Weekly Report: Backend Signings, NRI's, WBC Bucs, FA's Finding & Looking...

The boys gather as spring is just about to be sprung...

Pirates Stuff:

• The Pirates signed RHP Mike Clevinger to a minor league/NRI contract. The nine-year vet (Cleveland, San Diego & the White Sox; 60-44/3.55) had neck surgery in 2024, missing most of the year, and was ineffective out of the pen last year, making eight outings before being sent to the minors. The Pirates are expected to try to resurrect him back into a backend starting role. 
• RHP Jose Urquidy signed a one-year/$1.5M deal with Bucs. He was a solid arm for Houston from 2019-22 but virtually lost the past three seasons with shoulder woes and eventual TJ surgery. 
• Camp unofficially started last Monday when the Pirates sent two truckloads of baseball gear to Bradenton. The first workout for P/C's is Feb. 11 with the full-camp opening on Feb. 16. WBC P/C's begin  their spring on Feb. 9 while position players will report on Feb. 11.  Alex Stumpf of MLB.com has the spring scoop.
• The Bucs extended camp invites to C Derek Berg, 1B Nick Cimillo, RHP Michael Darrell-Hicks, LHP Nick Dombkowski, UT Mitch Jebb and IF Alika Williams. All are Bucco minor league guys, with Darrell-Hicks & Williams having MLB time. Michael was injured for most of the '25 campaign with one big-league outing in Pgh. and Alika was released in mid-January & apparently re-signed to a NRI deal.

Spencer joins the WBC crowd as 14 guys from the org will rep the team.

• 1B Spencer Horwitz said he'll play in the WBC tournament (Israel) and ditto for IF Nick Gonzales, who is suiting up for Mexico. RHP Kyle Nicolas joined the gang; he'll be playing for Italy. Recently signed RHO Jose Urquidy will toss for Mexico. Other roster guys already announced as rostered for the tournament are: Oneil Cruz, Dennis Santana, Paul Skenes & Gregory Soto. And finally, catching coach Jordan Comadena will be Team USA's bullpen catcher. 
• Minor league WBC players: RHP Pietro Albanez, international signing (Brazil); RHP Emannuel Chapman, 7-2/3.72, Altoona (Cuba); RHP Po-Yu Chen, 4-11/5.73 Altoona (Taipei); RHP Alessandro Ercolini, 1-8/4.04 Altoona (Italy) and RHP Antwone Kelly, 3-3/3.02, Greensboro-Altoona (Netherlands). NRI's in the tourney are P's Joe LaSorsa (Italy) & Oddanier Mosquido (Venzuela). 
• Baseball America picked the Bucs farm system as MLB's #1 going into 2026 (story behind a paywall).
• Baseball Prospectus Top 101 Prospects continued the trend by including SS Konnor Griffin (#1), RHP Bubba Chandler (#14), OF Edward Florentino (#21) and RHP Seth Hernandez (#67)

MLB Stuff:

• Some ol' Bucs are still in the FA marketplace as MLB camps are just around the corner - Starling Marte, Tommy Pham, Elias Diaz, Jose Quintana and Cutch are still hunting for landing spots. 
• What's Paul Skenes worth? Two-time AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal won his third-year arb case for $32M, the largest salary ever won in arb. The Tigers counter at the hearing was $19M, a low-ball figure that didn't help their cause, a mistake the Bucs hopefully won't (but prob will) make. Skubal earned $2.65M and $10.15M in his first two arb years; Paul will be arb-eligible next season.
• Rick Renick, who was the Pirates' third base coach from 1997-2000 under Gene Lamont, passed away last week. After spending five years in the MLB, Rick embarked on a 20-year career as a manager and coach,
• Utilityman Marco Luciano, who was on the waiver windmill this offseason, finally found a home. The Giants, Pirates, Orioles and Yankees have all waived him since December. But he cleared the wire after the Yankees release, and they assigned him to AAA so now he at least has a camp to report to next week.

It took IKF a while,  but he found a new nest in Boston...

• Last year's hot corner replacement, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and the Boston Red Sox agreed on a one-year/$6M contract. They also claimed IF Tsung-Che Cheng off waivers from the Nats as his long strange trip continues.
• Lefty reliever Josh Fleming, whose last MLB gig was the Pirates in 2024 (1-1-1/4.02) signed a minor league/NRI deal with Toronto.
• OF Miguel Andujar signed with the San Diego Padres, inking a one-year/$4M contract  He played 39 games for the Pirates in 2022-23, with a slash of .250/4/27/100 OPS+ in 190 PAs.
• 1B Carlos Santana signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks, his ninth team, agreeing on a one-year/$2M million. Carlos played here semi-regularly in 2023 (94 starts), hitting .235 with 12 HR.
• RHP Vince Velasquez, whose last MLB gig was with the Pirates in 2023 (4-4/3.86) inked a minor league deal with the Cubs.
• The Cardinals have signed 1B Bligh Madris to a minor league deal. Bligh was a Pirates product who got into 39 games in 2022 with the Bucs (.178/one HR) and has since been with the Houston and Detroit.
• Southpaw reliever Anthony Banda, who tossed for the Bucs in 2021-22 (2-2/4.70) was DFA'ed by the Dodgers. He was with them for their last two World Series crowns, posting a slash of 8-3-2/3.14 in 2024-25.
• RHP Kyle Keller, who last pitched in MLB in 2021 for the Bucs (seven outings, 1-1/6.48) took his game to Japan and after four years there got a minor league/NRI deal with the Boston Red Sox.