Weekly Report: Dodgers Champs, Bucs Bring Aboard Murphy, Mitch On List, Minor League Honors, Shelty To Minnesota, MLB Moves, Hot Stove Starts

And it’s LA again…

Pirates Stuff: 

• RHP Dugan Darnell was claimed from Colorado by the Bucs. The 28-year-old reliever went 1-0/3.86 in nine outings for the Rockies (he spent most of the year at AAA Albuquerque) before a labrum injury laid him low; the Pirates put him on the 60-day IL as he’s not due back until May or so. The injury designation is just a short by-pass of putting him on the 40-man; there are no IL carry-overs five days after the Series, so they’ll have to decide in short order if they want to protect him.
• The Pirates reportedly brought in Bill Murphy, 36, from the Astros as their new pitching coach. He played a bit of college ball, coached at Brown and Georgetown and was hired by Houston in 2016, sharing PC duties for the past four seasons. Murphy replaces Oscar Marin and worked with Brent Strom, who was ass’t pitching coach here last season. Murphy comes to town well-reputed among MLB PC’s and is a solid hire by BC. His hire hasn’t been officially announced as of Sunday; we assume the team didn’t want to compete for news time with the World Series and weekend football and delayed the confirmation until this week.

Mitch on the market – 2025 Pirates promo

• Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors posted his Top 40 Trade Candidates of the offseason; RHP Miitch Keller was the only Buc dangled on the list, ranked at a lofty #4 of marketplace offerings.
• The accolades keep piling up – RHP Paul Skenes won the 2025 Players Choice Outstanding NL Pitcher award for 2025.
• The Pirates gave out the organization’s minor-league MVP awards. The Honus Wagner Award for Player of the Year went to, and who’d of guessed, SS Konnor Griffin. He also took home the Bill Mazeroski Defender of the Year title, booting just seven balls at short in 89 games (.980) and was errorless in 15 games in center across three levels.
• OF Esmerlyn Valdez missed a weekend (Fri-Mon) of AFL play due to a sore wrist. The rest time was considered precautionary by the team and he was back in action on Tuesday for the Salt River nine. He also was named the winner of the team’s Willie Stargell Slugger Award for the top minor league power hitter in 2025. 
• RHP Bubba Chandler won the Bob Friend Pitcher of the Year award as the best rotation arm in the system. He was 5-6/4.05 for Indy and was called up to the big club in late August, posting a 4-1-1/4.02 line with a strikeout per inning.
• RHP Brandon Bidois won the Pirates minor-league Kent Tekulve Reliever of the Year honor after his breakout season, climbing through all four farm levels while posting a line of 8-0-7/0.74 with 69 K in 61 IP. At one point during the campaign, he retired 64 straight batters without allowing a hit.

MLB Stuff:

• After splitting the first two games in Toronto, the  Blue Jays won two-of-three contests in Los Angeles to take a 3-2 series lead. LA came back to knot the series, closing out a 3-1 win with a 7-4 double play to send it to a seventh game. It was a doozy; the defending champ Dodgers overcame a two-run deficit with homers in the eighth, ninth and 11th frames to claim a 5-4 win and their third title in six seasons. Will Smith banged the game winner while Yoshinobu Yamamoto won his third game of the series. For those who followed the contests, there were plenty of calls, plays and missed opps to be debated for years.
• 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes won another Gold Glove. IF Jared Triolo fell short in his try for a second GG and OF Tommy Pham was an also-ran in his bid.
• Former Pirates C Jason Delay, 30, has inked a minor league deal with Boston after spending last season in the Atlanta system. He caught for the Bucs as a backup from 2022-24, batting .231 in 134 games.

Shelty back to Minny – 2025 photo/MLB.com

• Minnesota named Derek Shelton as their new manager. He has a history in the Twin Cities; before his Bucco stint, he served as the bench coach for the Twins under Paul Molitor in 2018 and Rocco Baldelli, who he’s replacing, in 2019.
• And the hot stove fires up. The day after the World Series, eligible players become free agents (That’s Cutch and Tommy Pham for the Bucs)  and MLB players may be traded. By the fifth day after the World Series, contract options have to be decided, the deadline for clubs to reinstate all players on the 60-day IL to the 40-man roster and for clubs to tender qualifying offers ends while free agents can officially sign a deal.
• The Orioles hired Craig Albernaz as their manager. He was the Guardians associate manager last year and their bench coach in 2024.
• The Washington Nationals named 33-year-old Blake Butera as their new manager, making him MLB’s youngest manager in over 50 years. Butera was Tampa Bay’s senior director of player development and previously coached for Italy in the WBC after stints Australia and the Dominican leagues.