Pirates lose Phil Gosselin on waivers to . . . you know

Now this is just getting silly. The Texas Rangers have claimed infielder Phil Gosselin off waivers from the Pirates and optioned him to AAA. So in a few days they’ve claimed both a reliever and a utility infielder from a team that’s had colossal problems with its bullpen and its bench. Not that we should care, I guess.

Well, anyway, the Pirates had acquired Gosselin from Arizona for Frank Duncan, who seemed like a great story until he put up a 6.94 ERA in AAA for Arizona. Gosselin hit a frigid 150/190/175 in 42 plate appearances for the Pirates. That got him to Indianapolis, where he hit just 264/306/336. It’s late enough now that Gosselin probably wasn’t waived in the standard put-everybody-on-waivers exercise that teams go through on August 1. It’s more likely, as MLBTR notes, that the Pirates just figured they might as well clear the roster spot now that Sean Rodriguez is aboard. In any event, that adventure is over.