Pirates Designate Colin Moran For Assignment

It’s been a chaotic day for the Pirates to say the least. Not only does the club have a deal to trade Jacob Stallings to the Marlins, but the signing of Jose Quintana also became official as Steven Brault was DFA’d to make room for him on the roster. The Bucs also avoided arbitration with outfielder Ben Gamel. Now, the Pirates announced the Yoshi Tsutsugo deal has been finalized and Colin Moran has been designated for assignment.

Similarly to Brault, Moran was in jeopardy of being non-tendered on Tuesday by the Pirates. Instead, the Pirates DFA him now in order to make the Tsutsugo signing official.

Moran was acquired by the Pirates in the trade the sent Gerrit Cole to the Houston Astros prior to the 2018 season. In four years for the Pirates, Colin Moran hit .269 with a .750 OPS (101 OPS+) in 444 games. Moran posted double-digit home runs in each of his four years in Pittsburgh and tallied a career-high 80 RBIs in 2019. Defensively, Moran began his Pirates’ tenure at third base before making his way across the diamond as the team’s starting first baseman in 2021.

A series of injuries limited Moran to just 99 games this past season. Moran suffered a groin in May that sidelined him for nearly a month. He then suffered a pisiform bone fracture in his left wrist that kept him out of action for another month.

The move paves the way for Tsutsugo to spend the bulk of his time at first base as alluded to in some comments earlier this month. The 2022 Pittsburgh Pirates are going to look very different come Opening Day.

Moran was projected for a $4M salary in his second year of arbitration.