Pirates bring back outfielder on minor league contract

The Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday reunited with outfielder Joshua Palacios, signing the 30-year-old to a minor league contract. He’ll report to Triple-A Indianapolis. The move brings back a player who spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons with the organization and appeared in 114 major league games for Pittsburgh during that stretch.

Palacios compiled a .236/.291/.398 slash line with the Pirates, collecting 11 doubles, two triples, 12 home runs, 49 RBIs and six stolen bases. His busiest season with the team came in 2023, when he appeared in a career-high 91 big league games.

Palacios, who turns 31 later this month, originally joined Pittsburgh organization in 2022 as a minor league Rule 5 selection from the Washington Nationals. He was first drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the fourth round of the 2016 MLB Draft out of Auburn.

Across parts of five major league seasons with the Blue Jays, Nationals, Pirates and Chicago White Sox from 2021-25, Palacios owns a career .223/.287/.349 batting line. In 207 MLB games and 578 plate appearances, he has accumulated 17 doubles, two triples, 15 home runs, 64 RBIs and seven stolen bases. Around one-quarter of his major league playing time came with the White Sox during the first half of the 2025 season before he spent the remainder of that year at the Triple-A level.

Palacios has been considerably more productive in Triple-A, where he carries a .293/.382/.475 slash line in nearly 800 career plate appearances. He has also maintained impressive walk and strikeout rates in the minors, although he has experienced more swing-and-miss against major league pitching. Defensively, he is capable of filling in at center field but primarily profiles as a corner outfielder.

Palacios’s return also gives the Pirates additional outfield depth at Triple-A after the club released Dominic Fletcher and promoted Jack Brannigan following Konnor Griffin’s move to the injured list.