Andújar could fill the role next season at a low cost.

$1.3 million this year and going to arbitration in 2023. Sadly, that's not low cost for the Pirates. It wouldn't surprise me if they push him straight into winter ball to get another look before tendering him.

Seems worth the risk for a non-contender to pencil him in as their left-fielder, which appears to be his best position these days, in the hope he hits something like he did in his rookie year. He hasn’t shown that much since then, but playing time was only available in short stints due to injuries & Gio Urshela’s emergence.

I wonder if this will finally put an end to Yankees fans proposing trades of another team's best player for "Miguel Andujar and Clint Frazier."

Clint Frazier

Now Jackson Frazier by the way.

#3 No it won't.

The loss of post deadline waiver deals has created a new dfa market. Andrus is another example

I don't know that's changed anything. This move is about opening a spot on the 40-man. In the old days, nobody would have claimed Andujar or, if the Pirates had, the Yanks either let him go or yank him back but the Pirates refuse to give up anything for him and the Yanks have to DFA him anyway.

Andrus is a bit different as he maybe would have been a waiver wire deal in the past. But Andrus was not a happy camper and the A's released him, not DFA'd him. If they'd DFA'd him quite possibly the White Sox ship some minor-leaguer to the A's and possibly that would have happened in an old waiver wire deal. But obviously the A's didn't see that as much of a possiblity and released him rather than wait a week for him to refuse the assignment.

Anyway, the old revocable waivers wasn't about stopping a guy unwanted by a contender from finding a possible home with an also-ran; it was about potentially stopping a deal like the Andrus deal where a contender needs a SS to fill in until Anderson came back -- at least the lower contenders could claim him first and block the trade. In this particular case, I'm not sure there were any "contenders" with a worse record than the Sox so the practical effect of the rule change was zero in this case.

Plus in both cases there was no "market." Andrus was available to any team that wanted to take him on at league minimum, assuming he agreed. Andujar was claime off waivers but I'm not sure the Pirates even owe Andujar any money (when is the last paycheck?) but at worst they owe him, what, 1/26 of his salary?

EDIT: Around the same time, the A's also released Lowrie (unsigned) and Piscotty (signed with the Reds but hasn't appeared in the majors).

EDIT2: Also with Andujar, this move was past the old waiver trade deadline anyway. The Yanks needed him for 7 starts in mid-Sept so they would have revoked waivers in Aug anyway.

Andujar is the starting DH tonight and is batting third, lol

$1.3 million this year and going to arbitration in 2023. Sadly, that's not low cost for the Pirates. It wouldn't surprise me if they push him straight into winter ball to get another look before tendering him.

They might live with paying him the $2M or whatever he'll get in arbitration, but yeah, very little chance he's still a Pirate in 2024. (If he doesn't really pick up the hitting there's a pretty big chance he's out of the majors for good by 2024; Pittsburgh can only be called 'the majors' in the most technical sense.) But forget free agent money, the aptly named Pirates' owners aren't even interested in paying second year arbitration money.

The fact that neither the Rays nor Cardinals did anything here tells you he's got nothing left in the tank. If there is any veteran player to be had for a bargain, who will then perform way above expectations, one or both of those 2 teams will be over it like a cheap suit.

The fact that neither the Rays nor Cardinals did anything here tells you he's got nothing left in the tank.

They couldn't trade him and the Pirates were like the 2nd team in waiver-wrire-priority.

(If he doesn't really pick up the hitting there's a pretty big chance he's out of the majors for good by 2024; Pittsburgh can only be called 'the majors' in the most technical sense.)

Quoting myself here just to say... Pittsburgh has the finest baseball park in the world, and it is a damned tragedy that Pittsburgh's club is owned by leeches with no interest whatsoever in fielding a major league caliber team to play in it.

A nice start with Pittsburgh for Andujar, 4-for-11 in 3 games, with 5 RBI. Not record-breaking in any way, but he & the Pirates should feel pretty good about his acquisition, maybe making things easier ahead. A slow start on your possibly last MLB chance would be tough on many, despite small sample size and all.

Clint Frazier

Now Jackson Frazier by the way.

What's the story behind that? A Bobby Valentine level attempt at ducking a domestic subpoena?

The recent Yankees callups have been doing pretty well, though. Cabrera's already got 1.3 WAR in just 37 games, and Peraza's got 0.5 WAR and a 133 OPS+ in his first 13 games. Cabrera's also played at least 2 games in 6 of the 8 defensive positions, everything but CF and C.