Pirates option Miguel Yajure and Sam Howard

It was cutdown day in MLB, where teams had to get down to 26 players, which means the Pittsburgh Pirates had decisions to make on a number of possibilities for their roster moves. They settled on optioning Miguel Yajure and Sam Howard to AAA Indianapolis.

There were several potential players they could’ve dropped from the roster today, including Yoshi Tsutsugo, Cole Tucker, and Josh VanMeter, but as Jason Mackey mentions, we’re likely to see another roster move for the Buccos tomorrow.

Howard has appeared in three games for the Pirates, with just two total innings pitched, giving up two runs on two hits with four walks and a strikeout. With some surprise strong performances from other places in the bullpen, including Dillon Peters and Wil Crowe, Howard wasn’t really useful at this point.

Yajure’s had six appearances for Pittsburgh and was pretty awful, giving up 13 runs on 16 hits in just 10 innings pitched for an ERA of 11.32 with six walks and just four strikeouts. He was particularly bad in the 21-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs (though who wasn’t), giving up seven runs in just two innings of work.

Anyway, there were no corresponding additions because of the roster deadline, but if Anthony Banda does come back tomorrow as anticipated, we’ll let you know who the Buccos are dropping.