Dejan Kovacevic writes that, at this point, the Pirates have in mind a likely bench that will break camp with the Pirates.
↵↵↵The Pirates still have 43 players in camp, but internal indications are strong that the bench will be completed with infielders Josh Harrison and Yamaico Navarro. They would join bench locks Nate McLouth, Casey McGehee and Michael McKenry.
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That would give the Pirates two backup infielders, so the losers in this scenario are offensive players like Nick Evans and Jake Fox, who have less defensive value than Navarro or Harrison do. The Pirates have often carried two utility infielders in the past, which is what led me to predict in December that the Pirates would go with this exact bench. (My more recent projection, unfortunately, has Fox instead of Harrison.)
↵In this scenario, Pedro Alvarez would also make the team. That's expected, but it's not automatic, since there's still the possibility that the Pirates could send Alvarez back to Class AAA Indianapolis to work on his pitch recognition.