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Which off-season loss could hurt the Pirates the most?
Which of the Pirates' off-season losses could come back and hurt them the most?
Which of the Pittsburgh Pirates' off-season losses could come back and hurt them the most?
The Pittsburgh Pirates lost a total of ten players who appeared for the Major League club last season from the start of November to the start of Spring Training, along with a handful of minor league free agents. Nearly all of the players the Pirates lost weren't of any major significance. Most were depth guys or had injury concerns going into 2024, but which ones could come back and bite them the most?
Among the position players, Miguel Andujar has the likeliest chance of making the Pirates regret their decision to let him go. The former Rookie of the Year candidate had a strong month of September, batting .302/.351/.528 with a .374 wOBA and 134 wRC+. Andujar had a K% of just 14% with a semi-respectable 7% walk rate. He also hit for some pop with two dingers, six two-baggers, and a .254 ISO in the 54-plate appearance sample size.
This was after he batted .338/.404/.536 with a .411 wOBA and 135 wRC+ at Triple-A Indianapolis. His 11.8% strikeout rate was the 6th lowest among any Triple-A batter with 300+ trips to the plate. He also walked nearly as often with a 10.8% BB%. Andujar had gone yard 16 times with 30 doubles in 465 plate appearances, leading to a .198 isolated slugging percentage. He split his time between the corner outfield and first base for the Indians.
The Pirates decided to put Andujar on outright waivers with the hope he could sneak through. After all, he was projected to make about $2.2 million in arbitration, and in 2023, it was the first time since his 2018 rookie campaign that he had shown any semblance of production at the plate in the bigs. The Pirates had already passed him through waivers two other times in 2023; however, this time, he was claimed by the Oakland A's.
Who knows if Andujar can ever recapture his '18 form or look anything like he did in September or Triple-A last season? He has played a grand total of 144 games dating back to 2019. At the very least, the A's are one of the few teams who can give Andujar regular playing time to prove himself. For what it's worth, he's off to a great start with Oakland in Spring Training, with eight hits and two home runs in 20 plate appearances.
Andujar was really the only noteworthy loss on the position player side of things. The rest included the likes of Alfonso Rivas, Vinny Capra, Tucupita Marcano, and Cal Mitchell. Of those players, I think only Marcano has a chance to be better than Andujar. The San Diego Padres selected Marcano off waivers in November. He got off to an extremely promising start to the year and was batting .277 with a .812 OPS and 118 wRC+ in early June before falling into a slump and then suffering a severe knee injury that required surgery and kept him out of the rest of the season.
On the pitching side of things, the Pirates lost a few former top prospects, like Cody Bolton, Yerry De Los Santos, and Wil Crowe, but the one that could hurt the most might not even return until 2025, and that's lefty Angel Perdomo. Perdomo looked like a diamond in the rough for the Pirates. A minor league signee by the team in February 2023, Perdomo owned a 3.72 ERA, 3.01 FIP, and 1.10 WHIP in 29 innings.
Perdomo had a tremendous 37.6% K-rate, the 6th best among any other pitcher last year with 20+ innings completed. It also helped he had a respectable 9.4% walk rate and 0.93 HR/9. The southpaw had even better underlying numbers with a 2.92 SIERA and 2.77 xERA. But his season was cut short after an elbow injury in late August.
It initially seemed like Perdomo would be back in action in 2024, which is why many were confused by the Pirates placing Perdomo on waivers in November (the same time they put Andujar on waivers). However, it soon came out that Perdomo had undergone Tommy John surgery after the season and would miss the entirety of 2024 and would be back in '25 at the earliest. The Braves then claimed Perdomo before non-tendering him but re-signing him a few weeks later to a minor league deal.
Perdomo looked great with the Pirates prior to his elbow injury, but who knows what he'll look like in 2025 when he's expected to return. Obviously, if he returns to form, that would be a hard pill for the Pirates to swallow that they let go of what ended up being a decent LHRP for nothing. But that is a big if. That's still over a whole year away, and he is already heading into his age-30 season and does not have a long track record of success.
This has some shades of Edgar Santana to it, who was an effective reliever for the Pirates in 2018, underwent Tommy John surgery that off-season, and missed all of 2019 and 2020, both because he was recovering and because of a PED suspension, before being traded to the Braves. Although Santana wasn't bad in 2021, he had fallen off hard from his 2018 peak.
The only other pitcher I could see potentially making a worthwhile impact in 2024 is Yerry De Los Santos. The right-hander had shown some talent in 2022 and 2023 and was once considered one of the Pirates' better relief pitching prospects. He's also only 26. De Los Santos is in camp with the New York Yankees and could find himself at the back of the Yankees' pen to start the year. But it's not a guarantee that he makes the roster, nor is it a guarantee he can stay healthy long enough to make an impact.
Overall, the Pirates didn't lose much in terms of talent, but they did lose some guys who could have been decent depth.
The one that stung the most to me was Perdomo. Even though he had undergone TJ surgery, I would have liked to see what he could do in the future. I am happy that Andujar will get a shot, as he wouldn't have had that opportunity with the Pirates. Even if it is a long shot for him to regain any semblance of his 2018 season or September 2023 over a full season, it is nice seeing a guy who has had constant injuries battle back and get an opportunity to make a comeback. In the meantime, the team did bring in a new lefty on a minor league deal to help fill some of the lost depth.