Roansy Contreras is back, and he'll start Wednesday night.
Ke'Bryan Hayes isn't back from his mid-back muscle strain, and his roster spot's now taken by recently acquired Kevin Padlo.
That was the summation of the Pirates' roster moves Tuesday before the game against the Red Sox at PNC Park, with Contreras and Padlo being recalled from Class AAA Indianapolis and Hayes being placed on the 10-day Injured List retroactive to Aug. 12, the day after he most recently played in Phoenix.
"Nothing really changed," Derek Shelton said of Hayes' back issues that prevented him from doing much on the just-completed trip. "That was the problem. It just didn’t get any better. We had to get him on the IL and make sure we get another body here."
Contreras, the 22-year-old right-hander who likely represents the greatest hope among the organization's young pitchers, was shut down after his July 7 start in Cincinnati, retained on the taxi squad for a week, then demoted to Indianapolis, where he'd make four starts with a 3.85 ERA, 22 strikeouts and two walks over 14 total innings.
Ben Cherington said over the weekend that Contreras had "checked all the boxes" with what the Pirates had sought in what the team's consistently described as an effort to manage his innings and strengthen him for the second half, although there also is a financial gain in keeping him in the minors via future arbitration.
Cherington declined to state what any of those boxes were, saying the team doesn't discuss developmental specifics, a stance Shelton echoed Tuesday.
"We’ve never talked about it," Shelton said of developmental specifics. "I think there are things that we do focus on and want to see. The other thing after doing that is just building him back up, to make sure he was able to come back and be a starter in the big leagues."
He'll make that next start Wednesday, 7:05 p.m., opposite Boston's 42-year-old lefty, Rich Hill, meaning there'll be two decades separating them.
Padlo, 26, plays both infield corner positions. In 20 major-league games, all over the past three years, he's slashed .143/.211/.200 with the Rays, Mariners, Giants, then Mariners again. Seattle DFAd him last week, and the Pirates claimed him off waivers.
