The Pirates announced Thursday that they’ve placed right-hander Colin Holderman on the 15-day IL with a right wrist sprain, selected the contract of righty Ben Heller from Triple-A Indianapolis and opened a spot on the 40-man roster by designating outfielder Edward Olivares for assignment.
Olivares, 28, was acquired from the Royals in the offseason when Kansas City needed to open a roster spot after signing right-hander Chris Stratton. Olivares had qualified for arbitration for the first time and he agreed avoid arbitration by accepting a $1.35MM salary from the Pirates.
Unfortunately, his tenure in Pittsburgh was a bit less than what the club was expecting. He had slashed .270/.322/.439 with the Royals over 2022 and 2023 for a combined wRC+ of 106 in that time but he hit .224/.291/.333 with the Pirates this year, with that production leading to a wRC+ of 75. He was optioned to Triple-A about a month ago and is hitting .245/.305/.321 at that level for a wRC+ of just 64.
He is in his final option season and will be out of options next year. Between that and his performance, it seems he was getting pushed out of the club’s plans. They fortified their outfield mix by acquiring Bryan De La Cruz and utility player Isiah Kiner-Falefa prior to the deadline.
With the trade deadline now in the past, the Pirates will have to put Olivares on waivers in the coming days. It’s possible that a club could view this year’s downturn as simply bad luck, as his batting average on balls in play is just .250 this year. That’s a drop from the .306 BABIP he had over the two prior seasons and this year’s .290 league average. His 8.2% walk rate this year was actually a noticeable increase from the 5.7% rate he had in the two preceding campaigns. His exit velocity and hard hit rate are down a bit but not drastically so. His speed and arm strength are above average but he’s received poor defensive grades overall.
If some team does put in a claim, Olivares can be optioned for the rest of this year and then retained beyond this season via arbitration. But as mentioned, he will be out of options by next year. If he clears waivers in the coming days, he will have the right to elect free agency as a player with more than three years of service time. But since he is below the five-year mark, heading to the open market would mean forfeiting what’s left of this year’s salary. With roughly $375K still to be paid out, he would likely accept an outright assignment and stick with the Bucs in a non-roster capacity.
As for Heller, this is the second time this year the Pirates have selected him to the roster. The last time resulted in him being designated for assignment and outrighted after allowing 11 earned runs in two innings. His time in the minors has gone far better as he has a 3.55 earned run average in 33 Triple-A innings pitched this year while striking out 40.7% of batters faced. He’s out of options but can be retained via arbitration beyond this season if he manages to hold onto his roster spot.