Jake

Elmore

Elmore will serve as the hitting coach for High-A Clearwater. The 34-year-old had just signed a minor league contract with Philly last June, but was released in late August after batting just .225 with a .667 OPS in 51 plate appearances at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He recorded exactly 100 hits over parts of six major league seasons.

Elmore hasn’t appeared in the majors since a 20-game stint with the Pirates back in 2019. The 34-year-old utility man hit .225/.392/.275 across 15 games at Triple-A Lehigh Valley this season.

Elmore hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2019, when he batted .213/.245/.234 in 20 games (49 plate appearances) with the Pirates. He is a career .215/.292/.275 hitter in 217 total games at the MLB level.

Elmore had been at the team’s alternate training site after signing a minor league contract in July.

The Indians have added Elmore to their 60-man player pool and will have him report to their summer camp in Cleveland. Elmore was in spring training with the Pirates before being cut loose last month.

None of the players were on the team’s 40-man roster. Biertempfel lists prospects Juan Pie, Jean Eusebio and Conner Uselton as others that were cut loose by the Pirates.

Elmore was removed from the Pirates’ 40-man roster earlier this offseason but is back with the club as a non-roster invitee. He’ll compete for a bench job but will probably begin 2020 at Triple-A Indianapolis.

The 32-year-old has always been more of a Quad-A player than a legitimate utility option on a big league team. He has appeared in 217 games in his big league career, slashing just .215/.292/.275 with four homers and 37 RBI in 527 plate appearances. He can continue to be ignored for fantasy purposes.

Elmore led off the ninth inning with a single off of Reds’ closer Raisel Iglesias, then rode home on Kevin Newman’s walk-off two-run blast. With his two-hit effort, Elmore is hitting .231/.250/.256 with no homers and four RBI in 39 at-bats at the big league level this season.

He’s now missed two straight starts after exiting Wednesday’s game with a sore right hamstring. The Pirates are calling Reynolds day-to-day, but even a relatively minor ailment can be a season-ender at this point. Jake Elmore is in left field and Pablo Reyes is in center.