After a busy night that included trading Jose Veras to the Brewers for Casey McGehee and agreeing to terms on a one-year deal with reliever Jason Grilli, the Pirates tendered contracts to all their remaining arbitration-eligible players. Here’s the list:
1B/OF Garrett Jones
SP Charlie Morton
SP Jeff Karstens
RP Joel Hanrahan
RP Evan Meek
RP Chris Resop
This was the best possible outcome – none of these players will be expensive this year, and they all bring something to the table. Each of these players will now either agree to a contract with the Pirates or go to arbitration. In any case, they’ll all be Pirates next season unless the Bucs decide to trade them.
Jones will either serve as the Pirates’ primary first baseman or as a bench player at first and in the outfield. Morton and Karstens are members of the Pirates’ rotation, currently along with Erik Bedard, James McDonald and Kevin Correia. And Hanrahan, Meek, Resop and Grilli will form most of the right-handed portion of the Pirates’ bullpen.
For more on the Pirates, check out Bucs Dugout.