Pirates acquire catcher from Boston

To make room on the 40-man roster, Pittsburgh designated catcher Wyatt Toregas for assignment.

McKenry, 26, was drafted out Middle Tennessee State University by the Colorado Rockies in the seventh round of the 2006 MLB Draft. Colorado traded the right-handed hitter to the Red Sox in late March for RHP Daniel Turpen.

With Ryan Doumit (ankle) on the 15-day DL and likely out until late July, Chris Snyder (60-day DL, back surgery) possibly done for the season and Jason Jaramillo (elbow) ailing at Triple-A Indianapolis, McKenry gives the Pirates a more potent offensive player than Toregas to pair with Dusty Brown behind the plate.

McKenry has just nine career plate appearances in the major leagues, but he has a .268 batting average, a .337 on-base percentage and a .425 slugging percentage in 492 career plate appearances at the Triple-A level.

John Sickels, a minor league expert and author of The Baseball Prospect Book 2011, said in his book that McKenry "is not going to hit for a high batting average in the majors, but he has power and is a dangerous mistake hitter, especially against lefties...On defense, he avoids mistakes and blocks pitches extremely well, and has a good reputation as a field general."

Oliver, a major league projection system used by The Hardball Times that incorporates minor league statistics, forecasts that McKenry will bat .230/.294/.374 in the big leagues. For comparison, Brown is projected to hit .229/.300/.366 and Toregas has a .227/.287/.367 forecast. Collectively, major league catchers have a .243/.315/.382 line in 2011.