Pittsburgh Pirates claim infielder from A's

Jason Burke | Nov 1, 2024

Sep 6, 2024; Oakland, California, USA; Oakland Athletics third baseman Tristan Gray (16) during the fourth inning against the Detroit Tigers at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

The Pittsburgh Pirates claimed corner infielder Tristan Gray off waivers from the A's on Thursday, re-joining the team that drafted him out of Rice back in 2017. After selecting Gray in the 13th round, the Pirates flipped him and Daniel Hudson to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for Corey Dickerson.

In the time since, Gray has played in a total of 17 MLB games, batting a cumulative .152 with a .222 OBP and a 45 wRC+. The 28-year-old split his time in the bigs with the Miami Marlins and the Oakland A's in 2024, batting a combined .107 with a .194 OBP. That said, his stats in Triple-A were solid. Gray hit .251 with a .322 OBP and a .789 OPS

Gray is not listed on the Pirates 26-man roster projection over at Roster Resource and is instead projected to be in the minor leagues yet again. Gray has two options remaining.

For the A's, there was seemingly an internal competition between Gray and CJ Alexander, both of whom were claimed off waivers within about a week of one another. Both manned third and first base, while Alexander also threw in some looks in left field for the team in Triple-A Las Vegas. The competition seemed to be who could establish themselves as an option at third base headed into 2025, and while Gray got a look in the big leagues with Oakland, it was Alexander that is still with the organization.

Alexander made his big-league debut with the Kansas City Royals this summer, getting into three games at third base and another as the team's DH, going a cumulative 1-for-8 with three strikeouts. In 12 games with Las Vegas, he hit .294 with a .410 OBP, three home runs and 14 RBI. While that could be attributed to a small sample size, he also hit over .300 with Omaha this year, clubing 16 dingers and holding an OPS of .907 in over 80 games.

He seems like he could be one of those guys that just needs a shot to show what he can do at the big-league level, and the A's are definitely the spot for those types of players. Brent Rooker was also a waiver claim from the Royals and in the two years since he has become one of the best bats in baseball.

The chances of Alexander being the A's next Rooker are fairly slim, if only because Rooker is one of the ten best hitters in baseball, and the odds of landing two such players via waiver claims from the same team just seem miniscule.

There's also no guarantee that Alexander will be in the mix at third base heading into 2025. Third base is the A's weakest position on paper heading into next year, and while they have a couple of options like Alexander, Darell Hernaiz and Brett Harris, they'll likely be looking for an upgrade from elsewhere at the hot corner. The hard part will be convincing players to come play in Sacramento.