Following is a blurb from a report on the MLB Trade Rumors site regarding the Twins' recall of Brian Waddell, a former Pirate minor leaguer until the end of last season.
"As for the 26-year-old Waddell, an eventual big league audition with the Twins appeared likely after the former Pirates farmhand turned heads in Spring Training. Waddell yielded five runs in 9 1/3 innings, but he also struck out 15 of the 36 hitters he faced (41.7 percent) and showed what the Twins felt was a demonstrably improved arsenal. Minnesota claimed him off waivers from Pittsburgh at the end of the 2020 season and managed to sneak Waddell through waivers in late February, but his absence from the 40-man roster proved brief."
First, I have no clue if Waddell will prove to be a productive addition to Twins' pen. But, with an owner who is unwilling to spend money to keep or acquire talent, the future of the Pirates' is overly dependent on the ability of BC and his staff to gauge talent, both within the Pirate organization and in other organizations.
BC has earned kudos from many who post here (including me) for the overall quality of the talent he acquired in the Musgrove, Tallion and Marte trades, and to a lesser extent the Bell trade. He also has been trying to mine the waiver wire and similar approaches to incrementally upgrade talent on the margins, particularly relief pitchers. In doing so, he must be right many more times than wrong in deciding to release a pitcher like Waddell, or more recently Santana and Bashor, to create roster space while still holding onto folks like Feliz and Crick.
I am not saying that releasing Waddell was a mistake, I simply note that it will be important to track what happens with the 'on-the-margin' players that BC moves on from or acquires to see how things work out.
Brian Waddell
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