The Pittsburgh Pirates made their first cut of Spring Training on Friday morning, returning Termarr Johnson to minor league camp. They now have 66 players active on the Spring Training roster.
Johnson’s first big league Spring Training didn’t go as planned. He was going to be one of the early cuts regardless, but a hamstring injury earlier this week moved up those inevitable plans. With him out of action for 10-14 days according to the Pirates, it made sense to send him over to the minor league side to get ready for the 2023 season.
The 2022 first round pick could still see some Spring Training action later in the schedule as a call over from the minor league side. That will depend on how he progresses from his injury.
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.
And the black cloud over the Pirates remains, like Bad Luck Schleprock!
Cut the bum! Couldn’t make the big leagues in 3 days, loser.
Great. His hamstring fell off.
He’s a #1 pick. What did you expect? It’s a rite of passage.