Pittsburgh Pirates Spring Training News & Notes: February 20

A recap of news and notes from Tuesday in Bradenton

On Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Pirates held their second day of full squad workouts at Pirate City in Bradenton. Spring Training 2018 is in full swing for the Bucs.

Tuesday was a busy day for the Pirates. This included the team making a trade with the Boston Red Sox, acquiring an outfielder. Here is a recap of news and notes from Tuesday’s happenings in Bradenton.

The big news of Tuesday was the Pirates acquiring 29-year-old outfielder Bryce Brentz from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for cash considerations. Brentz is coming off a season that saw him belt 31 home runs at Triple-A, but he was in need of a change of scenery. He will now enter the Pirates’ left field competition.

You can read more about the Brentz trade here. Yo make room for him on the 40-man roster, pitcher Nick Burdi was placed on the 40-day disabled list.

Outfielder/first baseman Daniel Nava sat out of workouts on Tuesday due to lower back discomfort. Normally this would not be something to bat an eye at. However, back issues held Nava to just 80 games at 214 plate appearances in 2017.

Daniel Nava, despite being in camp on a minor league contract, appears to be a near lock to make the Opening Day roster. In my opinion, the only thing that could prevent Nava from breaking camp with the team would be injuries. Hopefully, Nava’s back will be fine.

After missing his bullpen session on Sunday due to an ankle sprain, right-handed reliever Daniel Hudson returned to the mound on Tuesday. Hudson is one of three locks for the Opening Day bullpen along with Felipe Rivero and George Kontos.

Next: Twitter Mailbag: Feb. 20, 2018

That will do it for today. As always, stay tuned with Rum Bunter for news and notes from Bradenton throughout Spring Training.