The Pittsburgh Pirates are giving Anthony Alford another chance in the outfield after his standout performance at Triple-A Indianapolis, and they made a series of moves Saturday afternoon to make room for him on their roster.
The Pirates selected Alford and optioned corner infielder Phillip Evans to Triple-A. They cleared room on the 40-man roster by reinstating infielder Erik Gonzalez from the 10-day injured list and then designating him for assignment. Indianapolis made two other moves, releasing outfielder Dustin Fowler and trading infielder T.J. Rivera to the Philadelphia Phillies.
The move comes after Alford went 4 for 5 with two home runs and five RBIs in a 12-8 win over the Iowa Cubs on Friday night and two days after he hit a two-run homer in a 2-0 win in Des Moines. Alford is in the starting lineup at left field and batting seventh for Saturday’s game at the Cincinnati Reds.
Alford, 27, won the competition in center field to start Opening Day but batted .083 (2 for 24) with 16 strikeouts and four walks in 11 games before being designated for assignment April 21. He cleared waivers and was sent to the alternate training site, then Indianapolis. Alford slashed .307/.420/.593 with 12 doubles, 14 home runs and 41 RBIs in 56 games there, although he had more than twice as many strikeouts (78) than walks (33).
“He’s going to get an opportunity to play,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “With (Ben) Gamel being on the IL right now, we have at-bats in left field. And (Alford) has deserved to be back up here. When you send guys out and give them challenges and they perform, you end up giving them an opportunity to come back.”
Evans was batting .208 with five doubles, five home runs and 16 RBIs in 72 games. Shelton said Evans was tenative at the plate, and the Pirates want to see him work on being more aggressive, so sending him to Indianapolis will give him a chance to get more consistent at-bats.
Gonzalez, who has started at first base, shortstop and third base, batted .232 with seven doubles, two homers and 21 RBIs in 71 games.
“That was a challenging one, especially with the kind of person Erik is,” Shelton said. “One of the things is we’ve acquired some people recently that we’re going to give opportunities to currently and then moving forward. Because of that, Erik ended up being a roster casualty.”
Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at kgorman@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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