Pirates place John Holdzkom on release waivers

Earlier this evening, a note appeared on the MLB.com transaction page that the Pirates had released John Holdzkom (who was designated for assignment when the Pirates set their roster for Opening Day). MLB.com's transaction page is great but it isn't always 100 percent right, so I checked with a source within the Pirates organization, who told me that the Bucs have placed Holdzkom on release waivers. That means Holdzkom will become a free agent if he clears waivers, which he's probably pretty likely to do. There still appears to be a possibility another team could claim him, however. (I'm pretty sure that's what happened a few weeks ago with Jesse Biddle, who MLB.com had described as being released right before he was claimed by the Braves. The Pirates had reportedly wanted to re-sign Biddle, but they ultimately couldn't because of the claim.)

Once Holdzkom becomes a free agent, the Pirates could consider re-signing him to a minor-league deal, as they've done recently with other players they've taken off their roster, like Guido Knudson back in January.

In any case, the news that the Pirates have released Holdzkom is about 90 percent of what's going on here, but not yet 100 percent, and the difference between 90 percent and 100 percent could affect their ability to re-sign him, if that's what they want to do. We'll see what happens with him.