Rule 5 and upcoming roster moves

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY SportsThis is an update of an earlier article on the roster crunch facing the Pirates this fall. The deadline for setting 40-man rosters isn’t until about November 20, but I’m going to be off the grid for an extended period and I wanted to post an update while I still could.

Counting players on the 60-day disabled list (Brandon Cumpton, Deolis Guerra, Casey Sadler, Corey Hart, Jung-Ho Kang and Andrew Lambo), the Pirates effectively have 46 players on the 40-man roster. Of course, that’ll change quickly due to the large number of free agents the team has. In a way that’s just as well, considering that the Pirates don’t just need to protect a number of minor leaguers.…