Weekly Report: Pirates Walk the Plank, Player Shuffle Continues, Cruz Hurt & More Endy Surgery, Minor & MLB News & Moves

On the road in the Division…

Pirates Stuff:

• Oneil Cruz banged his head when he and Jack Suwinski collided while trying to run down a ball. He was later taken out for a pinch hitter and evaluation. The Pirates announced on the following day (Wednesday) that Cruz was going on the seven-day concussion IL. As of Sunday, he was still in concussion protocol testing and hasn’t been OK’ed for baseball activities. The club recalled OF Ronny Simon. who was claimed from the Marlins in June.

Oneil Cruz – 2025 image/Sportsnet Pgh.

• On the same day, the Pirates announced that C/1B Endy Rodríguez underwent ulnar nerve transposition surgery. He’s expected to be ready for spring training. This is his second elbow surgery; Endy missed all of ’24 and played in just 18 games this season.
• Righty reliever swap: Chase Shugart (4-3/3.69, 32 outings) was activated off the IL and Dauri Moreta (1-0/3.86, five outings) was optioned to Indy.
• RHP Cam Sanders has been optioned back to Indy and LHP Evan Sisk replaced him on the Pirates  roster. Sisk, 28, was one of the players acquired from the Royals in the Bailey Falter deal. He’s made five MLB outings, all in April/May this year (five appearances, 1.69 ERA with 11 K & five walks in 5-1/3 IP) for KC.
• RHP Colin Holderman (0-1/9.00 in 14 games) was recalled from Indy and LHP Ryan Borucki (1-3/5.28 in 35 outings) was DFA’ed.
• The Brewers Sal Frelick homered in the first against Paul Skenes on Tuesday. It was the first opening-frame run Paul had given up this season, breaking his run of 24 scoreless consecutive first-innings in ’25.
• 2B Termarr Johnson got hit in the hand/wrist area while batting Friday night; he was removed in a good bit of pain and is being evaluated.

Konnor Griffin – 2025 image/Pirates

• MLB Pipeline’s Prospect Team of the Week included Hi-A Greensboro’s Konnor Griffin at SS. Griffin hit .357, w/three home runs, 11 RBIs, and four walks (.424 OB%) along with three stolen bases. Konnor was promoted to AA Altoona at the end of the week after a Hi-A posting of .323 w/33 swipes and seven homers.
• Greensboro 1B Callan Moss was named the Hi-A South Atlantic League Player of the Week after hitting .545 w/2 HR & 8 RBI. Moss was part of the return for Bailey Falter from KC at the deadline and has hit the road running. 

Game Stuff: 

• The Brew Crew was going for its 10th straight win and facing Andrew Heaney. Yah, it was ugly – Heaney lasted four frames and left down, 6-1, with the bullpen again picking up the bulk of the innings in a 7-1 loss at American Family Field.  And as a footnote, Heaney was sent to the bullpen for the rest of the year a few days later.
• Even Paul Skenes couldn’t hold back the tide; the Crew jumped him for a 4-0 lead after four and cruised through a Buc bullpen blowup (Jared Triolo had to pitch the final frame), to a 14-0, dub. Noticeable was the ball-strike calls; nobody does a better job of promoting ABS/robo umps than the human ones.
• The beat(down) continued as Milwaukee completed the sweep with a 12-5 win as Mitch Keller and a way over-extended bullpen were whacked. Bryan Reynolds did his best (he went 3-for-4 with two homers and five RBIs) and at one point cut the deficit to 6-5, but a one-man show wasn’t enough to stop the Brewers 12-game winning streak. 

Jack Suwinski – 2025 image/Pirates

• The Bucs had a day off to lick their wounds (ie, a five-game losing streak while giving up 47 runs in the past four games) before taking on the Cubs at Wrigley. The break gave them a reset; Andrew McCutchen and Isiah Kiner-Falefa supported Braxton Ashcraft with RBI doubles and Jack Suwinski went long in the ninth to give the Pirates a 3-2 win.
• No sticks, no dubs; the Bucs fell, 3-1, in the Saturday contest,
• Carmen Mlodzinski started the finale, a bullpen game now that Heandog is in the pen. He did OK (4 innings; one unearned run) but it wasn’t enough to prevent a 4-3 loss; the Bucs stranded 10 and were 3-for-13 w/RISP. The Pirates returned home to PNC for a three-gamer with Toronto starting Monday and a three-day weekend stand against the Rockies.

MLB Stuff: 

• The Arizona Fall League will begin on October 6. This year’s Pirates AFL club is the Salt River Rafters, with the Angels, D-Backs, Red Sox & Rockies. 
• The Reds ended the Brewers 14-game winning streak by handing them a 3-2 walkoff defeat, Milwaukee’s first loss this month.
• The Twins signed lefty reliever Génesis Cabrera to a minor league deal. He had been DFA’ed by the Bucs earlier in the month after nine outings & a 4.91 ERA.
• The Giants claimed ex-Bucco RHP JT Brubaker from the NY Yankees and sent him to AAA. His ERA was fine (3.38 in 16 IP), but peripheral issues with a low K rate and high walk number (six K/five BB per nine IP) made him a bubble guy.
• LHP Bailey Falter has been sent to the pen by KC after giving up nine runs in eight innings during his two starts for the Royals since being traded.