Pittsburgh Pirates Claim Miguel Andújar Off Waivers

Miguel Andújar has seemingly been traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates about 10 times. Well, the former top Yankee prospects is finally a Pirate.

Sunday was a busy day for the Pittsburgh Pirates. In addition to losing against the Chicago Cubs, falling to  56-97 on the season as they lost three of four in their series, the Pirates also made a waiver claim.

Sunday evening, the Pittsburgh Pirates claimed infielder/outfielder Miguel Andújar off waivers from the New York Yankees. This moves comes after the Yankees designed Andújar for assignment earlier in the week.

At one point in time Andújar appeared to be a budding star for the Yankees. At just 23-years-old, Andújar hit for a .297/.328/.527 slash line to go with a 129 wRC+ and an OPS+ of 130 as a rookie in 2018. This led to him fishing second behind Shohei Ohtani in American League Rookie of the Year voting.

Since then, Andújar has fallen on tougher times. He has battled both injuries at poor performance, never recapturing the success of his rookie season. In 990 MLB plate appearances Andújar has hit for a .273/.303/.449 slash line to go with a 103 wRC+ and a 104 OPS+.

The right-handed hitting Andújar is a no risk, potentially high reward addition by the Pirates. Andújar can play the corner infield and corner outfield positions, as well as being able to contribute at designated hitter.

Andújar remains under team control through next season. If he is able to come anywhere close to the production he had as a rookie in 2018, then Andújar would prove to be a great addition by the Pirates.

In recent years it seems as if Andújar had been traded to the Pirates in mock trades and by folks on Twitter about 10 times. Any time there were talks of trade discussions between the two squads, Andújar’s name is one that always came up. Now, finally, Andújar is indeed a Pirate.

It will be curious to see how the Pittsburgh Pirates use Andújar the rest of the season. Odds are, they will want to get him as many at-bats as possible during the final week of the season. These at-bats could come at a variety of positions as well.