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The Pittsburgh Pirates cleared two veterans at the end of the season.

Pittsburgh announced on the 25th (Korea Standard Time) that it will transfer first baseman Laudie Telles and outfielder Michael A. Taylor ahead of the home game against the Milwaukee Brewers.

If the two players pass the transfer, they will be waived along with the name of the transfer and become an FA. As the players joined the team under a one-year contract, they were effectively released. This means that the season ends one week earlier.

Telez joined the team on a one-year, 3.2 million-dollar contract this season. He remained in the batting average of .100 for this season until early June, but played his part in the final 79 games of this season with a batting average of .272, on-base plus .325 slugging percentage of .477, 12 homers and 44 RBIs.

The move will cost him more money than expected. According to local media including The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tellez was set to receive a $200,000 bonus for playing 425 at-bats this season.

And because he lacked four at-bats in this standard, he could not get a bonus. $200,000 is not a big deal for a Major League player, but it is regrettable that he does not get the bonus he can get.
It is doubtful that the club released him to save this bonus.

Coach Derek Shelton, in an interview with local media such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, claimed that the bonus issue "had no effect on the decision at all."

"We had to raise the players at the end of the minor league season," he said, explaining that he just set up a spot to call up the players at the end of the Triple-A season.

General manager Ben Cherrington also said, "I was aware of the (bonus issue), but nothing influenced the decision."

"I'm not worried at all," he said flatly when asked if he is concerned about the impact of the latest move on his contract with the FA. "A contract is negotiated based on good faith. And this contract is effective. I think we gave him many chances this year. We have to admit that he survived difficult situations early in the season. There were times of success and times of despair. This is just a decision based on the circumstances of the season. It has nothing to do with the number of plate appearances."

Taylor, who joined the one-year, $4 million contract, batted .193 with a .253 on-base percentage and a .290 slugging percentage in 113 games this season.

As a former Gold Glove, he showed quality defense in center field, but he lacked contribution at bat. Eventually, Lewis Ortiz moved to center field at the end of the season and was hit directly.

Infielder Reover Peguero and outfielder Joshua Palacios were called up. Neither player had many chances this season.

Peguero was called up once this season, but failed to get a chance. He had a batting average of 0.257 on-base plus 0.319 slugging percentage of 0.410 with 13 homers and 79 RBIs in 128 Triple-A games.

Palacios had a batting average of .230 on-base percentage of .319 with two home runs and seven RBIs in 20 major league games. In late July, he injured his hamstring during an away game in Houston and has not had a chance in the major leagues since then.