40-man roster set

The Pirates set their 40-man roster by waiving RHP Jeff Karstens, LHP Justin Thomas, and C/IF Robinzon Diaz.

The Bucs also added Jose Ascanio and Evan Meek from the 60-day DL and placed minor leaguers Bryan Morris, Ramon Aguero, Brad Lincoln, and Gorkys Hernandez on the 40-man roster. All four of those prospects were eligible to be taken for the Rule V Draft if they were not added to the roster. The Pirates also claimed RHP Chris Jakubauskas off waivers from Seattle. Think of him as a cheaper Jeff Karstens, and not much more.

The most notable players who remain Rule V Draft eligible who were not added were IF prospects Shelby Ford and Jim Negrych.

The most surprising move here was the waiving of Diaz. He is out of options so he would have had to broken camp with the Bucs, but I did not think that would have been much of a problem. This means that Jeff Clement will most likely be the #3 catcher this season, and we all know that he will probably be needed considering the injury history of our starting catcher, Ryan Doumit. If Clement's knee can't hold up however, the Bucs will have to go with someone like Erik Kratz.

The Pirates' 40-man roster is full, which means that they will not be able to add any more players through free agency or the Rule V Draft unless they drop someone.