Weekly Notes: Final Road Trip A Winner; Still Movin' Folk; Griffin BA Minor League POTY; Horwitz the Hammer; ABS On The Way; Cobra, Ground Chuck Days

Bucs close it out…

Pirates Stuff:

• With Indy’s season done, the Bucs called up 24-year-old LHP Hunter Barco, a second round pick in ’22. Hunter was lights out in Altoona and promoted to the Indians in May, where he went 3-1/3.79 with 10 K per nine IP. He’s a Top-5 Pirates Prospect and Rule-5 eligible, so he was joining the 40-man roster at some point soon and this provides an opp for a quick look-see through MLB eyes. To clear roster room, LHP Evan Sisk was optioned to Indy and OF Ronny Simon was transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day IL.
• The Bucs recalled RHP Chase Shugart from the farm and RHP Dauri Moreta was optioned to the minors on Thursday.
• Paul Skenes had a 1.97 ERA to end his year, but only 10 wins in 32 starts.
• Oneil Cruz joined Starling Marte, Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke as the only Pirates to hit 20+ HR and steal 30+ bases in a season on Tuesday v Cincy.

Rafael Flores – first MLB hit image/SportsNet Pgh.

• Rafael Flores made his first MLB start at C Tuesday night.
• The Bucs have been experimenting some – 1B Spencer Horwitz was at second on Saturday night (He played 24 games there for KC in ’24, but his six innings v the Reds didn’t involve him in the field) and 2B Nick Gonzales has seen some time at shortstop, where he played eight times for Pgh. last year.
• After being named the High School Player Of The Year in 2024, SS Konnor Griffin was named Baseball America’s Minor League POTW. He hit .333 w/26 HR, 94 RBI, 117 Runs Scored and 65 Stolen Bases across three levels.  Oh, and he also was the cover boy for BA’s 2026 Prospect Handbook.
• Indy OF/DH Nelson Velázquez hit .346 (9-for-26) with three home runs and a league-leading 11 RBI last week to be named the International League POTW.

Game Stuff: 

• The Bucs got to join in honoring a shared star of the game; the Reds celebrated Dave Parker, a native of Cincy, before the game. The Bucs jumped at quick, up 4-0 with an Oneil Cruz homer. Then in the fifth, with two outs and a runner on first, Don Kelly pulled Johan Oviedo, disqualifying him for the win. The pitch-count was high at 82, but… At any rate, the result bore him out; the pen put up zeroes and 4-2 was the final. Hunter Barco made his first MLB outing, ducking some raindrops in a scoreless frame, and got the W.
• Wednesday was Paul Skenes v Hunter Greene in a marquee matchup. Skenes went six shutout frames, leaving with a 2-0 lead. He gave up four hits and struck out seven to set the Bucs record for K’s by a righty with 216. As usual, the attack fizzled and the pen let Cincy tie it up, so Skenes got yet another no-decision. The clubs traded runs in the 10th before Pittsburgh pulled it out, 4-3. Spencer Horwitz had three RBI, including the game winner.

Spencer Horwitz – 2025 image/Pirates

• Three hits sprinkled among 14 K’s won’t win you many games as the Pirates found out in the Cincy finale, falling to the Redlegs, 2-1. Braxton Ashcraft had a bumpy 4-1/3 IP, giving up eight hits and a walk, but danced through most of the raindrops, only allowing two runs to score while fanning five. The Bucs did rally, scoring a run in the eighth but falling short after RF Noelvi Marte robbed Bryan Reynolds of a game-tying homer, pulling it back from over the fence in the ninth to keep the Reds alive in the NL Wild Card mix.
• The Pirates gave Mitch Keller an early 4-1 lead built around Tommy Pham’s two-run bomb at Atlanta’s Truist Park, but five walks got Kells yanked before he finished four frames. The pen was solid behind him and a Horwitz homer made it 5-2 in the seventh…and then a rain delay. When it started back up, Spencer made sure there would be no late inning Bravo shenanigans and bopped a three-run, ninth-inning blast to make the final tally 9-3. The second of six Pirates pitchers, Yohan Ramirez, tossed five pitches in the fourth inning and got the win.
• Bubba Chandler went 5-2/3 IP, giving up a run on four hits while K’ing six with the Bucs up, 3-1; Henry Davis had a solo shot in support. It held up; the pen tossed shutout ball and fanned 10 more Braves with Dennis Santana notching the save.
• And to close out the year, who more fitting to start than Charlie Morton, whose history spanned both clubs? Just as fitting was the 4-1 loss; the Bucs were held to six hits by the Bravo staff, finishing the year 71-91 and last in the Central.

MLB Stuff:

• The NL Playoff teams: Division winners Philly (East) & Milwaukee (Central) have first round byes. The Dodgers won the West for the third seed and will meet the Reds while the Cubs and Padres battle in the other wild card. The AL playoffs: Seattle and Toronto won byes while Cleveland v Detroit and Boston v New York meet in the first round.
• The ABS (Automated Balls/Strikes – the “Robo-ump”) challenge system was approved for the 2026 season. It’ll be a compromise between full ABS and human umpires. The umps will still call every pitch, but each team can appeal two calls per game to ABS. Teams keep the challenge if the appeal is successful and lose it if overruled. There were some limitations put on timing and who can initiate a challenge (batter, pitcher, catcher, but not the manager). Teams will get one challenge per extra inning.

Michael A Taylor – 2024 Topps

• Michael A Taylor, who started about half the games in CF for the Bucs last year while hitting .193, retired. The 12-year vet played for the White Sox and closed his career in Washington, the team he spent most of his career with.
• The Braves signed Charlie Morton, 41, who was DFA’ed by the Tigers. He hasn’t announced if this season will be his last, but if it is, he’s set up to take his final bow with the team that drafted him and that he spent five years pitching for. And he faced the team he spent the most years with as he got the Sunday start against the Bucs.
• The Dodgers called up LHP Andrew Heaney, who the Pirates released. He signed with LA, was  stashed in AAA and came up on Saturday.