Pirates option Jameson Taillon, option or reassign 7 others

The Pirates optioned the following players:

Jameson Taillon - to Indianapolis
Casey Sadler - to Indianapolis
Alen Hanson - to Indianapolis
Willy Garcia - to Altoona

They've also reassigned the following players to minor-league camp:

Collin Balester
Jeremy Bleich
Gift Ngoepe
Mel Rojas

None of these players projected to make the team. The Pirates have 49 players left in camp.

Hanson went 4-for-10 this spring. Garcia batted .238/.273/.476 with a homer and two doubles. Ngoepe and Rojas didn't hit much. Taillon, who's returning from Tommy John surgery, didn't pitch. Balester, Bleich and Sadler all performed fairly well in limited duty, not that that means much.

It's unsurprising that Taillon, Sadler and Hanson would head to Indianapolis. Garcia hit well in a full season at Altoona last year, so it would have been nice to see him move up. The Pirates could have some combination of at least Rojas, Jaff Decker, Jose Tabata, Gorkys Hernandez and Keon Broxton competing for outfield time at that level, although Garcia is a better prospect than any of those players, so I'm sure the Pirates wouldn't have hesitated to send him to Indianapolis if they thought he were ready.