Pirates promote five for September

The Pirates have expanded their roster to 30 by recalling five players:  pitchers Jameson Taillon and Steven Brault; infielders Adam Frazier and Jason Rogers; and catcher Chris Stewart.  On the surface, it's an odd set of "September callups."  Taillon, Brault and Frazier were just stashed on the Bristol roster in paper moves to make room for other players.  It's more realistic to regard Alen Hanson, A.J. Schugel and Kelvin Marte as the real callups, as they'll be able to stay now.  Stewart, of course, is finishing his rehab.

The odds are that more players will come up on September 5, when Indianapolis finishes its season.  Right now, it arguably makes more sense for the players to stay in AAA and keep playing.  Elias Diaz, to take one example, probably wouldn't get much playing time with the Pirates due to the presence of Stewart and Eric ".490 OPS" Fryer.  Of course, Diaz would likely be a better player than Stewart or Fryer, but . . . .

The questionable move is calling up Rogers.  He's done nothing at all this year to earn a callup.  He's a corner-only player with a mediocre 263/338/371 line in AAA, looking very much like a guy who had a classic age 26-27 power spike and is now over it.  If the Pirates wanted a right-handed bench bat, they could call up Jose Osuna, who's actually hitting well in AAA (and killing LHPs), and who's five years younger than Rogers.  Oh, but that last part is a bad thing, isn't it?