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Pirates Sign Catcher Nate Irving

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According to Baseball America, the Pittsburgh Pirates have signed minor league catcher Nate Irving, who was released by the Arizona Diamondbacks in October. The 23-year-old was a 34th round pick in 2014 and spent two seasons in short-season A-ball. In 2015, he hit 276/.378/.316 in 24 games. During his two seasons of pro ball, he is just 3-for-21 in throwing out runners. At his age and experience, his likely role will be a backup at any of the lower level teams, possibly going wherever he is needed.

During this time of year, we should hear about the Pirates signing a few more catchers similar to Irving. Teams need extra catchers during Spring Training and some of them will be gone before the season even starts. The Pirates were short a few catchers from the end of the season with Wilkin Castillo, Sebastian Valle and Francisco Diaz signing elsewhere, plus Kawika Emsley-Pai retiring. They also released Tony Sanchez last week. They have only signed one minor league free agent catcher this off-season, so you’ll likely hear about 2-3 more catchers besides Irving being signed before Spring Training starts.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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