Pirates have straight midfielders Miguel Andujar to Triple-A Indianapolis, follow him transaction tracking at MLB.com. That shows he removed the exemption after being granted assigned to the mission last week.
Unsurprisingly, Andujar, 28, was not sought after by one of the other 29 clubs after being granted an exemption. He’s scored just 0.161/.212/.387 in 33 appearances since being contracted at the end of April. He was acquitted in January and that mediocre performance didn’t do much to boost his stock across the league, even though he did hit a stronger 0.284/,364/,500. much in Triple-A before being summoned.
The pinnacle of his career so far came with the Yankees in 2018 when he hit 27 home runs and knocked down 0.297/.328/.527, resulting in a second-place finish in the tournament. American League’s Rookie of the Year election. Shohei Ohtani. But shoulder surgery has wiped out much of his 2019 and he has found his third base spot due to players like DJ LeMahieu And Gio Urshela when he comes back, push him down to a role of depth and move out onto the pitch. Since then, he has been consistently successful in junior tournaments but has struggled to get another chance in the majors. Back in early 2020, he scored 0.291/.346/.508 in the farm but only 0.237/.268/.354 in the show.
Technically, Andujar has the right to refuse this assignment outright and elect free agency, because he has had more than three years of service and completely prior to that. However, he lacks the 5 years of service needed to turn it down while keeping his salary the same. He earned $1.525 million for the season, which could have resulted in him not getting the job both times he was exempt and the first time he accepted the assignment outright. Looks like he’s going to fully accept the second time around and stick with the Pirates, trying to get back into majors again.
