Travis

Swaggerty

With the Dodgers and Padres set to open the regular season sooner than the rest of the league, expect them to trim down their rosters more quickly than the rest of the league. Knack, 26, had been a dark horse to see occasional starts as part of a six-man rotation to begin the season, but he’ll start out as excess depth at the Triple-A level instead.

Swaggerty, the 10th overall pick in the 2018 draft, was released by the Pirates last June while away from his Triple-A team due to his wife’s health problems. He went on to sign with the White Sox, but he never did play in any minor league games with the club. Hopefully, circumstances will allow him to return to the field next season The 26-year-old is a lifetime .250/.341/.388 hitter in the minors.

Swaggerty signed a minor league pact with the White Sox back in mid-August following his release by the Pirates. The 26-year-old former first-round pick played in just 22 games this season in the minors while his wife Peyton continues to battle an extremely rare blood disease. It’s possible he’ll wind up getting another opportunity somewhere this offseason.

Swaggerty represents an interesting low-risk lottery ticket for the White Sox moving forward. The 25-year-old former first-round pick got into just 22 minor league games this season before being released last month by the Pirates. He’s appeared in just five games in the majors in his career.

Swaggerty has been cut loose by the Pirates after going unclaimed on waivers. The 25-year-old former first-round pick, who has gotten into just 22 games this season in the minors while his wife battles a rare and painful blood disease, shouldn’t have too much difficulty landing a new opportunity on the open market.

The Pirates needed to free up a spot on their 40-man roster after their plethora of prospect promotions on Monday and Swaggerty wound up being the odd-man out. The 25-year-old is still talented enough that he could pique another club’s interest on waivers.

Swaggerty made quite a case by hitting .379/.471/.690 this spring, but the Pirates want him playing regularly and weren’t going to use him over Jack Suwinski just yet. One imagines he will get a long look if an outfielder goes down or Bryan Reynolds gets traded.

He’s 5-for-15 with two homers. Swaggerty is probably playing the best of the Pirates’ backup outfield candidates at the moment, but it’s still hard to see the team keeping him as a reserve when he’d likely be better off playing regularly in Triple-A. Cal Mitchell and Ryan Villade have better shots at the gig.

Swaggerty went 1-for-9 with four strikeouts in his first stint in the majors. He’ll surely get another opportunity later this season but for now will get some more seasoning at Indy.

Swaggerty will make his highly-anticipated major-league debut Tuesday evening against the Tigers in Pittsburgh. The 24-year-old outfielder was the Pirates’ first-round pick back in 2018 out of the University of South Alabama. He hit .280/.362/.439 with four homers and five steals across 150 plate appearances in 35 games this season for Triple-A Indianapolis. He’s certainly worth monitoring for fantasy managers in deeper mixed leagues.