With all of the speculating we did about the final roster move in the last couple of days, the Pirates managed to do something unexpected and place Chris Leroux on the 60-day DL with a “pectoral injury.” That has the neat and tidy effect of both allowing the club to keep Jared Hughes (who’s been much better than Leroux and who I think is super-awesome) and the full Matt Hague/Josh Harrison/Yamaico Navarro trio, plus opening a 40-man roster spot for Juan Cruz without having to expose someone like Leroux or Dan McCutchen or Duke Welker to waivers.
I don’t have much else to say; this is an awfully convienient injury (which is another way of saying that it seems hard to believe that it’s not a manipulation of the system by the Pirates) that lets the Pirates put a better roster on the field tomorrow without losing anyone. Sometimes, being the team that no one pays attention to isn’t a bad thing.
Beyond that, I’m happy for Hague, who clearly hit his way onto the team this spring. I also think it’s probably best for Navarro and Harrison (based on his spring) to be in Pittsburgh and not Indianapolis.
