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Pittsburgh Pirates Release Michael Saunders

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The Pittsburgh Pirates released left fielder Michael Saunders, just two days after signing him to a minor league deal. After the acquisition of left fielder Corey Dickerson yesterday, that took away a possible starting spot for Saunders, while also making his chances of landing a bench spot tougher. The Pirates released him on Friday afternoon so he could sign with the Kansas City Royals.

We took a look at the battle for the final bench spot earlier today. Tim Williams noted that Bryce Brentz and Michael Saunders were likely choices for the final spot, so now this opens things up for other players such as Max Moroff, Jose Osuna and Daniel Nava to compete.

UPDATE 5:10 PM: From Tim Williams…

Saunders wasn’t on the field today during practice, although I figured he might have been in another area that I missed. He spoke with Neal Huntington this morning, who agreed to release him to pursue better opportunities. Huntington signed him to compete for the starting left field job, but when the team traded for Corey Dickerson, they no longer had the opportunity available.

My thoughts earlier today were that Bryce Brentz would win out over Saunders for the final bench spot. Obviously, that doesn’t change.

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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