To make room on the 40 man roster for Bryan Bullington, Matt Capps and Tom Gorzelanny, the Pirates have released LHP Cory Stewart, DFAed outfielder Ray Sadler and moved Chris Duffy to the 60-day disabled list. Stewart, acquired two years ago in the Brian Giles trade, was thoroughly unimpressive all year at Indianapolis. He was very good in the Padres' system in 2003 but stopped striking out batters after that. Sadler played in Altoona, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh this year but didn't make a dent; he failed to develop after a mildly promising year in 2003 for the Cubs' Class AA affiliate in West Tennessee. He was acquired for Randall Simon.
For those of you keeping score at home, that's:
CUBS GET: Aramis Ramirez, Kenny Lofton, Randall Simon, Matt Lawton
| PIRATES GET | COMMENT |
| Bobby Hill | Very useful at AAA right now |
| Jose Hernandez | Pittsburgh last pitiful stop in worst year of his life |
| Matt Bruback | Wow, thanks for the memories |
| Ray Sadler | It's almost like there's no market these days for outfielders who can't get on base or play center |
| Jody Gerut | Of questionable value even when healthy, which - forget about it |