1/18 From 1970: Felipe, Bo & Francisco Sign; Bix Dealt; HBD Wandy & Gift

• 1979 - LHP Wandy Rodriguez was born in Santiago Rodriguez, Dominican Republic. Wandy joined the Bucs in 2012 when he was acquired in a deadline deal from the Astros. He didn’t become a major contributor as hoped, as his 2013 season derailed because of arthritis in his pitching arm after a dozen starts, and he contributed just 11 wins in 25 outings with a 3.66 ERA as a Pirate before being released in May of 2014. 

Gift Ngoepe - 2017 Topps Now

• 1980 - SS Gift Ngoepe was born in Randburg, South Africa. Ngoepe became the first black South African to sign a professional baseball contract when he agreed to a deal with the Pirates in October 2008 and the first to play in the majors in 2017. You could say he was born to be a ballplayer. Ngoepe's mom was a clubhouse attendant for the Randburg Mets, and they lived in one of the clubhouse rooms, so he grew up in a ballyard. Gift has proven to be a brilliant fielder but hasn’t been able to hit the ball, with a .222 Pirates BA (.231 career MiLB) and was sold to Toronto in the 2017 offseason. He played in Australia in 2018, then the Phils/Pirates/Indie League and back to the Land Down Under last year. The Pirates signed his brother Victor, so the legacy continues. 
• 1989 - The Pirates came to a one-year/$730K agreement, adding various award bonuses, with 25-year-old 3B Bobby Bonilla. Bobby Bo was one of seven Buccos who had filed for arbitration after hitting .274 with 24 HR’s & 100 RBI in 1988 to earn a big jump from his $245K paycheck. 
• 1996 - The Bucs signed LHP Francisco Cordova out of the Mexican League. He tossed for five years in Pittsburgh, slashing 42-47/3.97 in that time. Francisco had three good years with the Bucs, throwing the front end of a combined no-hitter finished by Ricardo Rincon and getting the Opening Day call in 1998 and ‘99, before arm troubles caught up to him. He lasted two more years as a Pirate. After he left, he had enough left in the tank to pitch in Mexico from 2002-2011 with the Mexico City Tigres, the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, and the Petroleros de Minatitlán. 
• 2010 - The Buccos traded OF/SS Brian Bixler to the Cleveland Indians, getting young minor league handyman Jesus Brito in return. Bixler was Pittsburgh's second-round pick in the 2004 draft, but in 166 Bucco PA’s between 2008-09, he batted just .178. Bix also got shots with Washington and Houston, but his bat never came around; his lifetime BA was .189, and his best single-season OPS+ was 59. Utilityman Brito never advanced past Class A. 

Bix - 2009 Topps

• 2018 - Felipe Rivero officially signed a four-year/$22M deal to cash in his arb years. He gets $2.5M in 2018, $4M in 2019, $5.25M in 2020, $7.25M in 2021, plus a $2M signing bonus. The deal includes club options in 2022 and 2023 for $10M with buyouts of $1M in 2022/$500K in 2023. Rivero had filed for an arb hearing as a Super Two (he asked for $2.9M & the Pirates countered with $2.4M), but he traded it in for guaranteed money and team-friendly cost certainty for the club. A 2019 arrest for kiddie porn made it all moot.