Tough Business Decision Makes Donnie Veal A Free Agent

The Pittsburgh Pirates made Donnie Veal a Rule 5 pick in 2009.  Last night they made him a free agent.  Veal was

the focus of RumBunters very first article, so pardon us, but we’re attached to Veal.  We still can’t write and it was worse back then either, but we are going to re-post it for you.

Veal is recovering from Tommy John surgery and according to Huntington everything  is on track in his rehab.  We think the Pirates are trying to bluff their counterparts in other MLB organizations, because Veal is a talent.

The left hander was impressive in the Arizona Fall League, in fact at times, he was unhittable.  He followed that up in 2010, by throwing 49.2 innings with 7.43K/9 and 4.17BB/9 for AAA Indianapolis before being shutdown with his injury.

The Pirates are making a gamble, we can only trust it works out for them.   If it works out and the Bucs can get Veal signed to a new deal, it’s great, they have opened up yet another spot on their 40-man roster to secure players that will definitely help them improve in 2011.  Veal might not be able to do much to help the Bucs in 2011.  But it’s also not the time to give up on a committed and driven talent like Donnie Veal.

Jen Langosch reported the following on Pirates.com

"“Everything is on schedule with Donnie’s rehabilitation.  We made a tough business decision, but we are optimistic we will be able to re-sign Donnie.”—Pirates GM Neal Huntington"

We trust your optimism Mr. Huntington.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can trust our optimism daily on Twitter