Pirates decline mysterious option on Radhames Liz; Casey Sadler has Tommy John surgery

The Pirates have declined their 2016 option on Radhames Liz, who is now a free agent.

It's no surprise that the Bucs have taken steps to part ways with Liz; they designated him for assignment twice last season, so it isn't as if he was a high priority. What does surprise me about today's news is that Liz had an option. Maybe I'm going crazy, but I don't recall ever hearing about it. We never mentioned it when Liz's signing was announced, and neither did MLB.com or MLBTR or the Trib. In any case, it doesn't matter; Liz wasn't nearly as bad as a lot of fans seemed to think he was, and he was downright good with Indianapolis, but he didn't figure to be back either way. (Trivia question: Who did the Pirates designate for assignment when they made Liz's signing official? If you can correctly answer that question without clicking any of those links, you need help.)

In other pitching news, Casey Sadler had Tommy John surgery recently, Neal Huntington tells Bill Brink. Sadler is just about the only Pirates depth option who hasn't had Tommy John surgery recently, so he was due. He hit the DL in late June due to forearm trouble and didn't pitch after that. It sounds like you can count him out as a member of Indianapolis' rotation next season.