Kevin Gorman stories, Page 104

The Pittsburgh Pirates showed how much they value the versatility of Phillip Evans and Erik Gonzalez by keeping them on the 26-man Opening Day roster. Both put theirs on display by playing out of their natural positions Monday afternoon against the Minnesota Twins. Evans started in right field then moved...

With the end of spring training in sight, the Pittsburgh Pirates are close to setting a starting lineup. One Opening Day certainty is Chad Kuhl will be on the mound at the Chicago Cubs on Thursday at Wrigley Field. Pirates manager Derek Shelton named Kuhl the Opening Day starter, capping...

The Pittsburgh Pirates announced Monday that they will use three local venues as their alternate site facilities in April, as MLB has pushed back the start of the minor league season until May. The Pirates will use a locker room at Heinz Field to serve as their home clubhouse and...

The center field competition has come to a close for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Anthony Alford appears to be the winner after they reassigned veteran Brian Goodwin on Monday morning. The Pirates also optioned right-handed reliever Geoff Hartlieb and reassigned infielder Wilmer Difo and right-handed knuckleballer Steven Wright to trim...

NL MVP Juan Soto, Nationals The 22-year-old slugger followed a 34-homer, 110-RBI season in 2019 by blossoming into baseball’s most feared hitter, batting .351/.490/.695 with 14 doubles, 13 home runs and 37 RBIs in 47 games last year. The additions of Josh Bell and Kyle Schwarber won’t allow teams to...

It wasn’t so much that Chad Kuhl missed a start in spring training as it was that the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander skipped it to be with his wife Amanda for the birth of his first child, a boy they named Hudson. With 11 days between starts, it was no wonder...

Ben Cherington was adamant from his first day as general manager that his mission was to infuse the Pittsburgh Pirates with more talent, believing their minor leagues needed an overhaul. Where his trades of proven veterans Starling Marte, Josh Bell, Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon were viewed as a total...

Liover Peguero watched Ozzie Smith sprint onto the field, do a handspring followed by a back flip while playing for the St. Louis Cardinals. That’s when Peguero knew he wanted to play shortstop. “I used to be like, ‘Oh my God. I want to be like him,’” Peguero said. “I...

Once expected to platoon at first base for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Todd Frazier instead exercised the opt-out clause of his minor league contract and elected free agency less than a week before the start of the season. Jon Heyman of MLB Network first reported the news. The 35-year-old Frazier, a...

If Tyler Anderson is lined up to be the Opening Day starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Derek Shelton isn’t saying. When asked if he was ready to name his starter for the April 1 opener against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, the Pirates manager gave a quick “no”...

The Pittsburgh Pirates promised a competition for the starting job at shortstop and, after narrowing a three-way battle down to two players, Derek Shelton is days away from making a decision. Whether he selects Kevin Newman or Erik Gonzalez to be the starter, the Pirates manager has found both players...

Six Pittsburgh Pirates had multiple hits as they rapped out 16 hits Thursday night against the Baltimore Orioles. Problem was, none of them were home runs. The Orioles built a big lead, thanks to three-run homers by Ryan Mountcastle and Austin Hays, and held on for a 10-9 win over...

By putting the pitcher in the batting order for the first time in spring training, Derek Shelton gave his first glimpse of what an Opening Day lineup could like for the Pittsburgh Pirates. A week before the opener against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, the Pirates manager still has...

On a day when the Pittsburgh Pirates lost one starting pitcher for at least the next two months, another came through with a performance that proved he is ready for a spot in the rotation. With lefty Steven Brault (left lat strain) out, right-hander JT Brubaker delivered the deepest outing...

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ shortstop competition became a two-man race when Cole Tucker was optioned Wednesday, leaving Erik Gonzalez and Kevin Newman left to fight for the starting job. Tucker, the Pirates’ 2014 first-round pick, had returned to the middle infield this spring after spending last season in the outfield for...

In a blow to the Pittsburgh Pirates starting rotation, left-handed pitcher Steven Brault is being shut down for a month from throwing because of a “moderate” lat strain. Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk said Wednesday morning that Brault could be out for at least 10 weeks before he...

At the best time of his career came the worst moment, one Phillip Evans would rather not revisit. The Pittsburgh Pirates infielder can’t forget the collision that he didn’t see coming until it was too late. As Evans chased a pop fly into foul territory in shallow right field, he...

Derek Shelton loved everything about the way the Pittsburgh Pirates ended their Grapefruit League game against the Minnesota Twins, with three consecutive strikeouts to seal a shutout. What got a shout-out from the Pirates manager was the brevity of the 1-0 victory over the Twins on Tuesday afternoon at LECOM...

Luis Oviedo can laugh now, but on that December day, it was mostly confusing. His agent called to tell the right-hander the New York Mets had selected him from the Cleveland Indians in the Rule 5 Draft, telling Oviedo he was free to contact family and share the news. “And...

In the thick of the shortstop competition with Kevin Newman and Erik Gonzalez, Cole Tucker has found Newman’s play to be infectious. Tucker is so convinced Newman’s hot bat can be contagious that he joked about following his Pittsburgh Pirates teammate around the cafeteria to see what he’s eating for...

When the Pittsburgh Pirates finished last in the major leagues in on-base and slugging percentages and in the bottom five of most other major offensive categories, Rick Eckstein took it personally. How could he not? The Pirates finished with the worst record in baseball, had a pair of starting outfielders...

The alarming part for the Pittsburgh Pirates wasn’t that Steven Brault allowed allowed three hits, threw two wild pitches and hit a batter in the first two innings Friday night against the Baltimore Orioles. It was that the left-hander threw only 33 pitches in his fourth start before he was...

Start with the premise that spring training statistics are meaningless and don’t translate to the regular season, that a hot start is more symbolic of hitters being ahead of pitchers who are fine-tuning a grip or delivery. Then consider that batters also have spent the offseason working on their stance...

After some serious soul searching, Chase De Jong decided he wasn’t ready to quit baseball. But he had nowhere to train, and no one to train with. That brought about a my-way-or-the-highway moment. The Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher’s way hadn’t worked. De Jong had gone from second-round draft pick by the...

The stuff is good. The execution is poor. That was the brief but dead-on description of Mitch Keller’s pitching from Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen coach Justin Meccage during Wednesday’s Grapefruit League game against the Tampa Bay Rays. The right-hander continued his spring struggles as he was knocked around for eight runs...