Major League Baseball announced on Thursday afternoon that 149 players have become free agents. The Pittsburgh Pirates have two players on that list, John Jaso and Joaquin Benoit.
As mentioned in our off-season primer, the Pirates have five days to negotiate with these players before other teams can begin negotiations. That’s mentioned more for possible free agents the Pirates could be looking at this off-season, because neither Jaso or Benoit are expected to be re-signed. Jaso even hinted late in the season at retiring, and Benoit is 40 years old and coming off of a down year, so he might be done as well.
Jaso spent two seasons with the Pirates after signing as a free agent prior to the 2016 season. He combined to hit .245/.342/.409 in 734 plate appearances over 258 games. Those hitting totals are close to his career totals, so his offensive production wasn’t far off of expectations, although he posted an .839 OPS in 2015, so they were a drop from that total. The Pirates used him often and first base and right field, where he was below average. According to Baseball-Reference, he had an 0.6 WAR with the Pirates.
The Pirates acquired Benoit at the trade deadline from the Philadelphia Phillies this year and he spent time on the disabled list and back at his home for family related matters. In his brief time with the Pirates, he allowed seven earned runs over 8.1 innings in eight appearances.