OnlyBucs

The Pirates are close to a deal with left-hander Jarlín García, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. It will apparently be a one-year deal with a club option. Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the deal is done, pending a physical.



Garcia, 30 in January, has seen MLB action in each of the past six seasons, the first three with the Marlins and the last three with the Giants. He made 58 appearances for the Giants in 2022, logging 65 innings and finishing the year with a 3.74 ERA, 20.7% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 39.1% ground ball rate.

MLB reporting the Pirates sign Vince Velasquez to a 1 year, $3.15M contract.



Saw enough of this guy while he was with the Phillies. IMO it's wasted money. Great arm, but a 10 cent head. Believes he's a starter, but he never panned out. Had one great game where he struck out 16, then was shelled for the rest of the year.



That being said, now he'll have a great 1st half and fetch a prospect at the trade deadline.

I like this signing (Garcia), and TBH would love to have Banuelos back also.



Baby steps.

644F58572E0 wrote: MLB reporting the Pirates sign Vince Velasquez to a 1 year, $3.15M contract.



Saw enough of this guy while he was with the Phillies. IMO it's wasted money. Great arm, but a 10 cent head. Believes he's a starter, but he never panned out. Had one great game where he struck out 16, then was shelled for the rest of the year.



That being said, now he'll have a great 1st half and fetch a prospect at the trade deadline.
Lot of HR's and a lot of walks. I wonder how he'll be used, as a SP a RP or a hybrid guy?



I like seeing his WHIP dropped dramatically, and he's a strikeout per inning type of guy. But wow, those walks and long balls.

This year was a career best 3.0 walks per 9 innings for him.



I have to believe he sold himself as a starter, because he was unhappy when the Phils finally took him out of the rotation. He struggled as a RP, but that may have been due to being unhappy in that role. Maybe he adjusted his thought process with the White Sox.



Like you pointed out, he gives up a lot of long HR's. He could make LF in PNC play small!

Vince Velasquez


I always confuse this name with Virgil Vasquez, and am amazed he's still in the majors.

43687F70090 wrote: MLB reporting the Pirates sign Vince Velasquez to a 1 year, $3.15M contract.



Saw enough of this guy while he was with the Phillies. IMO it's wasted money. Great arm, but a 10 cent head. Believes he's a starter, but he never panned out. Had one great game where he struck out 16, then was shelled for the rest of the year.



That being said, now he'll have a great 1st half and fetch a prospect at the trade deadline.
I am right with you Javy. Watched him with the Phillies and

was never impressed. Will have one good game and then 3-4 lousy games.

75535441484453454D260 wrote: I like this signing (Garcia), and TBH would love to have Banuelos back also.



Baby steps.
Don't know much about Garcia but I will take your word

for it

Hey, neither Garcia or Velasquez may be that good, but they are 2 pitchers, so BC is closer to doing what he said he would do.



Garcia may be the more important of the 2 because he is a lefty. And perhaps Velasquez is around only until the Bucs determine if Ortiz, Burrows, and/or Priester are ready to join a major league rotation.



With these 2 signings the Bucs will have used their open roster slots and they still need to add 2 catchers to the major league roster. Perhaps this means that the Bucs will not be active in the Rule V Draft. While there is still some duff on the roster, barring a trade, the number of players who can easily be cut is dwindling.

09252D2A2106312737440 wrote: With these 2 signings the Bucs will have used their open roster slots and they still need to add 2 catchers to the major league roster.  Perhaps this means that the Bucs will not be active in the Rule V Draft. While there is still some duff on the roster, barring a trade, the number of players who can easily be cut is dwindling.   
I think there are a number of them: Underwood Jr., Max Kranick (though I think he'll be able to be put on the 60 day) so there's two guys right now.



As each day passes, looking more and more like they might possibly be thinking the impossible, Endy Rodriguez opening the year in the bigs. But I still think they want to pick up a couple of catchers. There's some guys on the 40 man roster I think they could trade, like Marcano and Castillo, and let's not forget some of these guys we've not really seen play, like Vilade and Selby for instance. They protected Triolo, which is still a bit of a head scratcher seeing as it looks like he's primarily just a third baseman. He most certainly looks to be trade bait.



So there's guys that I can see easily traded/cut.