1/16 From 1990: JHK, Jose, Brendan, Ollie & Kip Sign, J-Hay Wants Out, Interleague OK'ed, All Star Sites; RIP Frank

• 1991 - LHP Bob Kipper avoided arbitration by signing a one-year/$825K deal with the Bucs, upping his take-home pay by $300K. His line was 5-2-3/3.02 in 1990, but he slashed 2-2-4/4.65 in 1991 and left as a FA to join the Twins in the off season. That was the end of his road; he was released by Minnesota in July after eight MLB campaigns and began coaching in the indie and minor leagues. 
• 1996 - Interleague play was approved by MLB for the next season and was later given an imprimatur from the MLBPA. It was meant to showcase rivalry games; three decades in, the Pirates are still looking for their natural rival; Detroit was designated as their MLB-designated blood foe. 
• 2003 - To add some skin to the All-Star game, the owners voted unanimously to give the winner home field advantage for the World Series, later approved by the MLBPA. It was eventually scrapped; 2016 was the last Mid-Summer Classic to determine the World Series home field. Good thing, too, for the NL - the Junior Circuit had won 11 of the 14 games played under that format. 
• 2006 - LHP Ollie Perez signed a $1.9M contract in his first arbitration year after coming off a 7-5/5.85 campaign. The Bucs had high hopes for a bounce back from the southpaw who had gone 12-10/2.98 with 239K in 2004, but the 24-year-old posted a 2-10/6.55 line during the season and the Pirates sent him to the Mets at the 2006 deadline as part of the Xavier Nady package. 

Ollie Perez - 2005_Fleer Tradition

• 2010 - The Pirates inked 38-year-old reliever Brendan Donnelly, an eight-year vet who was a former All Star but had been released by three teams in 2009, to a $1.35M FA deal. The righty put up a line of 3-1/5.58 for the Bucs and was let go in late July to end his big league days, retiring in 2011. Before that, he had been the poster boy for a baseball journeyman - since 1992, he had played for 12 pro organizations, two indie leagues, 19 minor league teams, and for six MLB clubs. 
• 2011 - The Pirates signed RHP Jose Veras to a minor league deal worth $1M if he made the big club. He did, going 2-4-1/3.80 with 79K in 71 IP. Jose was one-and-done with the Bucs; in the off season, he was flipped to the Milwaukee Brewers for 3B Casey McGehee. Veras had three seasons left in the tank, slashing 9-10-23/3.64 and averaging almost 10 whiffs per game. McGehee hit .230 with eight homers for the Bucs while playing on a gimpy knee and was sent to the New York Yankees at the deadline for RHP Chad Qualls. 
• 2015 - The Pirates officially signed Korean SS Jung-Ho Kang to a four-year, $11M contract ($2.5M, $2.5M, $2.75M & $3M with a $250K/$5.5M option for 2019). He could earn up to $750K/year in at-bat bonuses, with a guaranteed annual stipend for family travel and an interpreter. Pittsburgh also paid his club a posting fee of $5,002,015 for negotiating rights, making the deal the most expensive the Pirates ever paid out for an international signee. Kang, 27, hit .356 with 40 home runs and 117 RBIs in 501 PAs for the Nexen Heroes of the Korean Baseball Organization in 2014. His slash was .287/.355/.461 in his first MLB campaign, cut short by a late-season leg injury. He was strong again in 2016 but suffered through another injury-shortened year. That was followed by a missed campaign in 2017 due to legal issues in Korea that cost him his US work permit after a DUI conviction. JHK finally got back in good graces in 2018, but missed all but three games with a wrist injury. Kang was non-tendered, then re-signed by the Bucs for 2019 and released at the end of the campaign. He returned to Korea but hasn’t played since. 

Jung-Ho Kang - 2015 image/Pirates

• 2018 - IF Josh Harrison, reacting to the recent trades of his running mates, All-Star Andrew McCutchen and the team’s ace pitcher, Gerritt Cole, asked to be dealt too. “If indeed the team does not expect to contend this year or next, perhaps it would be better for all involved, that I also am traded,” he told The Athletic. Josh didn’t get his wish granted - although a handful of teams were said to be interested in him, he broke his hand in April - until the offseason when he signed a free agent deal with the Tigers. He’s been with six organizations since and had been a FA since the Reds released him in early 2024; the two-time All-Star retired in mid-2025. 
• 2023 - 50’s Pirates slugger Frank Thomas passed away at the age of 92. Born in the shadow of Forbes Field in Oakland, Thomas played 16 years in MLB, spending his first eight seasons (1951-58) with his hometown Pirates. Primarily an outfielder and third baseman, Frank was a three-time NL All-Star as a Bucco. He led the club in home runs five times and in RBI four times, reaching the 25-dinger mark four times while driving in more than 100 runs twice. He was handed the Bucs rain-maker torch in 1953, replacing Ralph Kiner, who was traded the same year.