Pirates place Jung Ho Kang on DL, promote Josh Bell

The Pirates have announced that they will place Jung Ho Kang on the 15-day DL with a left shoulder injury, which he sustained while sliding yesterday against the Marlins. Taking his place on the active roster will be Josh Bell.

Kang has struggled over the past couple months, both offensively and defensively. Whether that's due in part to the sexual assault allegations against him is unclear. In any case, it looks like he'll now be out for awhile just as his bat was starting to show signs of life.

With Kang out, David Freese will presumably take over at third, leaving Bell to share time with John Jaso at first. The Pirates' preference for Jaso over Bell has been a mystery for some time. (Well, okay, not a mystery, really -- they prefer Jaso's defense, perhaps understandably, although I wish Bell were given the chance to make up for his defensive deficiencies with his bat.) We'll see if the Bucs are finally willing to give Bell more of a shot, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them continue to use him primarily as a pinch-hitter, as they did (and with great success) during Bell's first callup earlier this summer.