With the post trade deadline callups of Jared Triolo, Kyle Nicolas, Ryan Borucki, Dauri Moreta, and Johan Oviedo AAA Indy has only Colin Holderman, Darick Hall, Nick Solak, Alika Williams, and Ji Hwan Bae who has played enough to disqualify them as prospects.
Players with fewer than 130 at-bats and 50 innings pitched in previous MLB seasons AND fewer than 45 days on the active MLB roster (excluding September call-ups and time on injured list) before September 1 of the current season are prospect eligible. I'm just focusing on the playing time, not roster time since roster time does not mean MLB experience if you don't play.
Colin Holderman is the only pitcher in Indy with greater than 50 inning pitched in MLB. Chase Shugart is on a rehab assignment currently, but even he only has 47.2 inning pitched in MLB.
Darick Hall has nearly 200 MLB at bats, but is struggling in AAA and signed a minor league contract with the Pirates. At best, he is emergency depth and is not on the 40-man roster. He won't block anyone from being promoted to the majors.
Alika Williams was removed from the 40-man roster a while ago. He does get playing time but struggled in July. He doesn't seem like more than an emergency defensive replacement at the major league level. I don't think he will block anybody.
Nick Solak was added and removed from the 40-man roster this season. He received 11 ABs this season and sat on the bench for a while then was outrighted and resigned with the Pirates. He also didn't opt out of his minor league contract to grant his release this season. His season has been curious. He never struggled in AAA this season, his K/BB rate is improving in July and August but was never bad. He has been hitting in the mid to upper .300s all year. To show for it when he got called to the majors he mostly sat on the bench. I am wondering if the Bucs are still developing him, and he is seen as more than depth. I thought he would have gotten a callup after the trade deadline just to give him a chance, but that didn't happen. In July, he had a 7:8 K:BB ratio while batting .358. Those numbers have been similar if not better all season long.
Ji Hwan Bae is still on the 40 man roster and is out of options for next season. He has a 16:16 K:BB ratio in July and August, plays regularly, and is batting well over .300 during that time with a slugging nearing .500. He has been hitting around his expected numbers all season and has a whiff rate max against the sinker with 27.7% all season. In July and August his max whiff rate is again against the sinker at 30.8%. If that is his max whiff rate that is actually pretty good. During July and August his power has surged. He can be valuable somewhere in the bottom of the Pirates order if he continues to see a lot of fastballs. That can be a good change of pace in the lineup where Cruz, Reynolds, McCutchen, and Bart's favorite pitches are the fastballs. I expect Bae to get a callup sometime again this season.
It looks like the Pirates have a hierarchy of players they want to callup before the prospects such as Yorke, Cook, Devanney, Flores, Simon, and more. That is probably why we aren't seeing the "young guys" called up yet. This could be to see what they have before next season calling up the prospects, or to see how their free agent signings play out to see if their bargains signings/trades like IKF and Pham were really bargains or lemons.
I can see Solak and Bae being higher up on the hiearchy than the prospects, and they seem willing to allow Holderman to take as much time as he needs to figure things out in AAA, and use Hall and Alika for emergenchy depth.