Pirates news - Spring Training Notebook: Jared Jones, Injury updates, and news from around the league

Welcome to another Pittsburgh Pirates Spring Training Notebook. Today we examine the odds of Jared Jones making the Opening Day roster, injury updates, and more.

On Wednesday, the Pirates took on the Baltimore Orioles but there was also news about premier pitching prospect Jared Jones as well as injury updates on David Bednar and Dauri Moreta.

First, in the Pirates' Wednesday evening matchup against Baltimore, the Buccos took a 6-4 loss. Mitch Keller got the start for the Pirates, pitching 4 innings, allowing three earned runs across four hits and one walk.

Outside his contract extension, it hasn't been a great spring for Keller though it's good to take spring training results with a grain of salt. But overall, this spring, Keller has pitched eight innings, allowing six earned runs on six hits and five walks.

At the plate, it was mostly a pedestrian day for the Pirates with the most notable performance being a 2-for-2 day from shortstop Liover Peguero who's now hitting 6-for-14 this spring with one home run and three RBI.

COULD JARED JONES MAKE THE OPENING DAY ROSTER?

The biggest attention grabber in terms of Pirates news on Wednesday was manager Derek Shelton stating that pitching prospect Jared Jones is a candidate to make the team's opening day roster.

This spring the former second-round pick has pitched four and two-thirds scoreless innings while striking out three and walking three. Opponents are hitting just .071 against Jones this spring. His fastball has been very lively all spring as well including hitting 101.9 mph in his last appearance on Tuesday.

INJURY UPDATES ON DAVID BEDNAR AND DAURI MORETA

One of the major storylines so far from Pirates camp has been relievers David Bednar and Dauri Moreta both going down with injuries.

According to the latest reports out of Bradenton, Pirates elite reliever David Bednar will begin picking up a baseball either later this week or potentially early next week. The Pirates shut down Bednar earlier this spring with right lat tightness.

When it comes to Morita, Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk has said that Moreta is dealing with a ligament injury in his right elbow and that the club is still looking to find out more about the injury. With that, Moreta is expected to be out indefinitely for now.