Neal Huntington: Pirates waiting on Vance Worley's decision, actively monitoring waiver wire

Notes from Neal Huntington's Sunday meeting with the press.

Waiting on Worley

The Pirates are still waiting for Vance Worley to decide if he will accept a minor-league assignment with the club.

"We made it clear that we would love for him to stay here and our plan is to send him to Indianapolis and get him stretched out so he is a viable option for us out of the rotation," Huntington said. "We may need him."

Pirates active on the waiver wire

Huntington said he will actively make waiver claims for players that can help this year's club. But he noted the combination of the team's low position in the waiver order and the large number of buyers in the market makes it unlikely much will fall to the Pirates.

"I think this is the fifth consecutive year in a row that I've said teams are becoming more aggressive with waiver claims and it's getting more and more challenging to even get access to players," Huntington said. "We're the 14th team that gets access to a National League player and the 29th team that gets access to an American League player. The number of players that don't get to us seems much larger than it has in the past."

Huntington suggested that the Pirates have made a couple of successful claims already, but have been unable to forge a workable deal.

"Yeah, but we'll absolutely continue to place claims and the rare instance that we're given the claim, we work to try to add the player to our system and, obviously, we haven't been able to so far," Huntington said.

Glasnow learning

In two starts since his promotion to Indianapolis, Tyler Glasnow has allowed 12 hits in 10 innings pitched, struck out 13 and walked seven. In his first outing Glasnow was hit hard, giving up nine hits in 5.1 innings. In his second start, he had problems with his control and walked six over 4.2 innings. He owns just a 1.80 ERA with the Indians but only two of his eight runs allowed are earned.

"Two starts in we've seen that dominating fastball," Huntington said. "We've seen the command come and go. We've seen it be exceptional; we've seen it be a six-walk outing. He's getting hit a little more than he had in the past, which just reinforces the importance of the consistency of the breaking ball, the use and consistency of the changeup."

The promotion has already made a Glasnow a better pitcher, according to Huntington.

"It's just a great learning experience for him and, again, why we continue to be firm believers that there are different lessons to be learned at each level. In these two outings, he's learned some importance things already. He's smart, he's a great kid and obviously a great prospect that we are excited about."

Tucker to receive second opinion

Cole Tucker was placed on the disabled list Sunday with right shoulder discomfort. In a related move, Kevin Newman was promoted to the West Virginia Power.

Tucker saw the team's doctors in Pittsburgh and will be receiving a second opinion in the coming days.

"Cole's had some shoulder discomfort for a while now," Huntington said. "When we get the information from the second opinion, we'll make public what's going on."

Newman, who only hit .227/.283/.344 in Morgantown, will take over shortstop for the Power.

"He's an advanced college player that the numbers didn't represent what he was doing," Huntington said. "After a tough start, he's had a solid run here. We felt he was ready to step in if Cole was going to miss extended time."