The Diamondbacks have re-signed Pirates free agent interest Randal Grichuk. The deal is reported with a base salary for 2025 of $2 million, with a mutual option for $5 million ($3 million buyout), making it a guaranteed $5 million plus $500K in incentives in 2025.
We previously investigated what Randal Grichuk would bring to the Pirates in this article What Would Randal Grichuk Bring to the Table article. If you have not read it yet, I highly recommend it.
Clearly the 5 million guaranteed is well in the Pirates budget and would not hinder them to make other moves. Since the Pirates didn't finalize a deal with Grichuk I am more confident they have something better in the works for corner outfield whether that be Alex Verdugo or a trade.
A lot of the Pirates fringe starters are right handed bats, so the Pirates might be comfortable with their in house right-handed bats at this point despite not being very proven. These type of players include Billy Cook, Nick Yorke, Nick Gonzales, Henry Davis, and Jared Triolo. All these players bring something unique to the table such as Billy Cook having great defense and very solid numbers against the sinker and slider in AAA. Nick Yorke is a fringe top 100 prospect. Nick Gonzales had a solid sophmore season and hit lefties well over nearly a full season. Henry Davis is of course the 2021 number one overall pick, and Jared Triolo won a gold glove in 2024. There is also Andrew McCutchen who is looking to rebound against lefties as explained in this article, We Need More From McCutchen and Reynolds when facing LHP.
The Bucs could have still used Randal Grichuk on the roster against LHP since he is elite against LHP, but I believe there is enough depth with the current right-handed hitters that its not such a big miss by the Bucs this time.