Pittsburgh Pirates acquire former No. 2 pick Joey Bart

The Pittsburgh Pirates have added to their roster by acquiring former No. 2 overall pick Joey Bart from the San Francisco Giants.

San Francisco Giants v Chicago Cubs
San Francisco Giants v Chicago Cubs | Michael Reaves/GettyImages

The Pittsburgh Pirates already have one former top catching prospect on their roster in Henry Davis. They have a second on the injured list in Endy Rodriguez who underwent Tommy John surgery this offseason.

Now, the Buccos have added another to their roster as they acquired former top catching prospect Joey Bart from the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday evening. The trade was first reported by FanSided's own Robert Murray. NBC Sports Bay Area reporter Alex Pavlovic would later add that in exchange for Bart, the Pirates would be sending right hander Austin Strickland to the Giants.

The move to acquire Bart comes a few days after the Giants decided to designate the 2018 second overall pick for assignment. Since making his MLB debut in 2020, the 26-year old backstop has posted a career slash of .219/.288/.335 with 11 home runs and 38 RBI across 162 games and 503 plate appearances.

In order to make room for Bart on their 40-man roster, the Pirates designated 26-year-old right-handed reliever Colin Selby for assignment. Selby was 2-2 for the Pirates last season with a 9.00 ERA across 21 games, he allowed 24 earned runs in 24 innings pitched.

Additionally, the Pirates are also placing backup catcher Jason Delay on the 10-day injured list, according to MLB.com's Alex Stumpf. It's currently unclear what has sent Delay to the injured list or how long he is expected to be out. So far this season, Delay has appeared in one game, collecting one walk and one RBI in five plate appearances.

Strickland was an eighth round draft pick for the Pirates last year in the MLB Draft. In three seasons with the Kentucky Wildcats, Strickland was 7-7 with a 5.28 ERA in 54 games and 102.1 innings pitched. Despite the unsavory numbers, he did post a 10.9 strikeouts per nine for his career. He has yet to make his professional debut.

The Pirates currently are 5-0 on the young season and are expected to be back in action on Wednesday evening at 6:45 p.m. against the Washington Nationals after a scheduled off day on Tuesday.

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