As Rob Biertempfel reported yesterday in the Tribune-Review, the Pirates have to make a decision with regard to Juan Cruz by tomorrow.

Because of his service time, Cruz is among 30-odd players who gained special status under the terms of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. If Cruz is not on the 25-man roster by Thursday, he must either be waived or given a $100,000 payment before being sent to the minors. Even if the team pays the cash, Cruz can still opt out of his contract and become a free agent if he's not in the majors by June 15.

Biertempfel goes on to quote GM Neal Huntington as saying that while some teams might think spending that amount of money to send a player to AAA might be a smart financial move, "I find it rare that we would be in that situation."

I think it is safe to assume Juan Cruz is going to be added to the 40-man roster in the next day or so. Obviously someone has to come off. Somebody could be moved to the DL, but otherwise Duke Welker is the obvious choice to me. Any other thoughts?