Pittsburgh Pirates News: Highlights of First Cuts of the Spring

Tuesday afternoon and evening the Pittsburgh Pirates made their first cuts of the spring lowering the number of players they still have in MLB camp

Spring training is now in full swing for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the rest of MLB. While the Pirates are just five games into their Grapefruit League schedule, due to the late start to the spring they are now less than three weeks away from Opening Day.

This has created a situation where the Pittsburgh Pirates have made their first cuts of the spring earlier in the Grapefruit League schedule than earlier, but closer to Opening Day than the norm would be. Those first round of cuts came on Tuesday.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have optioned outfielder Travis Swaggerty, shortstop Liover Peguero, utility man Tucupita Marcano, and outfielder Jack Suwinski to Triple-A Indianapolis. The team also re-assigned catchers Carter Bins, Endy Rodriguez, and Henry Davis to minor league camp. Utility man Ji-Hwan Bae, outfielder Matt Fraizer, infielders Nick Gonzales and Jared Triolo were all re-assigned to minor league camp as well.

Seven pitching prospects were also re-assigned to minor league camp. They were Adrian Florencio, Carmen Mlodzinski, Cody Bolton, Kyle Nicolas, Mike Burrows, Quinn Priester, and Tahnaj Thomas.

There is plenty of talent in this group, including plenty of talent that should see playing time in Pittsburgh this season. Swaggerty, Marcano, Suwinski, Bae, and Fraizer are all players who should make their MLB debut this season. Nicolas, Bolton, Burrows, and Gonzales could all make their debuts, too, while Peguero remains the team’s shortstop of the future.

The Pirates also revealed that Swaggerty was dealing with a shoulder issue early in camp. This played a big role in him not appearing in Grapefruit League game before being optioned to Triple-A and minor league camp. This causes concern, largely due to Swaggerty being limited to just 12 games in 2021 due to a shoulder issue. If Swaggerty is healthy, he should make his MLB debut this season and have the opportunity to lockdown a starting outfield job with the Pirates.

With these moves the Pirates now have 53 players remaining in MLB camp. This means they will need to train their camp roster by 27 players before Opening Day in order to get down to their 26-man roster.