{"id":98869,"date":"2025-04-07T16:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T20:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=98869"},"modified":"2025-04-07T16:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T20:25:09","slug":"pirates-triolo-injured-list-cheng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/07\/pirates-triolo-injured-list-cheng\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Place Gold Glove Infielder on IL, Recall No. 17 Prospect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pirates are placing infielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/triolja01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-07_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jared Triolo<\/a> on the injured list and recalling shortstop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=cheng-000tsu&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-07_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tsung-Che Cheng<\/a> from Triple-A Indianapolis. Alex Stumpf was the first to break the news on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Pirates?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Pirates<\/a> are calling up their No. 17 prospect, Tsung-Che Cheng, for his MLB debut, per <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexJStumpf?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@AlexJStumpf<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>More on the 23-year-old shortstop: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Izr1WHMZGN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/Izr1WHMZGN<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/whZaZzAO1z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/whZaZzAO1z<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLBPipeline\/status\/1909309521161318451?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bluesky-embed\" data-bluesky-uri=\"at:\/\/did:plc:bpai4dydyx5gf367qcircrq5\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lmakfykrzc2d\" data-bluesky-cid=\"bafyreif7xpm2pijtdqzr26uf4ebsjlmdgmdgm7fwhxtk7mpygpbbpbwsrm\" data-bluesky-embed-color-mode=\"system\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Triolo to IL as Pirates Recall Cheng<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s a lower back injury that\u2019s sidelined Triolo, who <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/03\/pirates-jared-triolo-gold-glove\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">won a Gold Glove Award<\/a> in the utility category last year. Triolo was penciled into, and then scratched from, the starting lineup for Sunday\u2019s home game against the New York Yankees. As the Pirates haven\u2019t officially announced the move, the severity of the injury and how long Triolo is expected to be out are unknown.<\/p>\n<p>So far this season, like many of his teammates, Triolo is off to a slow start. He\u2019s just 1-for-17 in six games while filling in at every infield position except shortstop, where he was scheduled to start on Sunday. He\u2019s a career .236\/.319\/.333 hitter with 12 home runs and 67 RBI in 185 major league games from 2023 to now.<\/p>\n<h3>Who is Cheng?<\/h3>\n<p>Cheng is a 23-year-old left-handed-hitting shortstop who\u2019s ranked as the Pirates No. 17 prospect. Coincidentally, at Indianapolis, he, too, is off to a 1-for-17 start. He made better use of his 17 at-bats in the spring training games, tallying six hits, including two doubles and a home run. Additionally, he was the starting shortstop and leadoff hitter for the Pirates prospects in this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/14\/pirates-spring-breakout-game-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Spring Breakout game<\/a>. In five seasons at all minor league levels, he\u2019s hit .260\/.359\/.411, 34 HR, and 194 RBI while swiping 92 bags. He was scheduled to arrive in Pittsburgh in 2025, although not this soon.<\/p>\n<p>His OBP suggests a table-setter; that\u2019s how he\u2019s described in MLB.com\u2019s scouting report. Cheng is a contact hitter who uses the whole field and, unlike his Pirates teammates, is said to have a good two-strike approach. Defensively, he\u2019s said to have good hands, range, and arm. He has never made more than 12 errors in a minor league season.<\/p>\n<h3>How Cheng Fits<\/h3>\n<p>How the Pirates plan to use Cheng is unknown. He\u2019s played other infield positions in the minors and is probably ticketed for a utility role. As the regular shortstop, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kineris01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-07_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isiah Kiner-Falefa<\/a> is one of the few bright spots on the Pirates in the early going, Cheng is unlikely to slide into that spot on a daily basis. Manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/sheltde99.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derek Shelton<\/a> never lets his reserve players rot on the bench for long without giving them a start. With three home games coming up against the St. Louis Cardinals and given the toxic atmosphere at PNC Park lately, the best option might be simply letting Cheng absorb the milieu for a day or two. It will be his major league debut whenever Cheng gets into a game.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, the Pirates bypassed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pegueli01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-07_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Liover Peguero<\/a>, who has major league experience and was once a highly regarded prospect. He\u2019s 4-for-20 in Indianapolis and didn\u2019t show much in the spring, going 2-for-15, albeit with a home run.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pirates are placing infielder Jared Triolo on the injured list and recalling shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng from Triple-A Indianapolis. Alex Stumpf was the first to break the news on Monday afternoon. &nbsp; The @Pirates are calling up their No. 17 prospect, Tsung-Che Cheng, for his MLB debut, per @AlexJStumpf. More on the 23-year-old shortstop: https:\/\/t.co\/Izr1WHMZGN [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":98894,"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],"tags":[3160,4809,6463,3329],"class_list":["post-98869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","tag-derek-shelton","tag-isiah-kiner-falefa","tag-jared-triolo","tag-liover-peguero"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98869","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=98869"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98896,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98869\/revisions\/98896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}