The Pittsburgh Pirates announced that catcher Austin Hedges has been placed on the 7-day concussion Injured List. The Pirates selected the contract of catcher Tyler Heineman to take the place of Hedges. To make room on the 40-man roster, pitcher Edwin Uceta has been designated for assignment.
The Pirates will be back to the Tyler Heineman/Jason Delay combo that they had for most of last year behind the plate. They started 93 games combined last year for the Pirates. This could just be a short-term replacement if Hedges misses the minimum time.
Uceta was just claimed off of waivers by the Pirates two days ago, so he hasn’t even made an appearance with Indianapolis yet. JT Brubaker went on the 60-day IL to make room for Uceta, who has a 6.27 ERA, a 4.46 FIP, a 1.39 WHIP and a 19:38 BB/SO ratio over 37.1 big league innings during the 2021-22 seasons.
The Pirates also announced that outfielder Ryan Vilade has cleared waivers, and he has been sent outright to Indianapolis, which is where he was scheduled to open up the season. He was designated for assignment last week when the Pirates set their Opening Day roster.
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.
Even Roberto Perez was healthy longer.
Hopefully Hedges will be a short time away. Poor Roberto lost a wheel and took a year for repairs……
#friENDY
Our offense just took a step forward. Btw, I haven’t been impressed with Hedges pitch calling, wouldn’t surprise me to see a better performance from our starters this week, then again.
Delay got Oviedo straightened out. IMO, the anticipated benefits from Hedges’ veteranosity were wildly exaggerated.
Nobody claimed Vilade?! How can this be??!!
There must be teams that need a mediocre corner outfielder with modest power. If so, I will come out of retirement.
You missed your chance with the Pirates the last three years.
So long, Edwin, we hardly knew ya!
give it a week could be in Indy’s pen anyway…..
Not expecting a long line to claim a P who couldn’t stick with Det.
Pirates front office motto hanging over the big decision door,
“If you can drive it in we can fix it”