We expected some roster shuffling with Jeff Karstens and Chris Leroux finishing their rehab assignments in the near future. It starts today with the announcement that the Pirates have claimed infielder Drew Sutton off waivers. Sutton was acquired from the Atlanta Braves on May 20 and then traded to Tampa for a player to be named later on May 21. In 18 games with Tampa at first, second and third, Sutton posted a line of .271/.314/.354. In order to make room on the 40-man roster, the Pirates moved Charlie Morton, who recently underwent Tommy John surgery, from the 15-day DL to the 60-day DL.
Sutton will not arrive in time for today's game, so he hasn't been added to the 25-man roster. The Pirates did, however, make another move, recalling Bryan Morris and optioning Jordy Mercer back to Indianapolis. Morris will be the fourth Pirate to make his major league debut, if and when it happens, joining Matt Hague, Gorkys Hernandez and Jordy Mercer. Sutton is expected to be added to the 25-man tomorrow and I expect Jared Hughes or Morris to be optioned back to Indy. Even though Hughes hasn't pitched much recently, Clint Hurdle mentioned that he was looking to rest him.
Karstens will be added to the 25-man the day of his start. The Pirates have said they will make an announcement about the rotation after today's game, so we should have an update shortly.
From Charlie:
Morris is apparently available today, since the Pirates are operating on a short 'pen. He had pitched well for Indianapolis, striking out 44 batters in 43.1 innings.
I'm pretty sure Neal Huntington is just doing some sort of super-jedi trolling with Sutton at this point. When the Pirates acquired him a month ago, they apparently didn't think he was worthy of a roster spot, which is why they immediately traded him to the Rays, who had a big-league opening for him, essentially for nothing. Now he's taking the Jordy Mercer / Yamaico Navarro / Chase D'Arnaud "We couldn't care less about any of these guys" spot on the roster. In any case, Sutton will probably be only marginally more relevant than Mercer was.