Ankle injury. This clears a roster spot for A.J. Burnett.
UPDATE by Charlie: This means it's likely that either Yamaico Navarro or Anderson Hernandez will win the utility infielder job out of camp. I'm hoping for Navarro, who has some offensive upside -- not that it's a huge deal either way. Vlad points out that Chase D'Arnaud or Jordy Mercer might also be possible, since those guys are already on the 40-man roster. If Nunez is out for a while, I'm sure they'd rather have D'Arnaud and Mercer playing more regularly at Class AAA, but if it's just going to be a month or so, that might be different.
Ray Searage talks to Pirates pitchers Sunday prior to the team's first workout of Spring Training. Via the Pirates' Twitter page.
Short of announcing he was going to sell the team or commit seppuku, there probably isn't an interview Bob Nutting could give that wouldn't infuriate a lot of Pirates fans. But for whatever it's worth, I think he comes off really well in this one, although some fans might think all the stuff about how much he hates losing pours it on a little thick. I liked Nutting's explanation of the difference between patience -- which Nutting claims not to have -- and "realistic expectation":
Patience is not a virtue in baseball. Realistic expectation is very different than patience ...
I'll use the Dominican academy as an example. Relentless approach is the only way that was going to work. I took several trips down (in 2007), and Frank and I agreed we needed to build the best academy, and we got that done very quickly. There was no patience. But in the real world we are dealing with 16-, 17-year-old players. Letting them develop, that takes patience. But were we getting the flow of talent into our system before the academy? No, so there was no patience in building the academy. That had to be built, built the right way, and that flow had to start happening right away.
This is a real and crucial distinction, particularly where the last few years have been concerned. I'm not sure if Nutting said something like this in 2008 or 2009, but I think I would have been pretty happy to hear him say something like that then.
Ultimately, though, we're approaching a point where the distinction between "patience" and "realistic expectation" matters less than it used to, because the Pirates' management team has now had four years to remake the organization. Four years isn't enough time to completely fix the situation Neal Huntington inherited, but we should be reaching a point where there's a bright light at the end of the tunnel. I'm not sure it's there yet, but I'll watch with interest to see how the 2012 season unfolds, especially at the minor-league level. If there isn't a lot of really exciting stuff happening there this year, any further time Huntington gets will cease to fall into the category of "reasonable expectation," and will instead become "patience."
#Yankees viewed [Diego] Moreno as 1 of #Pirates top-10 prospects, though knew Pit didn't. Know has "maturity" issues but like big arm (97mph) and wonder if he could be a big-arm, low-cost find like [Scott] Proctor, [Brian] Bruney, who both at least helped briefly. #Yankees think other AJ acq [Exicardo] Cayones can hit, but not for power. Unless develop power don't think can make it, not enough speed to stay in CF
I wrote a short feature on the Pirates' non-roster invitees for SB Nation Pittsburgh.
Another good article, this time from Marc Normandin at SB Nation.
Michael Sanserino reports that the A.J. Burnett deal is done, and is awaiting physicals and approval from the commissioner's office.
If this turns out to be a false start, it would yet another for what someone recently called The Most Over-Reported Trade Rumor Of All-Time. (I think that was David, but I'm not sure, and I'm paraphrasing.) Anyway, it looks like the Pirates will send Diego Moreno and another minor-leaguer, and will take on $13 million in salary.
I'm glad the Pirates are doing this -- this is the sort of we're-trying-to-take-ourselves-seriously move we need to see more of going forward. Burnett is hardly a lock for success in Pittsburgh, given his age, but he's a pretty good bet -- he's going to like pitching in PNC Park. He's also a clear upgrade on Kevin Correia, and he should also provide the Pirates with some stability, which they're going to need badly with Charlie Morton and Erik Bedard currently in the rotation. This trade means way fewer innings for Correia and also for whoever's behind Brad Lincoln, whether that's Jo-Jo Reyes or someone else. (I think Lincoln will end up getting his chances almost no matter what, as long as he shows he's worthy of them.) That's great news.
UDPATE: Burnett's ZiPS projection in Pittsburgh:
And yes, Burnett's projection improves to an ERA+ of 91 in Pittsburgh, 9-11, 4.22, 168.1 IP
UPDATE 2:39 PM: Jonathan Mayo reports that the other player in the deal is Exicardo Cayones, who once looked like one of the Pirates' more interesting young Latin players but couldn't hack it in State College in 2011. He's now 20. I think this is probably a spot where the Pirates are pretty sure he isn't going to amount to much. If they did, they probably would have sent him to West Virginia to start the season, or at least let him spend more time struggling at State College. As with Moreno, if they had liked him better, they would have been more aggressive with him. We'll see whether the Pirates turn out to be right about these players, but my guess is that they probably feel like these were pretty safe players to trade away.
