The Pirates announced today that catcher was reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Fellow backstop was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis in a corresponding move. reported that Grandal was at the ballpark prior to the official announcement. Davis, 24, was the first overall pick in the 2021 draft and was considered one of the top prospects in the league on his way up through the minors. He was able to make his major league debut last year but the clubs other notable catching prospect, , handled the bulk of the work behind the plate. Davis mostly played right field and hit .213/.302/.351 in his first taste of the majors. That wasnt especially impre sive production but its not uncommon for prospects to scuffle when first promoted to the big leagues and didnt nece sarily warrant concern, but Derek Law Jersey it did raise questions about how the club would proceed. Rodrguez didnt hit much in his debut either but the Pirates seemed to prefer him behind the plate, based on the way they handled the playing time last year. Rodrguez required UCL surgery in December, which put him out of action for the entire 2024 season. That was obviously bad news for the Bucs but it did at least open a window for them to experiment with Davis behind the plate at the major league level for an extended stretch of time. The results havent been especially encouraging thus far. Davis has a grade of -3 from Defensive Runs Saved so far on the season. Each of Statcast, FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus rank him as a subpar pitch framer so far this year. But the larger problem is that his poor offense has gotten even worse from last year. He has drawn walks in 13.3% of his plate appearances but has also been struck out at a huge 34.9% rate. He currently sports a batting line of .162/.280/.206 for a wRC+ of 48. His average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard hit rate are all in the 37th percentile or lower among qualified hitters. The Bucs had signed Grandal to serve as a veteran complement to Davis this year but he had to begin the season on the IL due to left foot plantar fasciitis. was on the roster with Davis to start the year but the Bucs acquired from the Giants as Delay was placed on the injured list and later required knee surgery. While Davis has struggled, Bart has been flourishing. His 28.2% strikeout rate is on the high side but hes drawn walks at a 17.9% clip and hit three home runs already. His .219/.359/.531 slash line translates to a 151 wRC+. Thats a small sample size of 39 plate appearances, but since hes out of options and Davis is struggling, it makes sense to keep him around and see what happens. For now, Davis will head down to the minors to try to get in a better groove as Bart and Grandal share the big league catching duties. In the long run, the Pirates will have to answer some questions about their plans behind the plate. Grandal is a free agent at seasons end but Rodrguez will be back in the picture for 2025. If Bart can last on the roster for the rest of the year, he can be retained via arbitration for three future seasons, but is out of options and needs to be kept on the big league roster. Davis still has a full slate of options and just 14 games of Triple-A experience, so keeping him at that level for a while isnt outrageous. But if catching isnt in his future, there will come a point where it makes sense to move him and allow him to focus more on offense and outfield defense. From a service time perspective, Davis came into 2024 with 105 days of service, leaving him 67 shy of the one-year mark. Hes added 36 here so far this year and could still get over that line if he comes back for another month-plus at some point. Lucius Fox Jersey