Last week the Pirates outrighted several players from the 40-man roster, including Sean Gallagher. It was believed that Gallagher would be eligible for free agency, although at the time I thought he still had a year before he was eligible
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By my calculations, Gallagher wouldn’t be eligible for minor league free agency until after the 2011 season, since he only spent parts of six seasons in the minors (you need seven seasons).
Jennifer Langosch reported today that Gallagher wasn’t actually eligible for minor league free agency, confirming my calculations of his service time. It’s not huge news, since he has had horrible control at the major league level, along with poor results. Overall it means that the Pirates can keep Gallagher for their 2011 Indianapolis bullpen, to be used as bullpen depth. He will be eligible for minor league free agency following the 2011 season. Gallagher turns 25 in December, so there’s still an outside chance that he could end up a decent middle relief option, although that would require him to fix his control issues, which is no easy task.
