Pirates make a slew of 40 man moves

Well it seems the quiet offseason is coming to an end. The unofficial World Series radio silence has been broken and the offseason is now in full swing.

That said the Pirates made quite a few necessary 40 man roster moves today.

First off the Pirates signed Wil Ledezma to a one year contract, thus avoiding arbitration. Ledezma wasn't overly impressive for the Buccos last year, posting a 6.86 ERA in 19.2 innings. He was hit pretty well, but the Pirates are obviously in love with his SO numbers (10.1/9) and like his stuff. He pitched very well in AAA last year before he got the call, so there is some upside. Low risk signing really, but not a bad one.

Steven Jackson, Sean Gallagher, Justin Thomas, Brandon Moss, and Jeff Clement were outrighted to AAA Indianapolis. (Clement came off the 60 day DL). Those moves were made to make room on the 40 man roster for Ross Ohlendorf, Steve Pearce, and Jose Ascanio, all of whom had to come off the 60 day DL.

This will probably be the end of Brandon Moss as he has already been DFA'd once by the Buccos. I'm sure he probably wants to move on, and I bet the club feels the same way.

Chan Ho Park was removed from the 40 man due to his being a free agent. I don't think it's out of the question that he comes back though. Should be had fairly cheaply, and he was pretty good for the Buccos. During his time with the Pirates he kept the ball in the park better than all but one year in his career, posted the best WHIP and had the third lowest ERA of his career. Granted it was a pretty small sample, but he definitely earned another look.

Expect a lot more moves to come though because the 40 man roster is at 38 players and the Pirates still need to protect quite a few Rule V eligible players. This is going to be a recurring theme for a team trying to stockpile talent. Eligible players include Brian Friday, Nathan Adcock, Jeff Locke, Starling Marte, Danny Moskos, Rudy Owens, and Tony Watson to name just a few.