Pedro Florimon, Eric Fryer find new teams

‘Twas a slow day for the Pirates, but two bit-part 2016 players, Pedro Florimon and Eric Fryer, found new teams as Florimon caught on with the Phillies and Fryer with the Cardinals, both on minor league deals.

Florimon collected 25 plate appearances with the Pirates in 2016, spending most of the year with Indianapolis, with whom he batted .255/.327/.372. Due to his ability to play shortstop, he’s still good middle infield depth, but I’ve been saying that about him for two years now and he hasn’t made much of a difference with the Pirates. He still has that triple, though.

Fryer actually might get a shot with the Cardinals, depending on how the rest of their offseason plays out. After releasing Brayan Pena, they don’t really have a backup to Yadier Molina — they do have a young catcher named Carson Kelly who might be a candidate, but they might also prefer to get him some Triple-A plate appearances, then promote him to start if Molina gets hurt. That means Fryer, who didn’t do much in 92 plate appearances with the Pirates last year, could stick in the big leagues in 2017. Fryer, you might remember, started last season with the Cardinals and hit well in a small sample in the big leagues before the Bucs claimed him, so he’ll have the benefit of familiarity there.