Royals claim Jayson Nix

The Royals have claimed Jayson Nix, Andy McCullough tweets. Nix's Pirates career thus ends -- for now! -- with 39 plate appearances, four singles and one walk. The Bucs designated him for assignment earlier this week to clear 40-man space for Jose Tabata and 25-man space for Clint Barmes.

It appears, then, that the Pirates are down to only Michael Martinez and Brent Morel among potential absolutely-no-offense September infield callups. Truthfully, Nix might actually have a bit of use as a reasonably good defensive infielder, but it's not as if the Bucs are missing out on anything here -- Barmes and Morel should have the Pirates well covered in that area. A few years from now, the names Nix, Martinez and Morel will be the answers to a good trivia question, the way Toregas, Brown, Fryer and Pagnozzi are now. (If you don't know what I'm talking about and feel tempted to look that up, there's no need.)