{"id":90294,"date":"2024-11-22T22:15:05","date_gmt":"2024-11-23T03:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=90294"},"modified":"2024-11-22T22:15:05","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T03:15:05","slug":"pirates-non-tender-outfielders-pitcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/22\/pirates-non-tender-outfielders-pitcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Non-Tender Two Outfielders and Surprisingly, a Rookie Pitcher"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates will non-tender contracts to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/joeco01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Connor Joe<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/delacbr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bryan De La Cruz<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/strathu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hunter Stratton<\/a>. Pirates beat reporter Alex Stumpf was the first with the news on Joe and De La Cruz.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Source: The Pirates are expected to non-tender Connor Joe and Bryan De La Cruz.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alex Stumpf (@AlexJStumpf) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexJStumpf\/status\/1860111805395402790?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 23, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It was <em>Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/em> reporter Noah Hiles who broke the news about Stratton.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Source: The Pirates are non-tendering RHP Hunter Stratton.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Noah Hiles (@_NoahHiles) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_NoahHiles\/status\/1860112395647221988?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 23, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The deadline for major league teams to tender contracts was 8:00 PM Eastern on Friday. Joe, De La Cruz, and Stratton now become free agents.<\/p>\n<h3>Pirates Non-Tender Connor Joe<\/h3>\n<p>That the Pirates didn\u2019t tender a contract to Joe comes as a surprise to nobody. He was originally drafted by the Pirates in 2014. He bounced around several organizations before the Pirates reacquired him from the Colorado Rockies in December 2022. In two years with the Rockies, Joe had an OBP of .351. The Pirates liked his on-base skills and gave him significant playing time in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, after April 2024, those on-base skills \u2013 and most other offensive skills \u2013 weren\u2019t in evidence. At the end of April, Joe was hitting .292\/.370\/.403, seeing time as the right-handed half of a first base platoon as well as time in the outfield. However, he was virtually invisible for the remainder of 2024, during which he hit .207\/.304\/.331. He finished the year hitting .228\/.320\/.368, 9 HR, 36 RBI, and 92 OPS+. At age 32 and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/09\/19\/pirates-outfielders-arbitration-eligible\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">arbitration-eligible<\/a> after earning $2.125 million, he was a clear non-tender candidate.<\/p>\n<h3>Pirates Non-Tender Bryan De La Cruz<\/h3>\n<p>The Pirates moving on from the right-handed-hitting De La Cruz comes as a mild surprise. On one hand, he <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/08\/29\/trade-deadline-under-performers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">disappointed<\/a> in the black and gold uniform for the two months after he was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/30\/pirates-trade-de-la-cruz\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">acquired<\/a> from the Miami Marlins at the trade deadline. He hit just .200\/.220\/.294, 3 HR, and 17 RBI as a Pirate. However, between the two teams, he hit 21 home runs in 2024, a plateau reached by only two other Pirates.<\/p>\n<p>De La Cruz, too, was arbitration-eligible for the first time. But he\u2019s only 27 years old and made just $768,000 in 2024. General manager Ben Cherington has his critics \u2013 yours truly among them \u2013 but give him credit for not being one to save face. He\u2019ll move on from a bad trade rather than compound a mistake.<\/p>\n<h3>Pirates Non-Tender Hunter Stratton<\/h3>\n<p>Why Cherington moved on from Stratton is a mystery. The right-handed pitcher was a rookie in 2024, making only $800,000. He just turned 28. He was somebody manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/sheltde99.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derek Shelton<\/a> trusted in many high-leverage situations. In 36 games, all in relief, he was 2-1 with one save, five holds, and a 3.58 ERA. What stood out among his numbers were his 1.168 WHP and 4.71 strikeout-to-walk ratio.<\/p>\n<p>However, due to a knee injury, Stratton didn\u2019t pitch after August 22. He underwent surgery in the offseason and will need to prove to his next employer that he\u2019s healthy.<\/p>\n<h3>Survivor<\/h3>\n<p>Apparently surviving the deadline is shortstop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/willial04.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alika Williams<\/a>. After hitting just .207\/.242\/.299 last season, he was rumored to be a non-tender candidate. He may have been saved by the Pirates\u2019 decision to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/08\/26\/pirates-oneil-cruz-center-field\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">move<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cruzon01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oneil Cruz<\/a> to center field. As things stand now, he\u2019ll be part of the shortstop competition in the spring.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates will non-tender contracts to Connor Joe, Bryan De La Cruz, and Hunter Stratton. Pirates beat reporter Alex Stumpf was the first with the news on Joe and De La Cruz. Source: The Pirates are expected to non-tender Connor Joe and Bryan De La Cruz. \u2014 Alex Stumpf (@AlexJStumpf) November 23, 2024 It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":90311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1071,35],"tags":[3617,3215,5150,4535,3160,3434,49],"class_list":["post-90294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","category-news","tag-alika-williams","tag-ben-cherington","tag-bryan-de-la-cruz","tag-connor-joe","tag-derek-shelton","tag-oneil-cruz","tag-trade-deadline"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}