Pirates officially set 25-man roster, designate John Holdzkom, Jake Goebbert, Pedro Florimon for assignment

The Pirates have officially set their roster for Opening Day. As expected, they've selected the contracts of Cole Figueroa, Matt Joyce and Cory Luebke. They've also optioned Jason Rogers to Indianapolis and designated John Holdzkom, Jake Goebbert and Pedro Florimon for assignment. Also, the Pirates placed Elias Diaz, Jared Hughes and Jung Ho Kang on the 15-day DL.

The Florimon move was expected, since it was previously known he wasn't going to make the 25-man and he was out of options, but the Holdzkom and Goebbert moves are noteworthy. Holdzkom looked like he would be a key part of future Pirates bullpens after his brilliant stretch run in 2014, but since then he's dealt with shoulder troubles, inconsistent control and, recently, a loss of velocity. It wouldn't be surprising if he got through waivers; it also wouldn't be surprising if another team took a flyer on him. Either way, the Pirates seem convinced that the flamethrowing Holdzkom we saw in 2014 isn't likely to come back.

The Bucs signed Goebbert to a somewhat surprising MLB deal this offseason. He didn't hit much in Spring Training, though, batting .194/.342/.258, and was somewhat buried by the Pirates' later additions, particularly fellow lefty batter John Jaso.

In any case, the Pirates have officially set their roster as follows.

SP Gerrit Cole
SP Francisco Liriano
SP Jon Niese
SP Juan Nicasio
SP Jeff Locke

RP Mark Melancon
RP Tony Watson
RP Arquimedes Caminero
RP Neftali Feliz
RP Ryan Vogelsong
RP Cory Luebke
RP Kyle Lobstein

C Francisco Cervelli
C Chris Stewart

1B John Jaso
2B Josh Harrison
SS Jordy Mercer
3B David Freese
1B Michael Morse
UT Cole Figueroa
UT Sean Rodriguez

OF Starling Marte
OF Andrew McCutchen
OF Gregory Polanco
OF Matt Joyce