Pittsburgh Pirates News: JB Shuck Clears Waivers

(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

The Pittsburgh Pirates had to designate a player the other day to make room for a pitcher on the 40 man roster.  The outfielder cleared waivers.

The Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen has really suffered through some struggles and injuries.  The team had to make a series of roster moves a few days ago to help supplement the injury-plagued pitching staff. The team went to the Triple-A level to find some healthy arms. The reason being is that the Pittsburgh Pirates had to take both Steven Brault and Nick Kingham out of the bullpen and put them into the rotation for spot starts.

The first move was when they optioned utility infield Pablo Reyes to Triple-A and called up hard-throwing reliever Dovydas Neverauskas.  The second move was to call up lefty reliever and former St. Louis Cardinal Tyler Lyons.  He would fill the role of Brault as the second left-handed option in the bullpen along with Francisco Liriano.

Lyons was brought in by the Pittsburgh Pirates on a minor league contract, and because of that he was not taking up a spot on the 40 man roster.  So the Bucs had to remove a player from the 40 man roster to make space for Lyons.  With that being said, the Pittsburgh Pirates designated outfielder JB Shuck for assignment.

Due to injuries to Gregory Polanco and Lonnie Chisenhall, Shuck started the year with the Bucs and played a good bit.  The left-handed hitting outfielder played in 27 games and only hit .213, but did a manage a solid .339 on-base percentage.

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This move was expected as the team did not need another outfielder.  Gregory Polanco came off the Injury List and has picked up where he left off last year and looks relatively healthy.  Meanwhile, rookie outfielder Bryan Reynolds has taken the league by storm and has done nothing but hit since his promotion.  With Reynolds having more upside and a much clearer future, Shuck was the one who needed to go. The good news is that Shuck cleared waivers and will be at Triple-A.  If anything, at least the Bucs were able to keep him for some depth.