John Perrotto stories, Page 2

BRADENTON, Fla. — Geoff Hartlieb spent the first 25 years of his life with an extra bone in his right foot and didn’t even know it. “It’s one of those crazy things,” the Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher said. Hartlieb began feeling pain in his foot midway through his rookie season...

BRADENTON, Fla. — It wasn’t a big deal when the Pittsburgh Pirates signed Andrew Susac to a minor league contract Jan 31. In fact, it barely rated more than a mention. Yet, there was a time when Susac was a pretty big deal. That makes his presence in an organization...

BRADENTON, Fla. — It seems Cody Ponce is a bit of a soothsayer. Before leaving for spring training last year with the Milwaukee Brewers, the right-handed pitching prospect made a prediction to his father. Ponce said he would be traded before the 2019 season ended. Ponce was right. The Pirates...

CLEARWATER, Fla. — A visit to the Philadelphia Phillies’ spring training clubhouse at Spectrum Field made it almost seem like the Pittsburgh Pirates should be preparing for a National League wild-card game. In one corner of the room was Andrew McCutchen’s locker. About 12 lockers down from McCutchen, Francisco Liriano...

BRADENTON, Fla. — JT Riddle is a newcomer to a team that almost certainly will have the lowest payroll in the major leagues on Opening Day. Yet playing for a thrifty organization such as the Pittsburgh Pirates is nothing new to the utility player. Money was a factor in the...

TAMPA, Fla. — Gerrit Cole no longer plays for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but he hasn’t forgotten his first professional organization. Cole keeps close tabs on the Pirates. The right-hander still talks to some of his former teammates, though he last played for Pittsburgh in 2017 before being traded to the...

The facts are the facts. Barry Bonds hit 762 home runs, more than any player in major league history. He also won seven National League MVP awards — two with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1990 and ’92 — and was selected to 14 All-Star Games. Roger Clemens won 354 games...

This year’s voting results for baseball’s Hall of Fame will be announced Tuesday night, and Derek Jeter almost certainly will headline the Class of 2020. Later this year, at a date to be determined, the first class of the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame will be announced. Details are scant...

Bob Nutting, fairly or not, has developed a reputation of being a cheap owner in the eyes of many Pittsburgh Pirates fans. That perception of Nutting likely isn’t going away anytime soon. The Pirates are projected to have a $69 million payroll to open the 2020 season, according to Tribune-Review...

One of the primary reasons Ben Cherington was hired as general manager by the Pittsburgh Pirates in November was because ownership believes he can build a strong player development system. The Pirates certainly can use help in that department. They generally are considered to have one of the weaker farm...

In a three-day span at the MLB winter meetings last month, teams spent a combined $814 million on three free agents: Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon and Stephen Strasburg. The Pittsburgh Pirates’ largest expenditure on the free-agent market so far this offseason is the $1 million, one-year they gave outfielder Guillermo...

Many career paths in professional baseball eventually intertwine, especially for veterans of the game like Derek Shelton and Glenn Sherlock. Sherlock was working as a catching instructor in the New York Yankees farm system in 1992. That same year, Shelton was beginning his brief professional playing career as a catcher...

On the same day the Houston Astros were penalized heavily by Major League Baseball for stealing signs electronically, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Trevor Williams had a funny story about MLB’s video monitoring system. MLB assigns someone to each clubhouse during games to monitor the type of video players and coaches are...

The Pittsburgh Pirates have 22 pitchers on their 40-man roster. By the time they complete the list of nonroster players who will be invited to spring training, that number almost certainly will exceed 30. So Luke Maile has plenty of work in front of him when he arrives in Bradenton...

Bad baserunning seemingly has become an epidemic around the major leagues. Rarely does a game go by without an egregious baserunning error. The lack of acumen players sometimes show can be galling, especially to traditionalists. However, Tarrik Brock isn’t ready to say baserunning is a lost art. In fact, it...

Josh Bell followed an All-Star season with a big bump in pay. The Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman agreed to a $4.8-million contract Friday for the upcoming season. That represents an 817% increase over his $587,000 salary of last year. Spurring Bell’s salary growth is the fact he had the necessary...

Spring training is five weeks away. Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers and catchers will begin undergoing physical examinations Feb. 10 at Pirate City. Baseball front offices come back from their de facto holiday break Monday, and things should heat back up on the transaction front. Of course, there hasn’t been much warmth...

The 2010s were filled with ups and down for the Pittsburgh Pirates. They bookended the decade with last-place finishes, going 57-105 in 2010 and 69-93 in ‘19. Those awful seasons brought the end of the managerial tenures of John Russell and Clint Hurdle. General manager Neal Huntington was also axed...

Ben Cherington has the reputation of being deliberate with his decisions. He has lived up to that during his first six weeks as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ general manager. Cherington has made just two player moves of note. Catcher Elias Diaz was for designated for assignment, and catcher Luke Maile was...

The 2019 Pittsburgh Pirates provided a fine example of new-age baseball thinking that batting average is an overrated statistic. The Pirates hit .265, which was sixth in the major leagues. Yet they had a 69-93 record and finished last in the National League Central for the first time since 2010....

Oscar Marin, even during a phone call from another country, made it clear how enthusiastic he is to join the Pittsburgh Pirates. The team announced Marin’s hiring as pitching coach Tuesday, a day after news broke the Texas Rangers bullpen coach was tabbed to replace Ray Searage. The Pirates also...