The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Thursday morning that outfielder Miguel Andujar has cleared waivers. He was also given a non-roster invite to Spring Training. He was designated for assignment last week when the Pirates officially announced the Andrew McCutchen signing.
Andujar was acquired by the Pirates in September of 2022, joining the team just in time to get in nine games before the season ended. Between that time and his 27 games with the New York Yankees, he put up a .235/.257/.311 slash line in 2022. He has a career .272/.302/.447 slash line in 268 big league games over six seasons.
Andujar had a big 2018 season, putting up 2.9 WAR in 149 games as a rookie. His career WAR stands at 1.4, so that season has been an outlier, though he has dealt with some injuries over the years.
There are two interesting things to consider here. He likely cleared waivers because of his $1.525M contract for 2023, which took away some of the gamble of designating him for assignment.
If he doesn’t make the big league squad out of Spring Training, but he regains some of his previous success in the minors early in the season, the Pirates will gain an extra year of control out of him. He’s current at four years and two days (4.002) of service time, so a minimal amount of time in the minors pushes back his free agency a year. That only matters if he has success, but it’s a nice little bonus possibility added to this situation.
