Yoslan Herrera and Marino Salas have been removed from the 40-man roster and sent to Class AAA. Since Dejan Kovacevic is on vacation, there's no way to tell exactly what happened here, but Herrera and Salas must have gotten through waivers (right?). Anyway, it's not that losing either of them would have been a huge deal, but it's nice to have them both in the organization while not having them take roster spots. Both are in their peak years, and Herrera has done nothing in the minors or majors that suggests he's worth keeping on the roster except show he can pitch five or six innings if he doesn't get pelted first. Salas has been decent, but not great, in the minors the past two years.

These moves free up space for Tom Gorzelanny and Phil Dumatrait to be moved from the 60-day DL, where players do not count against the 40-man total, back to the regular roster, where they do.

In other roster news, Eric Krebs, a Lynchburg reliever who the Pirates would have to protect on the roster to avoid his being eligible for the Rule 5 draft, has been shut down in Hawaii winter ball with elbow trouble. Pirates farm director Kyle Stark is quoted in the article as saying he doesn't think the elbow will be an issue long term, but any Pirates fan used to hearing the organization say stuff like that about a pitcher only to hear two months later that the pitcher needs six arm surgeries will be skeptical. Unlike the old management team, the new one has no record of lying about these things, and I have no reason to think they're doing so here, but any elbow problem can be worrisome.

In any case, Krebs' injury probably means he doesn't need to be added to the roster. Because of the Krebs injury and the removal of Herrera and Salas, the Pirates' decisions about who to add to the roster will be easier than they would've been.