Notes: Player Moves, Pirate/MLB Snips

And bravely into the unknown...

Notes:

• Not very great news: Jason Mackey of the Post-Gazette reports that Johan Oviedo is having serious elbow issues. The Bucs are still evaluating the injury, but TJ surgery hasn't been ruled out as a possibility. Maybe jumping his workload from 117 IP in '22 to 178 frames in '23 had something to do with it, although Shelty didn't really have a lot of options over the final two months. One thing that's for sure - you never have enough pitching.
• The Bucs released RHP Wil Crowe. He only got into five games last year before suffering a shoulder injury and spent the second half of the campaign at Indy.
• The Pirates added RHP Braxton Ashcraft and INF Tsung-Che Chung to their 40-man roster, protecting them from the Rule 5 draft. MLB.com's Top 30 Pirates Prospects eligible for the draft were Ashcraft, RHP (No. 12), Dariel Lopez, 3B/SS (No. 14), Cheng, SS (No. 18), Matt Gorski, OF (No. 20), Malcom Nuñez, 1B/3B (No. 23), Jase Bowen, OF/1B (No. 27) and Enmanuel Terrero, OF (No. 29). Cheng and Ashcroft were in Baseball America's Top 10 Pirates Prospect List at #9 & #10.
• Friday was the deadline for offering arb/pre-arb players a contract; reliever Ryan Borucki was signed for a reported $1.6M, pitchers Osvaldo Bido & Hunter Stratton (on his b-day yet!) were non-tendered, though the FO is reported to be offering the pre-arb pair minor league deals, and 34 others were tendered contracts. The arb-eligible players were Borucki (year 3), Mitch Keller & JT Brubaker (year 2), and Dave Bednar & Connor Joe (year 1). We assume the Pirates are talkin' turkey with the group; the arb-eligibles have until January 12th to either accept the offer, hammer out a deal or file for a hearing.

Ryan signed: 8-23-2023 photo Brian Kluckhohn/AP

• There's a small mob of pre-arb players that don't have enough service time (three years) yet to squabble over salary, including Jack Suwinski, Jason Delay, Henry Davis, Oneil Cruz, Endy Rodriguez, Ji-Hwan Bae, Josh Palacios, Liover Peguero, Johan Oviedo, Bailey Falter, Roansy Contreras, Colin Holderman, Dauri Moreto, Andre Jackson, Quinn Priester, Jared Triolo and a bunch more...
• Pittsburgh released its 2024 spring training schedule for pre-season followers and those of you who enjoy visiting Bradenton for a winter break.
• And for the folk that like to tie their ticket to a group/giveaway event, here's the Pirates promotional schedule for 2024.
• The Pirates hired Justin Horowitz as their new Director of Amateur Scouting. He worked in Boston's scouting department for 12 years where he was a Special Assistant for Amateur Scouting, focusing on the draft.
• RHP Gerrit Cole won the 2023 AL Cy Young Award, slashing 15-4/2.63 with 222 K in 209 IP for the NY Yankees. Blake Snell won the NL Cy. Ronald Acuna Jr. and Shohei Ohtani were the MVPs, the first time there were two unanimous selections.
• OF Cal Mitchell has agreed to an NRI deal with the Padres; he's a San Diego native who's heading home.
• The Detroit Tigers have signed OF Bligh Madris to a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training. He had a couple of big league tastes with the Pirates in 2022 and the Astros last season. 
• The Colorado Rockies have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent RHP Geoff Hartlieb. The Pirates waived him after the 2021 campaign and he's been in the New York Mets and Miami Marlins system during the past two seasons.
• RH reliever Enyel De Los Santos, who worked seven games for the Pirates in 2021 before being waived to Cleveland, was traded by the Guardians to the Padres for RHP Scott Barlow.
• C Jake Stallings was non-tendered by Miami after hitting .210 in his two seasons there; he was a .254 batter during his Bucco campaigns.

Daniel Vogelbach - 2022 image/Pirates

• The Mets non-tendered Daniel Vogelbach, who hit 12 homers for the Bucs in 2022 and then was traded to NY at the deadline for RHP Colin Holderman.
• The Braves, who just claimed LHP Angel Perdomo from the Bucs a week ago, turned around and non-tendered him. He had TJ surgery in October, so '24 is a lost season for him.
• OF Austin Meadows, who had a couple of strong campaigns with Tampa Bay after being part of the Chris Archer trade in 2018, was non-tendered by his current club, the Tigers. In two seasons, he only played 42 games for Motown due to physical and anxiety issues. 
• The Tampa Bay Rays hired ex-Bucco reliever Tony Watson for their player development department as Tony transitions from the hill (he retired after the 2021 campaign) to the FO. 
• The owners meeting was held Tuesday-thru-Thursday in Arlington, Texas, where they approved the A's move to Las Vegas unanimously. It's been a messy process.
• MLB's competition committee is considering a proposal that would reduce the pitch clock with runners on base from 20 seconds to 18 next season. The owners say game times jumped as players got used to rules and how to navigate around them, while the players are concerned about an increase of pitcher's arm injuries.