1/18 From 1980: Big Joe-David/Endy, Felipe, Francisco & Bobby Sign, DD, BB & Bo To Hearings, Bix Dealt; HBD Justin & Gift

• 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 MLB in 2017. 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, as he literally grew up in a ballyard. Gift is a brilliant fielder but hasn’t solved hitting 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, back to the Land Down Under last year and the Frontier League. Gift then bounced around baseball and since 2023 has been a minor league manager and coach for the D-Backs. The Bucs signed his middle infielder brother Victor, and he played in the system until 2019. Pittsburgh signed his brother Victor, and he played in the Pirates system until 2019. 
• 1984 - LHP Justin Thomas was born in Toledo, Ohio. He was drafted out of Youngstown State by Seattle in 2005 and the Pirates claimed him off waivers from the Mariners in 2009. He had his longest stint as a Buc (12 outings, 0-1/6.23). JT spent the next year with the MLB Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, and then went East to toss for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan, the Kia Tigers of the Korean League, and the Chinese League Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions before hanging up his well-worn spikes after the 2015 season. 
• 1989 - Pittsburgh 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, and after hitting .274 with 24 HR’s & 100 RBI in 1988, he earned a big jump from his $245K paycheck. 

Bobby Bonilla - 1989 Fleer All Star

• 1991 - The Pirates and their eight arb-eligible players traded salary offers. Not surprisingly, there was a sizeable gap between the Three Amigos and Bucs: Bobby Bo ($1.25M in ‘90) wanted $3.475 and was offered $2.4M; Doug Drabek ($1.1M) requested $3.35M and was met with a $2.3M bid, and Barry Bond ($850K) asked for $3.25M; the Pirates countered with $2.3M. Drabek and Bonds won their hearings; Bonilla lost his and left after the season. Bonds and Drabek joined him in changing MLB employers after the ‘92 campaign to scatter the playoff core. 
• 1996 - The Bucs signed RHP Francisco Cordova out of the Mexican League. He tossed for five years in Pittsburgh, slashing 42-47/3.97. Francisco had three good years with the Bucs, throwing the front end of a combined no-hitter finished by lefty 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. 
• 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/conviction for kiddie porn/sexual contact ended his MLB connection. 

Endy Rodriguez - 2024 Topps Golden Mirror

• 2021 - The Pirates continued their teardown/rebuild when they pulled the trigger on a Big Joe Musgrove swap with San Diego and the Mets (it became official the next day after the physicals were completed). The Bucs got CF Hudson Head with RHPs David Bednar, Omar Cruz and Drake Fellows from the Padres along with C Endy Rodriguez from Mets (NY received LHP Joey Lucchesi from SD). Musgrove, 28, turned the corner during the 2020 campaign (1-5 but with a 3.86 ERA & 12.5 K per nine), had two years of team control and the added plus of going back to his hometown. Head, 19, and Rodriguez, 20, were the top kids coming back in return, while Bednar (who went to Mars HS) established himself as a back-ender with the Bucs and was dealt to the NYY in '25. Endy became the starting catcher in ‘23 but was on the shelf for ‘24 & most of '25 with a bum wing that required back-to-back surgeries. Cruz returned to SD via Rule 5 and is now an FA, Head toiled in the associated league last year and Fellows made it to Indy in '25, then signed with the Yankees as an FA in the offseason.