Pirates Business: What It Would Take to Gain an Extra Year of Service After 2023

With the season underway, I wanted to revisit a topic that’s interesting for me and useful for you—breaking down service and what it would take for the team to gain/player to lose a year of contractual control.

The same disclaimer applies as when I’ve done this in the past—I am not advocating for any kind of shenanigans, as holding down players who are ready for contractual reasons is a problem, and it’s in part what’s led to issues surrounding arbitration, free agency, shortening careers, and many other topics that were points of contention in the most recent labor negotiations.

To be frank, while I am against the idea of manipulation, I still derive enjoyment out of counting and tracking these kinds of things. I know there is a subset of fans that find it just as interesting, so it’s still practical to breakdown just where certain players stand when it comes to service.

Below is a table of players currently on the 40-man roster that have options remaining and are not free agents after the season—basically pre-arbitration or arbitration players where counting days is still relevant to their pay structure.

As you can see, the list is sorted by service time heading into the season. As of yet, there have not been any players who have surpassed their next year of service, with Kranick the closest at four more days to cross a year. That was a foregone conclusion, considering he may spend most of—if not all—the season on the injured list after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Currently, there are still 174 days left in the season, meaning there technically isn’t a player that still can’t pass their next full year of service at this point. Players like Ramirez and the four players added to the 40-man this past offseason—Burrows, Rodriguez, Selby, and Triolo—are getting close, but technically have a few more days than what is listed, as it takes being on option for 20 days in order for days on optional assignment to start counting as such. This means all five could be recalled on or before April 18^th and still accrue a full year, despite that being less days than they need to surpass their next full year (167).

Eyeing up the list, I would think that the following players surpass their next full year of service at some point this season, given the relative number of days needed to do so: Mathias, Joe, Heineman, Oviedo, Holderman, Marcano, De Los Santos, Castro, Moreta, Suwinski, Smith-Njigba, Contreras, and Cruz. Everyone above that group on the list (save Ramirez) should surpass because they are unlikely to be optioned, while everyone below (except maybe Bae and Hernandez) likely won’t see enough active days on the roster, leaving them with less than a full year of service going into 2024.

One non-roster player of note before I go. There was some confusion with Miguel Andújar’s service when he was claimed at the end of last season. I was counting him as ending under four years of service, while different publications were putting him just over. According to the team’s media guide, it turns out he actually finished 2022 with just under four years (3.171) and not over. After being outrighted in the offseason, the outcome was likely to be the same—he wasn’t going to finish with more than four years of service—however, I just wanted to point out that it is impossible for him at this point to surpass five years of service, which wouldn’t have been clear before.

Any other questions on players listed here, or maybe some that aren’t? Let me know down in the comments and I’ll cover them there.