News & Notes From Day 1 Of Mini Camp For The Pittsburgh Pirates

News, notes, updates, and more from day 1 of mini camp for the Pittsburgh Pirates

Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitchers and catchers will report to Bradenton for the start of Spring Training in just 36 days. However, Pirate fans do not need to wait until then to get their baseball fix.

Yesterday, the team began their yearly winter mini camp in Bradenton. It was a beautiful sight to see pictures/videos from Pirate City flooding Twitter timelines yesterday. The best of all was getting to hear the heavenly sound of the crack of a bat again.

While there will never be much news to come from these mini camps, there is some worthwhile developments from day 1 of mini camp for the Pirates. These developments starts with their pitching staff.

Both Chris Archer and Joe Musgrove had minor surgical procedures performed in November. However, both were at mini camp on Monday and both appeared healthy. Archer did some pitching on backfields of Pirate City, while Musgrove threw off a mound for the first time since surgery.

Afterward, Musgrove told reporters he feels great and full anticipates to be 100% by Opening Day.  This is great news for the Pirates, especially after Musgrove missed the first seven weeks of the 2018 season due to an injury late in the spring.

There were also promising developments for right fielder Gregory Polanco.

After having surgery in September to address a shoulder injury suffered in a slide against the Marlins on September 7th fears were Polanco could be out until June. It appears, however, that will not be the case.

Polanco took swings off a tee on Monday. This was the first time he had swung a bat since his surgery. Next up for Polanco, who said he is ahead of schedule, is testing his shoulder with a throwing program.

There was also an observation to be made about the makeup of the Pirates during infield drills. Kevin Newman, who is set to compete for the starting shortstop job in Spring Training, was taking grounders at second base while highly touted prospect Cole Tucker was at shortstop.

While this very well may mean nothing, if the Pirates truly thought Newman may be the Opening Day shortstop it would make sense to get him as many reps at the position as possible between now and then. This is due to Newman having always struggled defensively at the position. Odds are, the team’s shortstop on March 28th in Cincinnati is someone that is not currently in the organization. This is just another sign of that.

Baseball is right around the corner, folks. Just 36 more days until pitchers and catchers report to Bradenton! Spring is almost here.