The Pirates’ latest roster move was less about one game than about roster math, and that is often how these decisions work in late July. By designating José Urquidy for assignment and selecting Shawn Ross’s contract, Pittsburgh chose the simpler path: create a 40-man opening now and sort out the depth chart later.
The move matters because Urquidy’s DFA starts a limited window in which the Pirates can trade him or another team can claim him on waivers. At the time of the move, that process could last up to a week, with waivers taking 48 hours, so this is not quite a finished story yet. It is, however, a clear signal that Pittsburgh no longer had an immediate roster need for him.
Why Urquidy lost the spot
Urquidy had been operating mostly in a rotation depth role this season, and the Pirates’ current pitching picture made that role expendable. He signed a one-year, $1.5MM deal in February, made five relief appearances early in the season, then consented to an optional assignment to Triple-A. From there, he logged 17 Triple-A starts with a 3.66 ERA, a 22% strikeout rate, a 5.4% walk rate and a 42.4% ground ball rate. Those are useful numbers, but they were not enough to force a larger roster squeeze.
In other words, Urquidy did not fail in a dramatic way. He simply became the pitcher Pittsburgh could remove without upsetting the rest of the structure. The Pirates have strong rotation depth, and that left little urgency to keep a veteran arm whose main job was to be available if needed.
What the move says about Pittsburgh
That is the larger point here. The Pirates were not clearing space because they lacked pitching; they were clearing space because they had enough of it. With a group that includes Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, Braxton Ashcraft, Bubba Chandler and Jared Jones, plus other arms in the pipeline or around the roster, the club could afford to make a practical decision rather than preserve a depth piece out of habit.
Urquidy’s case is still worth noting because his track record is not nothing. He had a solid run with the Astros from 2019 to 2022, and that history helps explain why Pittsburgh took the February gamble in the first place. But roster spots are finite, and the Pirates needed one for Shawn Ross.
So the move is straightforward even if the consequences are not yet settled: Shawn Ross gets the opening, José Urquidy goes into DFA limbo, and Pittsburgh continues to reshape its roster around the players it believes it needs most right now. That is often how a team reveals its priorities, one 40-man spot at a time.
