The Pittsburgh Pirates are back in a familiar spot: trying to patch together their catching depth while the roster keeps shifting around them.
That latest move came with the club designating Christian Bethancourt for assignment after activating shortstop Konnor Griffin from the 60-day injured list. The transaction cleared room on both the 28-man major league roster and the 40-man roster, and it also put a spotlight right back on a position the Pirates have been juggling all season.
At the moment, Pittsburgh has only two catchers on the 40-man roster in Henry Davis and Rafael Flores Jr., and the team is hoping both can stay healthy over the final three weeks of the season. Davis has been with the club all year, while Flores has been on the roster continuously since Aug. 1, working as the backup and supplying a strong right-handed power bat.
The rest of the season’s catching picture has already thinned out. Joey Bart opened the year with the Pirates before a left foot infection in mid-May changed everything. Once he was healthy again, Pittsburgh traded him to the Atlanta Braves on June 18 rather than designate him for assignment.
Endy Rodríguez looked like the best hitter of the group and maybe the answer to the Pirates’ longer-term concerns behind the plate, but his season is over after surgery to repair his left hip labrum. Rodríguez hit .267/.373/.467 with an OPS of .840 in 45 games, and he is expected to need about seven to nine months before fully returning to baseball activities, putting his comeback in the March-to-May range.
The Pirates also cycled through Shawn Ross, who had spent many years in the farm system. He was called up in late July, then DFA’d, and the New York Mets claimed him.
So while Griffin’s return is important, the bigger issue for Pittsburgh may be what happens next at catcher. The club is likely to sort through that question in the offseason, when it decides who it believes fits as the future at the position.
Davis has given the Pirates strong work defensively, but the bat has lagged badly. He is hitting .177/.263/.294 with an OPS of .557 in almost 300 major league games.
Flores, meanwhile, has shown the kind of power the Pirates wanted when they traded David Bednar for him. The question now is whether he is better defensively at catcher or first base.
If the Pirates are hit with another injury behind the plate before the season ends, they do have a few options they could add to the 40-man roster in Jose Herrera, Derek Berg and Cameron Barstad. But Pittsburgh would prefer not to lean on that group, especially with Berg and Barstad still waiting on their MLB debuts and Herrera currently on the development list after signing to Indianapolis this week.
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