The Pirates have announced that they've designated Ike Davis and Ramon Cabrera for assignment, outrighted Brent Morel to Indianapolis and added Jameson Taillon, Nick Kingham, Elias Diaz and Willy Garcia.
The Davis move is a surprise. I expected the team to hang onto him in hopes of making a deal. I suspect, though, that it became clear there was no interest. It's also a little surprising that they did this with Gaby Sanchez still on the roster, but that's probably because Davis clearly is making way for Pedro Alvarez, whose move to first seems assured. Sanchez hopefully will only be around for as long as it takes them to come up with a right-handed hitting corner player.
Cabrera was behind too many catchers to stay on the roster, so that's no surprise. Radhames Liz hasn't officially signed. Once he does, another roster move will have to be made. Left unprotected, among others, are Mel Rojas, Stetson Allie and Gift Ngoepe.