We Went Dumpster Diving and Found Who the Pirates SHOULD Grab

We Went Dumpster Diving and Found Who the Pirates SHOULD Grab

[Music] Good morning everybody. Happy Monday. You’re watching the Northshore 9 podcast presented by FanDuel. I’m Jim. No co-host this morning. Uh it is 7:10 a.m. I have uh I have uh tried to see if Dinardo is awake. I don’t think he is. So if he decides to join us at any time in the near future, he can hop right on here. But I couldn’t leave you guys waiting any longer. So uh yeah, let’s let’s jump into this. Hope you guys are having a great morning. Um hope you guys had a great weekend. Uh yeah, said this is Bucko Brew uh powered by Defair Coffee and Tea. Um yeah, let’s just kind of jump into things. Uh somewhat slow newsw week over the weekend. Um but we did have a lot of stuff happen towards the end of last week. We had uh the Pirates non-tendering uh Dowry Moretta, Colin Holderman, Alexander Canario, Ronnie Simon. We also saw them tendering contracts to uh Jack Sinsky, which was a surprise. Johan Ramirez, another surprise. Uh and then all the other folks who were arbitration eligible were tendered to contract. Joey Bart was another one that, you know, a few people were curious on whether or not he would be non-tendered, but Joey Bart has been tendered a contract as well. Um, I would say as far as just like some surprises go, um, Johan Ramirez being tendering a contract is surprising to me just because he’s someone who’s bounced around from team to team to team to team to team over the last handful of years. um he’s never really been able to stick anywhere and yeah, the stuff is pretty enticing. Um but like the results have just just never been there for him. So, uh it’s not like he’s a he’s a you know young young pitcher. He’s 30 years old. He’s going to turn 31 next season. Uh but yeah, Johan Ramirez sticks around. his fast ball did have the highest velocity I’ ever had last year. So So perhaps this stuff is getting a little bit nastier as as he gets a little older, but and and it was 825,000 bucks is what they spent on him. So yeah, he’s back. And then um yeah, the the one move where everyone was super super um upset about, especially when we posted this on social media, uh was Jack Suinsky being tendered to contract. He’s going to be making $1.25 million. And I think with Jack Sinsky, the reason why so many people are upset isn’t just necessarily, hey, Jack Sowinsky’s on this 40man roster because like, let’s face it, there’s 40 spots. Like, there’s room for a guy like Jack Sinsky. And we’ll get into a little bit more of like what there’s some nuance to this this as well. But I think what’s frustrating with the Jack Sinsky tender is, you know, the whole the whole story, the whole, you know, the rhetoric coming out of the front office, the the leaks that have been happening all off season that the Pirates are it’s going this this offseason is going to be different. This offseason, the Pirates are going to go out there and they’re going to spend and they’re going to bring in some quality hitters. Um whether that be through free agency, whether that be through trade, um I think people, you know, you hear that and you you want to see something real happen. And so whenever you find out, hey, the Pirates are bringing Jack Sinsky back for $1.25 million, I think people just get get like really really bummed out. And it’s like, hey, hold on. You told me this was going to be different. Why are we bringing this guy back? Um Jack Sinsky the last two years negative 1.6 F war. Uh WRC plus last year of 55. He struck out a third of the time last year and the power seemingly is just gone. Three homers and 178 played appearances in his major league uh playing time uh last last season. So yeah, it’s um I can understand the frustration. I said we’ll get into a little bit of the the nuance behind this as well. Uh but but yeah, this episode today we’re going to be talking about the the non the non-tenders, the tenders, see if anything surprised us. Um but we’re also going to look at all the players who were non-endered around Major League Baseball. Um as well as some folks who were left off 40man rosters who could make interesting role five targets next month. We’re we’re we’re not too far away from the role five draft. We’re like two weeks away now. Um so you’ve got got that coming up and like said the role five draft is one of the things where like you got to you got to be kind of choosy on this one because if you take somebody, you know, you gota you got to bring them on board for for a full season. Um otherwise you’re you know you don’t want to just waste a a a roster spot throughout the off season and and have them back. roster spot can be pretty valuable throughout an off seasonason. So, we got there’s a couple candidates that when I when I was looking around that that definitely interested me. Um, but yeah, that’s that’s going to be our episode today. It’s not going to be super long. Um, it’s not definitely not going to be long if Dinardo never joins because then there’s only one of us to to give our opinions. So, uh, yeah, we’ll we’ll get into all of that. But before I do, let me tell you about uh our show sponsors, Defair Coffee and Tea. Um again, I don’t have the exact ad read. So that’s Dinardo’s fault, but uh make sure you go visit the Fair Coffee and Tea. Their flagship store in the Strip District, it’s amazing. Vibes are immaculate. Their coffee is outstanding. If you’re not a coffee drinker, they’ve got other stuff for you as well. They’ve even got food uh and breakfast items, things that you can eat throughout the day. Um they uh they also uh ship anywhere in the world. Uh and if you do uh do place an order online, you go to defair.c coffee. Use promo code NS930 for 30% off. Uh and that coffee will get shipped to you. You can take 30% off of that. Defair.c coffee. It’s a family-owned business. Um, I said locations all around Pittsburgh. So, definitely make sure you check them out if you’re local. If you’re not, go to the fair coffee, use promo code NS930, and get 30% off your coffee. So, all right. Pirates non-tenders. None of Dowry Moretta is the only one that’s that’s a little bit surprising to me. Colin Holderman had to go. Um, Alexander Canario, I’m not even sure how he made it the entire season on the 40man roster. Uh, Ronnie Simon is just one of those guys where it’s like there are I mean, how many Ronnie Simons are there out in the world? Just just nothing there. There was no reason to keep him on board either. Um, he does have a c he does have some options remaining, but like he didn’t do anything at the major league level last year. Um, I said the one where it surprises me a bit is Dowry Moretta. Mostly because like he wasn’t expected to make a whole lot of money. you’re looking at like I mean the the projections I saw were like right around 800K or so and yeah I mean just they they they cut him um the last two seasons just got hitters out. Uh strikeout rate was good, control was pretty decent. I I’m curious to see like I I would imagine he lands somewhere. Uh but I mean last year he pitched 58 innings for this team. 3.72 erra. This season right around 17 innings. Um he was hurt. Remember the first half of the year 324 erra. So just like just some productive innings that he gave you. And I said I’m I’m surprised the Pirates decided to hold on to like a Johan Ramirez as opposed to Dowi Moretta. I get Ramirez’s stuff is certainly nastier than Moretta’s, but Moretta has kind of shown over the course of two seasons now that like he can get major league hitters out. Um like like John said, it it definitely could have been an options thing. Like Dary Metta was out of options, but like so was Yo so was Johan Ramirez. Um and and the Pirates decided to keep Ramirez. So they they decide to go with the guy with the stuff as opposed to the guy who’s who’s actually gotten the results at the major league level. Again, it’s it’s a middle reliever. Like these guys are out there. They exist just there’s a ton of them out in the world. Uh but but yeah, a little bit surprised they cut ties with Dowry Moretta. Let’s talk about Jack Swinsky just a little bit before we get into these non-tenders, though. Um, like I said, I I get I get the frustration and when it comes to Jack Suinski, I really just want to say like if Jack Suinsky is in this team’s plans come February, then like we should be very very upset at this point. Right now, it’s Monday, November 24th. I don’t like like I’m not getting too worked up about tendering Jack Swinsky a contract. Um, I talked about this in in just like a short video that I made that that on I think it was Thursday when this news came out, but essentially what the Pirates are doing here is they’re they’re buying an additional option year for Jack Swinsky. Swinsky is out of options after the season. So, what that means is if he can’t make the 26man roster next year, the only way to to send him to the miners is to designate him for assignment. When you DFA him, you give other teams a chance to claim him. With Jack Sinsky now making $1.25 million, like no one’s probably claiming him because, let’s face it, you can get a bat like that for league minimum just about everywhere. So, Suinsky will likely clear waiverss once he’s DFA at some point during this off seasonason. The Pirates did a similar thing with Miguel Anduhar a few years back as well if you recall. Like they they they tendered him a contract, signed him was right around like one 1 million 1.5 million somewhere in that area and then they DFAD him in January to remove him from the 40man to make more space. no one claimed him and then they were able to stow him away in Triple A for the year and and call him up, you know, when he when they needed to later on. That’s what they’re doing here. Like that that’s what this move is. So again, I’m not anticipating Jack Swinsky to have any to to be a part of any sort of plans that the Pirates have in 2026, at least not at the very beginning. Like they’re going to make Jack Suinski earn his playing time. At least I I I hope that’s what they’re going to do. Um, again, right now I’m not getting too worked up over this. But if it comes like midFebruary and we’re still waiting on somebody and when you go to the roster resource page on fan graphs and it still lists Jack Sinsky as the team starting left fielder, then then we can start like having a conipion. Like that’s that that’s my that’s my thing here is we don’t need to I don’t I don’t think we need to get too too upset about this right now. I know it’s $1.25 million. I know every dollar this team spends counts. Like, that’s almost league minimum. Almost league minimum. So, I’m not going to get too worked up over it. I can understand if you want to get worked up over it. I really do because I can see how one can be frustrated about bringing Jack Swinsky back when all you’ve heard these last few weeks is how this offseason’s going to be different. So, that’s all I got to say about the Sinsky uh tender. Um, let’s get to a few of your comments, though. Um, fold crypto. It’s almost impossible to fix someone that meant that’s mentally broken at the plate. Yep. Starship Velvet, good morning, guys. Um, yeah, so that’s I said I I nothing too too surprising. few things that caught me off guard a little bit, but um yeah, I think we’ll we can live with all of these decisions that were made last week. What I do want to get to though is title of the show. Um we went dumpster diving. Um and we want to find out, hey, who are some interesting names out there who were nontendered, right? The one thing this Pirates team loves to do is dumpster dive. Ben is Ben lives in a dumpster essentially. Like that’s how he acquires almost all of his players. So we’re taking other teams trash and seeing if hey maybe is there any sort of treasure out there. Um so let’s um so let’s get into it. Actually made a little bit of a uh of a slide deck for you guys to to give you all a visual. But let’s talk about some 2025 nontenders, some options out there who teams declined to tender a contract to on Friday, which means they are now free agents. Again, again, these are teams where they could have offered them a contract to stay with them. They decided, no, we don’t want you anymore. So, now they are free agents. Um, I broke this down into a few categories. We’ve got catchers, we’ve got infielders, we’ve got outfielders, we got right-handed pitchers, and we got left-handed pitchers. So, uh, let’s start with the catchers. So, a position of need for the Pirates, let’s face it. I mean, they did tender Joey Bart. So, Joey Bart is here. U, he was basically a league average hitter last year, but you really saw the power um kind of just disappear with Joey Bart. Uh, and then obviously Henry Davis is is kind of is there as well, but you know, you’d love to be able to you’d love to be able to complement Davis with someone who can hit a little bit, but also can field a little bit because what we saw last year from Joey Bart is the defense just the defense just wasn’t there. It seemed to take a pretty big step back. What’s weird is that like by defensive metric standpoints, it was Joey Bart’s best season. But I don’t know about you, I watched 150 plus Pirates games last year and Joey Bart looked ridiculous back there behind the plate at times. Uh, and I think that was I think you can tell that the fact that the fact that like Paul Ske wouldn’t even pitch to him like like Paul Skins was like I need Henry Davis as my catcher. I can’t pitch to Joey Bart. That that means something, right? Um Jay Greasy, now we’re talking. This is this is a Ben Sharington wet dream right here. We’ve got we’ve got we’ve got dumpster diving. Um all right, the six catchers that are that were non-endered. There’s one name on here who I think it’s worth at least discussing. And I know we can, you know, we can we can throw jokes out there. We can we can do what we want. But, uh, I do want to talk a little bit about Reese Maguire because I he’s he’s a he’s a really good defensive catcher. Like, he’s proven throughout his career that he can he can he can he can catch the ball. Like, he can handle a pitching staff. He can frame well. like the dude is a good defensive catcher. Every single season in the majors, he’s had positive value defensively. Um, last year was his best year since 2022 and like he’s put up some really good really good seasons. Um, and from like an offensive standpoint, he’s definitely not going to um like tear the cover off the ball. A career 81 weighted runs created plus uh career slugging of 374, career OB of 293. So, like this isn’t a guy who’s like especially skilled at the plate. Uh, but he is a left-handed hitting catcher. So, someone who, you know, maybe gives you a little bit of lineup flexibility. You can play him against righties, maybe use him more of as a platoon type situation. He’s got a little bit of pop. Nine homers last year and 140 played appearances. So, like it’s not that he’s completely useless back there. Um, but like you’re not like the upside probably isn’t there with Reese Maguire. Like you’re not going to have some breakout season offensively, but again, someone who defensively can handle the staff. And I don’t know, maybe he compliments Davis well with that righty lefty uh righty lefty action. Um, I said Joey Bart’s someone who is going to be making, you know, three to three four million dollars or so this year. Um, actually, let’s let’s look what is Joey Bart’s uh what’s Joey Bart’s arbitration estimate right now? Because, you know, would would it make more sense to bring in somebody like All right, Joey Bart’s arbitration estimate is 2026 estimated payroll. Where is Bart at here? Oh, 2.7 million. So, I don’t know. For me, like I said, I want to talk about Maguire. And like I said, I think there’s some interesting things about him, specifically the left-handed bat, specifically the defense. But if you can bring Bart back for 2.7 million, I know like the pitchers have like like defensively he wasn’t great. I think you’ve got to figure out a way to like make sure he gets a little bit better there. Maybe you use Bart in other situations too against left-handed pitchers because like John said, like Joey Bart does do that one thing really well. Um he can hit lefties. Uh and even last year with the power being being zapped the way it was against lefties, uh 306 batting average, 419 on base percentage, 472 slugging percentage. That’s an 891 OPS, a 152 weight runs created plus. That’s something right there that you’re getting out of a a premium position. And I said I think what I would I mean depending too on what Raphael Flores brings you like can Flores be that backup catcher and maybe Joey Bart is a platoon option with Spencer Horwood first base. So there there are ways I think to deploy Joey Bart that make sense for $2.7 million. So when it comes to catchers, Maguire caught my eye here, but I think I’m I think I’m rolling. I think I I’d rather I’d rather have what I have than Reese Maguire. Jonah’s another name, you know, just to kind of talk about him. The Royal uh the Rangers did non-ender Jonah Heim. Um, I mean, Heim had a couple really, really, really good years and was one of the best defensive catchers in baseball a few years ago. Uh, and in 2023, he actually hit the ball a little bit, too. He became an all-star, but really since then, he’s been dreadful. He’s been bad offensively. He’s been bad defensively. He’s just he’s been a bad baseball player the last couple of years. So, I’m sure he’ll land somewhere because he’s a catcher and he’s shown he can hit at some point. He’s a he’s a also a switch hitter and like there there was some really good defense in there at some point in time. So, someone will someone will grab Jonah, but I don’t know. I’ll I kind of want to pass on that. All right, catchers. We’re done talking about them. Let’s talk about infielders. Um, this list includes Ronnie Simon. Um, Ramon Urias is another one uh who was who was uh non-endered. Uh, Nathaniel Low is is probably the guy who I want to talk about the most here though just because I mean this was a name that we were talking about like going out there and getting uh last off season in a trade because there was talk about him potentially uh being available. I mean, throughout his career, Nathaniel Low has has just put up some good seasons. Um, his his career weight runs created plus is 117 in his first six seasons in Major League Baseball. 109, 103, 114, 143, 118, 123. So, like Nathaniel Low up to the up to last year would be one of the best hitters the Pirates have had this decade. like it would be him and and Brian Reynolds essentially neck and neck. Last year though, age 29, he just takes a big step back. Um weighted runs created plus of 91. Um the on base percentage dropped big time. That was always sort of his calling card was, you know, being able to get on base. On base percentage dropped to 307. His career on base percentage is 347. slugging percentage dropped below 400 for the first time ever. Um John brings up maybe like a low BART platoon. I’m assuming that means moving Horowitz over to second. Here’s my thing with with something like that. Like I’m open to the idea of Spencer Horowitz moving to second base, but like it’s got to be for like a really good reason. Like I’m not moving Spencer Horwoods to second base because I acquired Nathaniel Low. I’m moving Spencer Horwitz to second base because I got Pete Alonzo, right? Or like how we heard last week the Pirates were in on Josh Naylor. Like that’s my thing is like if the Pirates are thinking, hey, I can bring in a first baseman who can hit, then I’m like I said, I’m open to that discussion of of moving Horwitz around. But I’m not doing it just to bring in Nathaniel Low. Um it just the everything went everything went bad for him last year. And I mean it could just be that he’s just he’s a first baseman. He’s getting older. Like you look at his Statcast page, his bat speed went down, his actual speed went down. Um his defense got worse. like he just lots of red flags in Nathaniel Loe’s season last year where I don’t know uh it just kind of screams stay away right now because he’s just a lot of signs of the aging process happening here where you know now that he’s on the other side of 30 I don’t know if he bounces back. So that’s that’s my that’s my um that’s really the only infielder here I would have any sort of interest in though is is Nathaniel Low. Outfielders, we got a we got a few names to talk about here. I want to start off with uh JJ Blade. another name who last off season a lot of people were like, “Hey, we need to go out there and we need to trade for JJ Blade.” Um, this is I said this is probably the most interesting offensive candidate for me in terms of like in terms of like in terms of upside like multi-year upside. Um, there are some other options on this list that we’ll talk about, but Blade is 28 years old, just turned 28, and he’s a year removed from a 3.2 win season. Uh, I mean, in 2024, 20 homers, uh, slugged 437. The underlying numbers were decent. 120 weighted runs created plus. He played he played okay defense. Like he’s someone who I think you need to play him in left field. Like he’s not a center fielder, but if you can put him in a corner, like that’s that’s where he can at least look a lot better. Last year though, things went went haywire. Uh struck out quite a bit more. It was his worst strikeout rate since since being a rookie. Batting average dipped to 212. On base percentage dipped below 300. He still slugged over 400, so there’s still some pop there. Um, but this is a guy who I don’t know. I could I could see the Pirates taking a shot here because like let’s let’s face it, he’s essentially he plays the same position as Jack Sinsky. Like if if this is let’s go back to the Sinsky conversation where it’s like hey he’s gonna take up a roster spot until you find somebody better. Like JJ Bidday is a better version of Jack Sinsky in my eyes. Um he’s far less removed from from major league success and when you saw him have like that bad year it was still pretty significantly better than Jack Sinsky’s. So, Veno says, you know, isn’t Blade a Sinsky 2.0? I I would say not quite. Like, Sinsky makes a lot more contact. I mean, Blade makes a lot more contact than Sinsky and and he has an option left. So, like JJ Blade still has one more option year remaining uh according to fan graphs. So, if there was an outfielder here that I’d be like may like dep it would depend on the price here, like if you get JJ Blade on like a I don’t know like a $2 million deal or something like that, then I would much I would like if you’re thinking, okay, who’s my next left fielder in line? I would much rather that guy be Bled than Swinsky. I’m not saying that we should go into the season with JJ Bladeet as like a starting left fielder, like pencil him into the left field spot, but if you’re looking at like an an upgrade, I think you could do a lot worse than JJ Blade as like a fourth or fifth outfielder. Um because I think there’s there’s some upside there still and he’s not too far removed from from a really really good season. Um getting to some comments here. Uh John, he was going to cost the A’s like$2 to3 million dollars and no one wanted him. Yeah, like that’s the thing like you you’d have to get him for like the the right price. Um Blade put up a Yeah. 120 way to run Creative Plus in 2024. Jay Greasy. Yeah, Blade did not stare directly into an eclipse that I know of. So that’s so that’s one thing there. Um yeah, so that that’s that’s my my thoughts on Beday. Adulles Garcia, another name here that’s obviously interesting. Um, I mean, he had 39 home runs in 2023. That was obviously like the peak of his career. Since then, though, it just just hasn’t been good. Um, he’s a guy who who swings and misses a decent amount. And even though the like the strikeout rate has gone down surprisingly from like when he was at his peak. So like he is making more contact. Um but he’s he’s walking less. He’s getting I mean he got he had 271 on base percentage last season. The power dropped you know it 39 homers in 2023 19 homers in 2025. Slugging percentage dropped below 400 for for the first time in his career. So, like I said, and he’s and he’s definitely on the older side. Like, he’s going to be 33 next season. I don’t love Adoulles Garcia as an option as a right-handed bat who seems to be declining. Like, I don’t know if this plays well at PNC Park. That and, you know, he obviously can’t play center field, but he and he hasn’t played left field either since 2021. Like, he’s strictly been a right fielder. So, I’m not sure if you can even put him in left field at this point. At this point, I’m staying away from Adulus Garcia. I think he definitely offers you some upside with the power, which is something the Pirates desperately need. It’s just there’s too many red flags here for me in terms of just drastic decline like year overyear drastic decline for me to to be like we need to use a major league roster spot on this guy and give him you know I mean Garcia is going to command I think a couple million bucks at least. So like I’m I’m out on him just because he seems to be aging very poorly. Um, the other name on this list, Mike Tacman. Someone who like I don’t understand how this guy is Mike Pacman the most underrated player in baseball. Like that’s a serious question that I have for for some folks because I feel like this dude gets no credit. And the past three seasons 108 way runs created plus 110 115. I mean 1.7 war, one war, 1.4 war essentially as a platoon hitter hits righties really well. Um his weight runs created plus against righties 114. Hits lefties even as well. 121 weight runs created plus against lefties for his career. Um ju like this guy just looks like a good baseball player. He’s an above average hitter for his career. He can play center field in a pinch if you need him to, but obviously he’s better off in a corner. Like, I’m not saying again, I’m not saying like Mike Tman needs to be given 600 plate appearances, but this is a guy who’s like consistently been given 300 to 400 plate appearances the last few years, and he’s done nothing but hit. He’s done nothing but hit. He’s been fine defensively. Um, oh, look who just woke up. Um, look who just woke up. He said, “Do you want me to hop on?” I was like, “You can hop on. We’re almost done.” But with Tacman, like this is a guy where if you’re looking for maybe a platoon situation, you know, Tman with somebody, like if you’re looking for like a like a if you’re looking for like a great value brand corner outfielder, I think a Mike Tman, Rob Ref Snider, you know, who’s out there as a free agent, like that that platoon right there gives you, in my opinion, a pretty a pretty damn good player. Um, and you can do that for not a lot of money, you know, if you if you whiff out on somebody. So, Tman’s a guy to just keep an eye on because I said, he seems like someone who seems like someone who can at least contribute to this team. Out of everyone on this list, Mike Tman is probably going to put up the best 2026 season. So, cur curious on your thoughts on that. Like I said, I I would be open to like if you’re not able to go out there and land an everyday corner outfielder, you can create one with a pretty good platoon situation. Um with with Tman being one of those one of those platoon. All right, lots of pictures here. So, um lots of pictures. Few names on this list that are that are interesting to me. Um, I I I don’t really want to talk about all of them. Uh, Jacob Webb, though, I do want to talk about Jacob Webb. He was the one that kind of stood out when I first looked at this list. Uh, 32 years old, uh, last season, pitched 66 innings for Texas. Um, 21% sure I got right, 7% walk rate. This guy’s pitched in four different postseasons. He’s like, he’s just pitched on good teams, good winning teams. 3.0 erra last year, 3.02 RA the year before, 369 the year before that. He’s given you over 50 innings every year. Like, Jacob Webb strikes me as the guy on this list where it’s like like this dude’s just a solid relief pitcher. There’s nothing super flashy about him. Um, but like this is a guy who you bring him in for the middle innings. Got a good fast ball. He’s got good off speed pitches. This is a guy who I could target for for a semi cheap deal. Um, John’s asking about Pete Fairbanks. Pete Fairbanks was not non-tendered. His option was just not picked up. So, he doesn’t he doesn’t really qualify on this list. Um, but but yeah, like I said, lots of names here to talk about. The guy that I would point out, Jacob Webb, um, just just strikes me as a guy who seems to, uh, yeah, seems to he just seems to be a good pitcher. Um, Dinardo looks like he’s here as well getting ready. Um, he may want to point out Taylor Clark on this list as well. Hey, look who decided to join us. Hi. 46 minutes late, Dinardo. Um, I have no idea what happened. I apologize. Never heard an alarm, anything. You’re good. We’re talking about right-handed pitchers. Yeah. Yeah. No, I just heard your last one. Yeah. Um, but yeah, you talk about Taylor Clark. Um, I mean, that’s a guy that I had some interest in as well. Uh, I mean, just seems like a very solid, very solid round pitcher. And of course, the thing that stands out is like the slider. Very, very good slider. I mean, he was out all of last year. Um, 2023, really good slider. 2025, really good slider. Um, I I just Yeah, like he just seems like a very solid middle reliever. Someone that you want to get your hands on. And like I feel like, you know, again, like in the Pirates, we kind of trust, right? Okay. I mean, this kind of seems like to be a guy that fits the mold of the Pirates, at least the old Pirates, right? I don’t know what they’re going to be coming forward with the new pitching coach and whatnot. You know how it’s going to work, but uh it just seems like this is a guy that kind of fits that mold. So, Taylor Clark, very solid right-hand pitching option for them. Yeah, you mentioned the slider. Very, very good slider. So, um yeah, I mean that’s again another another interesting name. Um, John says we have this at home in the form of Chase Schugert. I think we do. I said I think the bullpen is definitely like to John’s point, I don’t think the bullpen is necessarily at least the right-handed relief options in the bullpen isn’t necessarily like a huge need. I think you could maybe add like one more guy specifically to like the back end of the bullpen. Um, they definitely need like a legit left lefty in the bullpen. Um, so that brings us to our next slide, the left-handed pitchers. Um, not as much here. I know Dinardo, you had some interest in um, Sam Henis, right? Yeah, almost the same thing. Just the the lefty version with Henis. I mean, he’s he’s been really solid. Hench, by the way. Henches. Hench. Yes, Hench. Uh like he’s been really solid. Strikes out quite a few guys. I mean, looked like last year um 23.2 innings. He was injured. Um didn’t pitch the full year obviously, but like the years before that, 62 innings, 2.32 RA, 279, I’m sorry, 248 FIP. Uh the next year, 52.1 innings, a 361 RA. However, 264 fib. He’s been like a onew war pitcher uh the seasons prior uh like I said last year with the injury. Uh 304 erra, 23.2 innings. Good stuff. Just, you know, has the injury, leg injury, I believe. Um but like all signs point, he should be here for most of the season. We delayed the offseason workout, but like he should be should be here. And for for a lefty pitcher, I think this guy fits a pretty solid need for the Pirates. if they could, you know, get his hands on him. Yeah, they definitely need to find somebody. I don’t know if I would go with anyone on this list. I mean, Joey Lucesy is another name who is, you know, at least somewhat interesting. Like, he’s put together a a decent major league career, but I don’t know. I feel like I’d rather go out there and just like resign. Like, get me Caleb Ferguson again. Like, I’d take Caleb Ferguson over any of these guys. Oh, I I I would probably agree with that for sure. But and I guess I also look at this too. I mean, how John said about the ready, it’s like, you know, we this isn’t a need. Pitching’s always a need. It’s always a need. You never have enough of it. So, you know, some of these guys, I don’t think you’re going to maybe get like how Tanner Rainey was acquired last year. I This is how we were talking about Tanner Rainey and he came on minor league deal and such. And you know, I don’t know if you’re scooping the guys that we just mentioned in that regard, but maybe Chase like we have a Chase Sugar. Great. That’s called depth. That’s something you’re going to need. That the even the Pirates needed it this this past year. You know, they had uh what’s his name? Pitching. How often? Well, now he got signed. Um the the relief they just they signed avoided arbitration with for $800,000. You know who I’m talking about. Johan Ramirez. Yeah, Johan Ramirez. I mean, like you had Johan Ramirez coming up here because they needed innings and such. So, um, you know, if they’re going to be in a playoff team, you’re going to have to have relievers. Yeah. I mean, there’s definitely going to be definitely going to have to be people on here. I just like like none of these names really they don’t really excite me too much there. Like there there are some people on the right-handed pitcher list where I like, you know what, I’d be I’d be cool with this signing. Like these are just these are guys. So, yeah. Um, I agree there. Yeah. Let’s uh that does it for our non-tenders. You joined there right at the very end. So appreciate you. Glad I could help. Yeah. Um time to time to just spend a little bit of time on some rule five guys that I also want to discuss. Um, there is one name in particular that if I am the Pirates I am targeting and I’m not sure if this guy like this guy is someone who will this guy’s going to get picked like he’s going to get picked. I have no doubts in my mind. It’s just a matter of can he make it to where the Pirates are because outside him like there’s not too many people who really intrigue me to like spend a roster spot on. There’s a couple but the one is Yordani Mongro from the Boston Red Sox. Um he had Tommy John surgery in June. Yeah. which makes this like interesting because he’s he’s going to miss most if not all of this season which means you can just stow him on the 60-day IIL. Like you don’t even have to use a roster spot for him. Um the thing though is like this guy’s a super interesting prospect. Um nasty stuff. The command is a little iffy, but like he’s also only he just turned 23 years old. He’s dominated every level of the miners. Strikeouts look good, walk rates look good. Um, again, the stuff is nasty. uh fan graphs last week. Eric Longenhagen said that like this is a guy that he would have protected because he he like you mentioned before he kind of fits the we were talking about this last night like this is a guy who if you are looking for a rule five candidate he makes so much sense um because you don’t have to use up a 26-man roster spot on him when he does get healthy. it’s going to be like towards the end of the season so you can then make that decision. Like you could just add this guy in September um you know in in with expanded rosters and give him some some time and then you can send him to the Arizona Fall League. like this is a guy where you can you can kind of get him ready and amped up for 2027 and just getting a pitcher like this in your organization could be a huge could be a huge deal. Um the Red Sox are deep with pitching so he didn’t make the cut and they left him off. Like I said, Yordani Mongro, I’m going to be surprised if this dude doesn’t get picked and I think the Pirates should be the team to pick him if he’s there because he’s he’s someone who, like I said, you don’t you don’t need to spend that spot on. You get him into the organization. You kind of ease him in from Tommy John, send him on a rehab assignment. if expanded rosters happens, like you can you can bring him up at the end of the year, but like this is a guy who can you can pitch over the pitch over the fall. Um, and like be ready to roll 2027 and he’s still going to have to fulfill his rule five requirements in that second season because you didn’t carry him on the roster this year. But this is a dude I take a chance on. So, Yordonnie Manro, that’s my guy. Yeah, I I agree. Uh for all the all the reasons you just said. This is like a perfect situation. It’s like unfortunate that he’s not going to help out the Pirates this year. Like that’s the unfortunate part because the Pirates could use some help this year. Obviously, if he can find it in rule five draft, like great. But he’s a talent and you draft like he he is probably one of the better talents, you know, in the rule five draft obviously. And again, we’re coming to it’s the rule five draft. you shouldn’t be looking of, oh, we need to compete. We need to nail the rule five draft to do so, right? That’s not what you do in the rule five draft. Um, so even though he’s not going to help out this year, likely, you know, I think absolutely you you you pull the trigger on him if you can. Um, just a name I’m going to bring up uh just to com on the hitting side. Typically, you don’t find hitters in the draft either, but I do I do have a little bit of intrigue with this guy, Jim. Sorry, my camera’s all jacked up. I just got on here. You’re good. Um, but like Kyler Bedco to some level. I mean, he’s 25 years old. He just reached AAA this year. Like, I get it. But 28 home runs in total. Doesn’t strike out a ton. Walks a, you know, a very solid rate. I mean, look at this year with AAA and DA combined, 14% walk rate, 21.2% K rate. He hit 258, 367, slugged 487, a 131 weight runs credited plus. Uh, and in this small sample of the 42 games in Triple A, still a 115 weight runs credit plus. You know, he he he fared his own there. Um, and of course, his name is Fedco. So, he’s got to be a pirate, right? You got to bring him into Pittsburgh. Just that alone, his name is Fedco. But in all seriousness, the one thing is like, all right, they signed Jack Swinsky to that deal. Like I could look at this as like, okay, if I’m going to stash some guy, maybe make him over Jack Swinsky, maybe bring in Fedco. Uh, so again, I don’t really foresee them taking him. Of course, they could use some outside outfield help. He has, like I said, a little bit of intrigue for me, but not enough for, you know, he’s my guy over the guy we just mentioned for the pitcher. Yeah. for me if there’s a hitter to take like and I don’t love any of the hitters here just because like that is a more valuable roster spot that spot that you’re like it’s harder to hide a hitter like they’re going to have to play a little bit. I don’t know. I guess we had Canario last year who like didn’t play at all, but like there is something to me with Gavin Cross um with Kansas City mostly like I mean he’s toolsy, right? Like he’s very toolsy. He’s just someone who hasn’t been able to put those tools together. Uh you know, a former top 10 pick. He was ninth overall pick in 2022. Um he he’s he’s got some pop. He’s got some he’s got the speed. the like he just like I said just hasn’t been able to put it all together. So if I were a team not trying to win I’d maybe look at Gavin Cross to like platoon somewhere but I don’t think the Pirates are in any sort of position to take a position player in this draft. Like I said, I I like the I like the I like the opportunity that provides itself with with a your Donnie Manro. If you are looking for like a left-handed pitcher option, um kind of going back to Boston as well, Hayden Mullins is another guy who I’m who who interests me. Um because he he he’s been a starter throughout the Miners. He’s had good good results, good stuff. lefty. So, you could, you know, multi-inings out of him if you need to. Um, someone who I feel like you could also slot into a bullpen and like not as your main lefty, like he wouldn’t be your main lefty. He’d kind of fill in that like José Hernandez role that we had a few years ago where he’d be like he’d be like the first lefty out, you know, in the into the sixth inning or something if he needed to and could pitch an inning or two. So, like Hayden Mullen strikes me as another guy who’s who’s a potential candidate here. Um, but outside that, like I’m I I don’t really want to get too too deep in rule five just because I mean there’s like a 50-50 chance the Pirates just pass anyways. Yeah. Um, even probably more than 50%. But there are some interesting names in here to just kind of keep an eye on um in case they do drop to you. Um, and surprisingly they’re they’re also both from Boston for me. So there is that Ben Sherington connection. Obviously we’ve scouted we have scouted Boston system quite a few times I’m sure. So I’m I’m sure the Pirates are well aware of these two folks. But yeah, Yordani Manro, Hayden Mullins, those are my two kind of my two main targets for the rule five draft. Yeah, agree. So, where we at, Captain? That’s the show. Dinardo, glad I could give my best David Bnar impression. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so coming up this week, we’ve got we’ve got what? Another NSIN live on Wednesday. So, a day before Thanksgiving, we’ll be doing an Anastin live. Um, and then Siko Soundoff on Friday. Is that the plan? Sound off. Yep. Jimmy asks for going to winter meetings. We will be in Orlando for winter meetings. We’ll have um tons and tons of stuff for you while we’re down there. So, yeah, all week long we’ll be well, it’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday we’ll be there. Um, so we’ll be there Sunday and Thursday. We’ll have two live shows while we’re down there. We’ll have Bucko Brew on Monday morning. We’ll have an S9 live Wednesday night. So, we’ll do those both from winter meetings and then kind of how we’ve done the last few years. We’ll we’ll make sure that there’s plenty of stuff out there throughout the meetings um for for you guys. Yeah, like I want to stress, we’re going to be live at least twice as scheduled shows. We’ll absolutely be live more than that though, so stay tuned. But, uh yeah, of course, we’ll have tons of tons of content coming your way. Hopefully a lot of good information to make the content enjoyable coming your way. And uh yeah, I mean you figure last year that’s when the Spencer Horwish trade went down. So maybe something bigger this year. Maybe they are fishing in the bigger waters. Who knows? Maybe we’ll be talking about uh your Donnie Managra or Hayden Mullins after the roll five draft. There it is. Full circle moment. Yep. What do you say that what do you think the FanDuel odds would be that the Pirates pick somebody in the Roll Five draft? Is it over is it is it is it plus money? Is it like is it over 50% that it happens? Um, man, that’s tough because again, like they have a lot of weight they could trim off, but they also have a lot of needs that they need to add to. And I don’t know if there’s anyone that’s, you know, I I’ll say plus money. I I’ll say I’ll say plus money. Those are my odds. Okay. I’m going to put it like right at even odds. I’m gonna say it’s like a 50-50 shot. Yeah, it’s like just slightly over 50, I’ll say. Because I do think again like this is a good way you can start attacking the bullpen. Mhm. Again, the good teams build bullpens cheaply. We talk about time and time and time again. I mean, the Pirates have essentially done that. Uh and I know again like he’s not going to help out this year if you go that route, but that’s certainly an option. I feel like they’ll they’ll take somebody. All right. Well, I’m glad you could join us for the last 10 minutes or so there, Dinardo. Um yeah, everybody, thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Um, subscribe, like the video, all that good stuff. Um, leave a review, leave a comment if you’re listening. Uh, you guys are the best. It’s been an awesome off seasonason so far. Plenty more coming your way. Um, but yeah, this was Bucko Brew powered by Defair Coffee and Tea. And, uh, I’m Jim. That was Dinardo. We’ll uh, we’ll catch you later this week, guys. Bye-bye. All right, that wraps up this episode of Northshore 9. Thanks so much for tuning in. Whether you’re listening on the podcast or catching us on YouTube. If you enjoyed the show, please give this video a thumbs up. And don’t forget to hit that subscribe button if you haven’t already. It really helps us grow. And if you’re listening on the podcast, a quick review goes a long way in helping others find the show. Plus, be sure to tell a friend about us. There’s always room for more here in the NS9 community. And for those looking to support us a little more, consider joining our Patreon. Become an MVP member and get exclusive perks while helping us continue to bring you more of the Pirates content you love. Thanks again for all your support and let’s go Bucks. [Music] Yeah. Yeah. [Music]

The Pirates tendered almost everyone… except Dauri Moreta, Colin Holderman, Alexander Canario, and Ronny Simon.

Now the real business begins.

On today’s Bucco Brew, we dive head-first into this years non-tender class — more than 80 players hitting the market at once, including legit starters, bullpen arms, catchers, and a few shocker names nobody expected to become available.

We go full “dumpster diving” mode and break down:
• Which newly-available players actually fit the Pirates right now
• Who could be sneaky upgrades at catcher, first base, or the bullpen
• The buy-low arms that scream “Pittsburgh reclamation project”
• The surprising big names that other teams gave up on
• Our Top 5 non-tender targets the Pirates should call today
Then we take our first look at the upcoming Rule 5 Draft, using Baseball America’s preview to highlight the names who might tempt the Pirates — and whether Pittsburgh should actually make a pick this year.

If you love roster-building, Sicko speculation, and digging for value… this episode is for you.

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