Pittsburgh Pirates Add A Pair To The 40-Man Roster
On Saturday afternoon the Pittsburgh Pirates added a pair of Minor League players to their 40-man roster.
The Pittsburgh Pirates’ 40-man roster has two new names on it. These names are Jose Osuna and Dovydas Neverauskas. The Pirates added both players to the 40-man roster on Saturday afternoon.
Jose Osuna is a 23-year old 1B/OF prospect who possesses great power potential. Dovydas Neverauskas, a native of Lithuania, is a 23-year old right-handed pitching prospect. Neverauskas is a relief pitcher.
Both Osuna and Neverauskas would have become Minor League free agents had they not been added to the Pirates’ 40-man roster. That made added these two to the roster a no brainer move for Neal Huntington and the Bucs.
While Osuna is blocked by the Bucs talented group of outfielders, as well as Josh Bell at first base, he is still a good player to have as a depth option should injury occur. Osuna has 73 career Minor League home runs, as well as a lifetime .439 slugging percentage. In 2016 he posted a career high wRC+ of 133 at Triple-A Indianapolis. Additionally, his ISO of .191 was the second highest of his Minor League career.
Ad for Neverauskas, he is a player that I believe can help the 2017 Pittsburgh Pirates. In fact, I wrote about that a few weeks ago. Neverauskas has good stuff and good potential as a relief pitcher. If not for getting in hot water due to off the field issues, I believe he would have earned a September call up in 2016.
At Double-A Altoona last season Neverauskas posted a 2.57 ERA and a 2.25 FIP. He followed this up with a 3.60 ERA and a 3.20 FIP at Triple-A Indianapolis. I will be surprised if we do not see Dovydas Neverauskas pitching out of the Pirates’ bullpen at some point in 2017.
More from Rum Bunter
This article originally appeared on 
