Pittsburgh Pirates News: Team Makes Four More Roster Cuts

Sunday afternoon the Pittsburgh Pirates came closer to setting their Opening Day roster by making four more roster cuts

With 11 days left to go until Opening Day for the Pittsburgh Pirates the team is one step closer to setting their Opening Day roster. After making multiple roster cuts on Saturday afternoon, which included optioning top pitching prospect Roansy Contreras to Triple-A, they then optioned infielder Rodolfo Castro to Triple-A Saturday evening.

Following Sunday afternoon’s 7-4 loss against the New York Yankees the Pittsburgh Pirates made their latest round of roster cuts. They optioned outfielder Canaan Smith-Njigba and Jared Oliva to Triple-A. Additionally, they re-assigned first base prospect Mason Martin and outfield prospect Cal Mitchell to minor league camp.

Smith-Njigba was 1-for-4 as the Pirate designated hitter. He also stole his second base of the spring. Smith-Njigba flashed some promising things in the spring, and as Nick pointed out, he could be one of the first Pirate prospects to be promoted this season.

The same could be said for Mitchell. At one point Mitchell was a borderline top 100 prospect but has slid down prospect boards in recent years. His ceiling still appears to be that of a very good fourth outfielder for a MLB club.

Oliva has seen MLB time each of the past two seasons and few prospects in the Pirate farm system have bigger power potential than Martin. Both Oliva and Martin could see time with the Pittsburgh Pirates this season.

With these roster moves the Pirates now find themselves with 43 players remaining in MLB camp. These leaves 11 days to dwindle that number down to the 28 players they will take with them to St. Louis for Opening Day. Remaining battles continue to be the final two rotation spots behind José Quintana, Mitch Keller, and Zach Thompson, bullpen spots, backup catcher, second base, and the outfield. There is still plenty to be decided in camp.