R balance, and performance, as several guys are on the rebound.

The rostered catchers are Fran Cervelli, Elias Diaz and Jake Stallings, while the NRI backstops are newly-signed Steven Baron and Jason Delay, along with org catchers Christian Kelley and Arden Pabst.

Another interesting little scrap - do the Bucs keep Fran in his walk year, and how do they deal with Jake, who is out of options? He's quite likely to be claimed if he goes on waivers, and the Pirates are thin at the position (Baron/Kelley are the third man candidates), creating a bit of a conundrum.

Notes:

• Will Leitch of MLB.com predicts that Chris Archer, not Jamo, will be the Bucs Opening Day pitcher, although he admits it's a coin-toss. 
• Gerrit Cole won his arb case and will earn $13.5M this season. The Astros had countered with $11.425M.
• The A's signed OF Rob Grossman (who was part of the way-back Wandy Rodriguez trade) to a major league deal worth $2M + incentives.