With September’s expanded rosters coming, Pirates prep for call-ups

In part because of injuries and partly because of poor performances commensurate with a last-place team, the Pittsburgh Pirates have used 48 players this season.

So when rosters expand Sept. 1, there might not be many unfamiliar faces in their clubhouse.

“You have probably seen most of them,” manager Clint Hurdle said, “already at least once.”

Indeed, of the players on the 40-man roster, only two have not appeared in a game for the Pirates: pitchers JT Brubaker and Yacksel Rios. Brubaker has been injured most of this season, so he’s out.

Only 40-man roster players are eligible for call-ups, though the Pirates could add someone to it and then bring him to the majors.

Still, with the exception of Rios, odds are the reinforcements joining the Pirates will be Cole Tucker, Jason Martin, Kevin Kramer, Geoff Hartlieb and others whom fans have already seen this season.

“There’s a number of guys that we are going to have conversation with that we are going to take a look at in September,” Hurdle said from PNC Park before Tuesday’s game against the Washington Nationals.

“The hard part is, when they get up here, they all want to stay here. Who wouldn’t? And there comes that point in time where you need to earn it.”

Hurdle was speaking in the specific context of Tucker, who spent the weekend series against the Chicago Cubs on the major league roster because an extra bat and infielder was needed while Jose Osuna served a suspension related to the brawl in Cincinnati last month.

A former first-round pick who spent six weeks with the Pirates — many of them as their starting shortstop — during the first half of the season, Tucker got a plate appearance in each of the games, drawing a run-scoring walk Friday, grounding out Saturday and getting hit by a pitch Sunday.

Tucker was told when he arrived in Pittsburgh late last week that this stay with the Pirates was going to be an abbreviated one, but Hurdle strongly indicated Tucker will be back come September.

“He had been playing pretty good (in Triple-A),” Hurdle said, “so we told him to go back, No. 1, to get healthy because he took a pretty good shot (by a pitch) in the foot, so I don’t know exactly his physicality if he has to miss a day or not. He’s only had four games or opportunities to play second base, so that’s something that’s real for him as well.

“And also to continue to work. ‘If you take care of the things you need to take care of down there, there should be a good opportunity for us to see you again.’ ”

Another player Hurdle indicated would be up is Rios, a reliever whom the Pirates claimed off waivers from Philadelphia on Aug. 3. A veteran right-hander with 53 career appearances for the Phillies over the past three seasons, Rios has allowed eight baserunners and no walks in seven innings for Triple-A Indianapolis.

One player who probably will not be getting a call-up is third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, a slick-fielding former first-round pick.

Hurdle gave a less-than-enthusiastic assessment of Hayes’s season, his first in Triple-A. Hayes is not on the 40-man roster, but he’s still just 22 years old (he was to play in just his 100th Triple-A game Tuesday). Hayes has a .247 average with 10 home runs and .721 OPS.

“He’s being challenged by the (International League),” Hurdle said. “He’s throwing some punches back, playing everyday, played through an injury, got back. He’s still a work in progress.”

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