Weekly Report: Brew Crew Top Team, Pirates News, Ol' Bucs On The Move, FAs & MLB Dates

And the champ is Milwaukee...now it's time for the Brandon Lowe/Jazz Chisholm Jr. hot stove firefight to begin.

Pirates Stuff:

• The Bucs two Golden Glove finalists, 2B Brandon Lowe and UT Jared Triolo, both lost out. Brice Turang of the Brew Crew took 2B honors and Mauricio Dubon of Atlanta took the Utility award. It was Turang's second GG and the third for Dubon. A local lad won the AL's 2B award, 23-year-old Cole Young. Cole's from Wexford and played at North Allegheny HS.
• Five Pirates are up for All-MLB consideration: 2B Brandon Lowe, 3B Nick Gonzales, RHPs Braxton Ashcraft & Paul Skenes and LHP Mason Montgomery. The winners will be announced Dec. 11 on MLB Network during Awards Week (Dec. 9-12).

Pittsburgh's All-MLB Hopefuls - Pirates graphic

• OF Esmerlyn Valdez (hammy) and RHP Mitch Keller (shoulder strain) are both healing on schedule and expected to be healthy enough to have a normal off-season to prep for '27.
• Pittsburgh signed AAA pitching coach Sean Buchanan away from the Astros in a reunion with former Houston pitching coach Bill Murphy. They plan to use him as an upper-level farm coach. It's a vote of confidence for Murphy from the FO as some thought he may be skating on thin ice after last season's pitching inconsistencies.
• The club signed 17-year-old Venezuelans LHP Rogner Betancourt and RHP Martin Gonzalez to minor-league contracts to stock the rookie pitching pool.
• The Sporting News series on MLB's All-Time Players released their Inner Circle winners, consider by TSN to be the leagues most legendary players. Pittsburgh was repped by Josh Gibson.

MLB Stuff:

• Clint Hurdle is leaving the Rockies. He's been in the organization for the past five seasons, mostly as a special assistant.
• Francisco Lindor of the New York Mets was the winner of the 2026 Roberto Clemente Award.
• The Red Sox sold IF Tsung-Che Cheng's contract to the Tigers. He debuted with the Bucs in 2025 and profiles as a weak bat, strong glove utility guy in the show.

Geoff Hartlieb - 2021 Pirates photo day

• RHP Geoff Hartlieb, who got his start in Pittsburgh in 2019-20, was outrighted to AAA by the A's.
• Old Bucs declaring for FA - C's Austin Hedges, Reese McGuire & Luke Maile; 1B Carlos Santana; 2B's Adam Frazier, Isiah Kiner-Falifa & Idlemaro Vargas; SS Kevin Newman; OF's Tommy Pham & Starling Marte; DH's Miguel Andujar, Josh Bell, Marcell Ozuna & Andrew McCutchen and P's David Bednar, Jalen Beeks, Ryan Borucki, Chris Devenski, Caleb Ferguson, Clay Holmes, Jose Quintana, Tanner Rainey, Dennis Santana, Hunter Strickland, Robert Stephenson, Jameison Taillon, Jose Uquidy, Trevor Williams & Jake Woodford. (Brandon Lowe, Gregory Soto & Kirby Yates are the Pirates who opted for FA.)
• The Twins dropped two ex-Bucs - LHP Anthony Banda (2021-22), who had a decent year but underwent surgery, and IF Tristan Gray, who Pgh. drafted in 2017 and traded the next year with Daniel Hudson to Tampa Bay for Corey Dickerson.
• Upcoming MLB dates: On Oct. 29, players can become free agents  & the trade market opens; Nov. 2 was the deadline for teams to make a option/qualifying offer to players before players can begin signing with any club; Nov. 10-12 are the GM Meetings in Las Vegas; Nov. 17 is the deadline for players to accept a qualifying offer and for teams to finalize their 40-man rosters; Nov. 20 is the non-tender deadline for arb/pre-arb players; Dec. 7-10 are the Winter Meetings, Draft (12/8) & Rule 5 Draft (12/9) and Dec 9-12 hosts Awards Week from the Cy Young to Comeback Player on MLB Network. Oh, and there's that pesky Dec. 1 date that has been floated as lockout day ticking away and ready to pop after the current CBA expires...stay tuned for that whole mess.

World Series Stuff:

• The Brew Crew went to Tampa up two games and took two-of-three there to confirm they were baseball's best team this season. C William Contreras was the Series MVP. He was 8-for-21 at the dish, threw out 4-of-9 base thieves and was stellar behind the plate defensively with some sharp game management (sub-2.00 ERA in games he caught).