3 Pirates players who shouldn’t be on the 40-man roster by spring training

Tristan Gray

This is Tristan Gray's second stint in the Pirates' organization. He was originally a 13th-round pick by the Bucs in 2017. That offseason, the Pirates traded him, along with reliever Daniel Hudson, to the Tampa Bay Rays for outfielder Corey Dickerson. Gray hasn't shown much throughout his pro career. Gray has 17 MLB games under his belt with the Rays, Miami Marlins, and Oakland Athletics, but has just five hits, one home run, and 16 Ks in 36 plate appearances.

Gray spent most of his 2024 season with the Marlins and A's Triple-A affiliates. He hit a combined .251/.322/.467 with a .344 wOBA, and 100 wRC+. Gray walked 8.7% of the time with a mediocre 25.8% K% in 469 plate appearances. Gray struggled to make contact, too, with a 30.7% whiff rate. Still, he did manage a respectable 90.2 MPH average exit velocity and 10.3% barrel percentage. He ended the year with 19 home runs and a .215 isolated slugging percentage.

Gray has pretty much been just a one-tool player throughout his minor-league career. To his credit, he does know how to hit the ball out of the park. He had back-to-back 30+ home run seasons in 2022 and 2023 with the Rays' Triple-A team while putting up a 90 MPH exit velocity and 11.5% barrel rate. Unfortunately, Gray struck out over 30% of the time in both seasons, and swung-and-missed nearly 40% of the time (37.9%, to be exact).

Gray is an okay depth piece, given he started multiple games at every infield position in 2024. Defensive metrics like his abbreviated work in the field. However, he's never projected as anything significantly better than average with the glove. At the very best, he's a 55-grade defender, given that his solid glove work in the major leagues has all come in an extremely small sample size.

Gray is likely to be one of the first players to come off the roster when the Pirates acquire someone and need another 40-man roster spot. There are plenty of players who can hit the ball hard, and very few of them will ever make enough contact to make it count. Plus, the Pirates have more options who are just as good, if not better, than Gray. Given that his defense isn't anything special either, Gray doesn't have a good fit on the Pirates' roster.