- Kevan Graves may be an interim GM, but he's the guy who's putting together the Pirates 40-man going into 2020, and he was busy. As expected, the Pirates exercised the options of Starling Marte ($11.5M) and Chris Archer ($8.25M). Pittsburgh also reinstated eight players from the 60-day injured list to the 40-man: Archer, Nick Burdi, Kyle Crick, Chad Kuhl, Jason Martin, Gregory Polanco, Edgar Santana and Jameson Taillon. James Marvel, Alex McRae, Yefry Ramirez and Wei-Chung Wang were outrighted off the 40-man roster. It now sits at 39 players and must be finalized by November 20th to include players the team wants to protect from the Rule 5 draft. (Prior to this wave, LHP Frankie Liriano, OF Melky Cabrera and OF/3B Lonnie Chisenhall all declared for free agency after their contracts expired while RHP Parker Merkel was sold).
- BTW, don't sleep on Graves: Per Ken Rosenthal, San Francisco has the Pirates assistant GM under consideration for their vacant GM post. (EDIT - reportedly, Scott Harris of the Cubs got the spot). Graves is a candidate in Pittsburgh, too. There's not much shaking on that front publicly; a posse of names have been floated, a head hunting firm is adding to the list, and it covers been-there, done-that guys with the young and restless gang. We'll have where that stands later in the week.
- MLB Trade Rumors has the Pirates in on two low-hanging members of the Top 50 FA's - LH right fielder Kole Calhoun of the Angels (#44), a big HR/K guy, and the Rangers LHP Drew Smyly (#50), both on low-cost, one-year deals. A couple of other names that have popped up are Eric Thames and Michael Wacha, but caveat emptor - it's all guesswork at this point.
- For projection fans, here are the Pirates 2020 Steamer predictions.
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| Is Mitch untouchable? - photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates |
- Will Leitch of MLB.com picks each team's most untouchable player. For Pittsburgh, his choice is RHP Mitch Keller. The MLB Pipeline crew also predict that Mitch is the most likely Bucco babe to be considered for 2020 RoY.
- Vince Castrovince made what he calls "A Way Too Early Division Prediction" for MLB.com. In a surprise, he picks the Reds to take the Central, with everyone in contention except for...well, ya know.
- The Cards' Kolten Wong won the Rawlings Gold Glove at second base. Adam Frazier was a finalist for the award, the only rep from the Bucs. Wong also won the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year at 2B.
- RHP Brandon Maurer, 29, declared for free agency. The Pirates took a flier on him in 2019 but a bum knee limited him to eight minor-league outings.
- Dave Parker is among the 10 candidates on this year's 2020 Modern Baseball Era Hall of Fame ballot, as is ex-Buc GM Ted Simmons. The others are Dwight Evans, Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Marvin Miller, Thurman Munson, Dale Murphy and Lou Whitaker.
- Altoona Curve owner Bob Lozinak was named 2019's King of Baseball, a title awarded by Minor League Baseball annually in recognition of longtime dedication and service to professional baseball.
- LHP Tyler Lyons, 31, who made three Bucco outings last year, was outrighted by the Yankees and elected free agency.
- You might remember RHP Josh Lindblom, 32, who had a cup of joe w/the Bucs in 2017 and was released so he could pitch in Korea. He's back as an FA after posting a 35-7/2.68 slash and winning back-to-back Pitcher of the Year awards in his past two KBO campaigns.
- C Russ Martin, 36, finished out his five-year Toronto/LA run and is in play as a FA, albeit as a vet backup, for 2020.
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