5 PM on Wednesday afternoon was the deadline for MLB teams to add minor league players to their 40 man roster in order to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft. With this, new Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington had his first course of action as the team’s new GM.
Cherington, with the help of assistant Kevan Graves and minor league director Larry Broadway, chose five players to add to the 40 man roster. These five players were third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, shortstop Oneil Cruz, first baseman Will Craig, and pitchers Blake Cederlind and Cody Ponce.