Weekly Report: O'Hearn Official; Santana, Cruz, Bart, Lawrence Ink Arb Deals, Team & MLB Snippets & Moves

Arb and stuff...

Pirates Stuff: 

• Arb class covered: The Pirates and back-ender Dennis Santana agreed on a $3.5M contract; OF Oneal Cruz signed a $3.3M deal; C Joey Bart inked a $2.53 agreement and LH reliever Justin Lawrence sealed the deal by putting his John Hancock on a $1.225M pact. OF Jack Suwinski ($1.25M) and RHP Yohan Ramirez ($825,000) had opened the arb signing season in November.
• Ryan O'Hearn officially signed his two year/$29M contract on Thursday, two weeks after it was announced in the media. The Bucs cleared a 40-man spot by DFA'ing RHP Chase Shugart.

Ryan O'Hearn - 1/8/2026 Signing Presser / image SportsNet Pgh

• Free-agent RH reliever Chris Devenski has signed a minor league deal with the Pirates. The 35-year-old has a career 27-22-8/3.91 line over 10 big league seasons, posting a 2.16 ERA in 13 Mets outings last year. Pittsburgh also signed RHP Noah Davis to a minor league deal. He's worked parts of four MLB seasons, mostly with the Rox. His track record: 0-6/9.53 in 27 outings (62-1/3 IP w/58 K).
• RHP Jared Jones tossed his first bullpen since internal brace surgery on his elbow. He's projected to be ready for action between March-May and looks at this point to return on schedule.
• MLB Pipeline's exec poll picked the Pirates as having the fifth best minor league system (it was also considered the most underrated) and second-best at hoarding, as in keeping & developing, home grown players. Surprisingly, they didn't crack the farm league rankings for developing pitchers.
• The season kickoff: NBC Sports' Opening Day matinee (shown on March 26 at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock) features our Buccos and presumably Paul Skenes @ the New York Mets.

Whatta year for Konnor - 2025 Donruss Diamond Marvels

• The Pirates primo prospect, Konnor Griffin, won MLB Pipeline's exec vote as the best defensive SS in the minors. In the Tools category, he also took the Usable Power title, a catch-all phrase for potential big league bopping. Konnor was also second on the Best Hit Tool and Most Speed lists. The pitchers did OK, too - Bubba Chandler was second in the Best Fastball category and Seth Hernandez was tied for third for the Best Secondary Pitch; his change-up is elite and he also tosses a curve and slider.

MLB Stuff: 

• Ex-Buc and current Cubbie RHP Jamison Taillon, who holds dual US-Canadian citizenship, announced that he'll join Team Canada for the WBC. He last repped the Canadian nine in 2013. 
• RHP Tyler Beede, who worked 25 games for the Bucs in 2022, has signed a minor league deal with the Cubs.
• Arizona inked RHP Thomas Hatch to a minor league/NRI contract; he worked a dozen games for the Bucs in 2023.
• IF/OF Marco Luciano was claimed by Baltimore. The Pirates DFA'ed him a couple of weeks ago after having picked him up off waivers from the Giants on December 5th. He's 24, but out of options.

Cheng Off To Tampa - Topps MLB The Show 2024

• IF Tsung-Che Cheng was claimed off  waivers to the Tampa Bay Rays. He had a cup of coffee with the big team last year, and in a quick three-game peek, went 0-for-7. Once a hot prospect, he hit .224 for Altoona in '24 and followed by batting .209 at Indy in '25 to earned a post-season DFA from the Bucs. OF Edward Olivares, who was with the Bucs in 2024 (.224/5/23 in 55 games) and then went to Japan last year has also signed with the Rays. Ditto for C Blake Sabol, who was a Pirate property until 2023 when the Giants claimed him; he's played for them and Boston. All the contracts were minor-league deals.
• The Mets announced that IF/OF Ji Hwan Bae, claimed from the Bucs this off season, was outrighted to AAA Syracuse.