The Pirates have designated right-handers Dugan Darnell and Michael Darrell-Hicks for assignment, the team announced Thursday. Pittsburgh also reinstated catcher/first baseman Endy Rodriguez and utilitymen Ronny Simon and Emmanuel Valdez from the 60-day injured list.
Former top infield prospect Liover Peguero, who was placed on waivers earlier in the week, went unclaimed and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Indianapolis. Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, however, that Peguero will reject the assignment to become a free agent. Meanwhile, Alex Stumpf of MLB.com reports that Pittsburgh will select the contract of minor league righty Ryan Harbin to its 40-man roster.
Darnell’s stay in the Pirates organization lasted only a week. He was claimed off waivers from the Rockies last week. He made his MLB debut in Colorado this year, tossing 11 2/3 innings and holding opponents to five runs on seven hits but with more walks (seven) than strikeouts (five). The 28-year-old undrafted free agent sits 94 mph with his heater and posted a 3.19 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate in an extremely hitter-friendly Triple-A Pacific Coast League setting this season.
Darrell-Hicks, 28 next week, is another waiver claim and former undrafted free agent. The Bucs picked him up from the Angels back in June. He pitched 9 2/3 innings between the two clubs this year but was tagged for eight runs on 10 hits and four walks with eight strikeouts. He sits just under 95 mph with his heater. Darrell-Hicks posted outstanding numbers in the upper minors in 2024 (2.60 ERA, 26.4 K%, 5.0 BB% in 62 1/3 innings) but was rocked for an ERA north of 8.00 in Triple-A this season.
Peguero was once a touted prospect whom the Pirates acquired from the D-backs in exchange for Starling Marte He’s a former top-100 prospect who was once viewed as a possible shortstop of the future in Pittsburgh. In an all-too-common refrain for Pirates position prospects, however, his bat never came around. Peguero has seen action in four big league seasons but has mustered only a .227/.278/.368 slash line in 315 turns at the plate.
Peguero has also looked overmatched at the top minor league level. Outside of a late-2023 cameo in Triple-A where he smacked a pair of homers in 30 promising plate appearances, he’s produced well below-average numbers with the Pirates’ top affiliate in Indianapolis. He’s a .253/.317/.403 hitter in 888 plate appearances there, including a career-worst .247/.313/.375 showing in 75 games with Indy this season. Baseball America and other outlets have lauded his quality defensive tools but also noted a penchant for slipping into poor mechanical stretches that lead to far too many throwing errors.
The 24-year-old Harbin was a 17th-round pick in 2019. He was about to become a minor league free agent, but the Bucs didn’t want to lose him after he posted such gaudy strikeout numbers in the minors this season. Harbin’s 4.69 ERA isn’t much to look at, but that mark is skewed by an ugly 17 earned runs allowed in his first 13 1/3 innings of Triple-A work this season. He’d posted sharp numbers in High-A and Double-A, and even while struggling to keep runs off the board in Indianapolis, Harbin continued missing bats.
Overall, the 6’4″ Harbin fanned 32% of his opponents in the minors this year — albeit against a brutal 16% walk rate. He averaged better than 97 mph on his heater and missed bats in droves with his upper-80s slider. Harbin posted a very strong 14.1% swinging-strike rate on the season overall, including an eye-popping 17% mark in Double-A, where he fanned nearly 38% of his opponents. Now that he’s on the 40-man roster, Harbin will be in major league camp and compete for a spot in manager Don Kelly’s bullpen next spring.
