The Pittsburgh Pirates released two players on Wednesday afternoon, while also making a few other rosters moves throughout the minors.
Pitcher Blake Cederlind and outfielder Angel Basabe have both been released.
Cederlind made it up to the Pirates briefly during the 2020 season, but due to Tommy John surgery and a setback during his rehab, he did not pitch again until earlier this month.
The 27-year-old Cederlind was a fifth round pick in 2016, who relied heavily on a mid-90s fastball when he first signed. He developed his secondary pitches a bit, but his career took off as a reliever who was touching triple digits in 2019.
He still had some polishing to do going into 2021 after a brief big league stint, but missing two full seasons, plus a late start this year led to plenty of rust. He allowed nine runs over six innings in Low-A ball, giving up six hits, six walks and two hit batters.
Basabe was a bigger international signing during the Pirates 2017-18 signing class. He never showed any real signs of future success, though he debuted well for the 2018 Dominican Summer League Pirates, posting a .755 OPS over 50 games in the pitcher-friendly league.
He has played just 114 games since then, mostly due to poor results and a crowded outfield situation at the lower levels. Basabe was a reserve this year, seeing limited action. He hit .226/.310/.345 over 164 games during his five seasons, mostly spent in short-season ball.
Travis Swaggerty has returned to Indianapolis from his rehab assignment in Bradenton, after missing five full weeks of action due to illness.
Swaggerty went 1-for-9 in his four games with Bradenton, though he drew five walks during that brief time. He last played for Indianapolis back on April 18th. He was hitting .231/.310/.442 at the time of his trip to the Injured List.
Domingo Leyba has returned from the Injured List for Altoona. He was hitting .329/.404/.456 through 22 games, before heading to the IL on May 9th.
Drew Maggi has to serve a three-game suspension from the league, which he will start tonight. His temporary departure opened a spot for Leyba.
+ postsJohn 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.
Harrington to GBO, Oliver Mateo released.
Cruz update: https://www.si.com/fannation/mlb/fastball/injuries/pittsburgh-pirates-oneil-cruz-making-progress-in-injury-recovery
Why give up on Cederlind now? What are they saving? He was injured and is trying to make a comeback, so why not give him time?
They have to make some roster moves very soon to get people on the 180-man roster from the DSL. You can only have 180 players from the FCL through Triple-A, which includes people on the Injured List who aren’t done for the season. That season starts Monday.
Currently, there are only 23 players on the FCL roster, including just one catcher and nobody from last year’s DSL teams. There’ll obviously be a lot of changes by Monday so they’re going to have to clear space, which also included Oliver Mateo today.
Swags has just had the worst luck in the world. Last year issues with his wife and kid, then he got an illness that kept him out a month+ and now his wife got bit by a rabid raccoon and now has a blood issue. If all this doesn’t break him he’s going to come out stronger than anything
What was the month long illness? How do you get that jacked up for a month? And his wife got bit by a rabid raccoon? And last year there were more issues with his wife and kid? What else happened?
This sounds like a reality show and im chomping at the bit to know what happens next.
The Pirates said he was out with an illness, but nothing more respecting his privacy. Swags himself posted on Twitter about the raccoon and resulting blood issues just recently.
Sounds like it was his wife’s illness and not his. Sounds like they gave him time off to deal with his wife’s illness.
Which began last year but they were just at Mayo Clinic so hopefully they were given a pretty quick resolution and his mind is more at ease. I can’t imagine trying to play baseball knowing my wife was very ill and trying to care for your young child.
A desk job is hard enough let alone trying to hit a small ball that is coming at you 90-100 mph. An infant/toddler in the mix would really turn up the stress levels.
I may have been very naive because I was hoping Cederlind would return to the majors this year. 🙁
But good to see Swaggerty back in AAA. Maybe we’ll see him in the majors soon unlike Cederlind..
By the way, I’ve been travelling lately so was unable to watch the Pirates but I’m pleasantly surprised they’re somehow still floating above .500 ball. 😂
I’m wondering g the same thing about Maggi?
Was it a team suspension or a league suspension?
Bummer for Cederlind, Glad Swaggs is back in Indy. Hope all goes well for his wife.
What the heck did Maggi do to get suspended???