Pirates Place Ji Hwan Bae, Liover Peguero on Waivers
The Pittsburgh Pirates have placed infielder/outfielder Ji Hwan Bae, infielder Liover Peguero and right-handed pitcher Jack Little on waivers, a source told Pittsburgh Baseball Now.
Bae appeared in 13 games for the Pirates in 2025 and collected one hit across 20 at-bats, stole four bases and scored four runs. The 26-year-old spent most of the season with Triple-A Indianapolis, where he slashed .292/.380/.424 with 18 doubles, seven triples, one home run, 21 RBI and 23 stolen bases in 67 games,
Once considered one of the more promising prospects in the system, Bae’s success in his minor-league career hasn’t translated to the big leagues.
Bae totaled 163 games (111 of which came in 2023) across parts of four seasons with the Pirates and hit a lowly .223 with a .586 OPS, 22 doubles, two triples, two home runs, 44 RBI and 37 stolen bases.
Like Bae, Peguero was viewed as a big piece of the Pirates’ future when he was acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks in a trade for Starling Marte.
Peguero played in 96 games with the Pirates across the last four seasons and hit .227 with a .646 OPS, six doubles, one triple, 11 home runs, 36 RBI and 10 steals. In 33 games this past season, the 24-year-old hit .200 with a .635 OPS, four home runs and 11 RBI.
Little did not appear in a game with the Pirates after he was claimed off waivers from the Dodgers on Aug. 6. In 14 appearances with Indianapolis, the 27-year-old went 2-1 with a 2.79 ERA.
With the trio of players being placed on waivers and five others getting reinstated off the 60-day injured list (RHP Dugan Darnell, RHP Jared Jones, C/1B Endy RodrÃguez, OF Ronny Simon and INF Enmanuel Valdez) the Pirates’ 40-man roster is at capacity.
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hopefully Dugan Darell, Ronny Simon& Emmanuel Valdez are next on the waiver wire to go – – Make room for the youngsters PLZ!!!!! Jack has to go as well
Check my numbers, Danny, but I think when everyone gets reinstated from the 60 day IL, the roster would have been at 43 before this action. This action brings it to 40.
In the next couple weeks, I hope to see the following players released:
Darrell-Hicks
Holderman
Y. Ramirez
Simon
Suwinski
Cheng
Enmanuel Valdez.
That will bring it to 33, and should give them plenty of room to protect people like Bidois and Esmerlyn Valdez and others.
Cook, Canario, and Robertson survive the purge for now.
You are correct, the 40-man roster will be full once the moves are officially announced. And I think we’ll see a handful of those players you mentioned get removed from the roster one way or another. Plenty of dead weight for a lack of better term.
I think Peggy still has a future in MLB, not so much for Bae. Fans are critical of the way Cruz plays the game but Cruz shows more baseball ability than Bae ever did.
Ideally, you would like to see them enter the Winter Meetings with a roster of about 37 or 38. That would allow for the signing of a FA or if we got two for 1 on a trade.
I would like to see Esmerlyn Valdez, Brendan Bidois, Wilber Dotel, and Antwoine Kelly protected, but I would risk everybody else, I think.