pirates' top prospects fangraphs

Top 35 Prospects: Pittsburgh Pirates | FanGraphs Baseball Malone, a former first round high schooler who was part of the Starling Marte trade with Arizona, has barely pitched since he was acquired, and dealt with shoulder injuries in 2022. He was passed over in the 2022 Rule 5 Draft despite his stuff quality because hes so raw as a strike-thrower. His command and changeup are both still works in progress, but his 2022 fastball strike% (68%) is an encouraging sign, and again, Jones has a special level of athleticism that should enable him to hone both over time. But Jones athleticism and physical strength drove confidence that he could maintain plus fastball velocity across a starters workload in pro ball (which so far has been true), and his natural breaking ball bite gave him at least one likely plus pitch to go with it. If he does end up having relevant chase issues, he might track like a left-handed hitting Brendan Rodgers, but Johnsons makeup and personality are so universally lauded that its fair to expect him to make relevant adjustments and become a key cog on Pittsburghs next competitive team. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. In cases like these, sometimes the things that initially pique your interest, like data and/or available video, are enough to excite on their own even as you acknowledge that the error bars are as wide as can be because of the relative dearth of reinforcing club opinions. His Adonis-like physique helps him generate plus pull-side power, and he will show it to you without overswinging he simply lacks bat control and breaking ball recognition. Selbys fastball sits 96-98 mph and he looks to blow it past hitters up in the zone. His size creates some stiffness and imbalance during his swing, which can lead to him putting suboptimal contact in play. in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. Vilade spent some time near the top of the Rockies list due to his feel for contact. Burrows had success as a starter throughout a 2022 season split between Double- and Triple-A before shoulder inflammation effectively ended his season. Castillo is a loose rotator without a lot of bat speed, but he seems to find a way to put the bat on the ball and the power might come if he gets stronger. His 2022 performance deserves some age-related adjustment, but its possible we saw flaws in Pegueros game exposed by upper-level pitching. Jimenez has a very good sweeping, upper-70s curveball and creates plus action on a changeup that he sells with fantastic arm speed. Johnson often ends his swing with his torso having made a full 180 degree rotation, sometimes swinging with such ferocious bat speed that he loses his balance and faceplants in the batters box. Plaz had a cartoonish line in the DSL (he slugged over .700), but hes very burly and physically mature for a 17-year-old, so wed like to see him do it stateside. Amid a couple of short IL stints in 2022, Selby put up impressive numbers split between Double- and Triple-A and then looked great in the Arizona Fall League. The top six were already know from this list, because Fangraphs had six Pirates in their top 100 prospects. Jameson Taillon / SP 4. Even if sliders are a chronic issue for Davis, hell likely still get to enough power to produce better than the average everyday catcher. Connor Scott, RF Despite all of that, Priester took a hit in a lot of the national prospect outlets, dropping off quite a few Top 100 lists. He has now struck out nearly 30% of the time during each of the last two seasons, but hes still performed comfortably above the league average at each stop because of the quality of the contact he does make. He was ranked 25th on the Pirates list at the end of 2022, but we were blown away after watching him on video and seeing some of his underlying DSL data during the construction of this list. Cristofer Melendez, RHP Even though he was sitting 96-98 in Arizona, Webbs fastball doesnt play like an upper-90s pitch right now, and his mid-80s breaking ball quality is highly variable (lots of 30s, some 50s). To be fair, he was only about average in terms of OAA. Defensively, he has mostly played second base so far in his professional career, with just a handful of starts at short. Theyre finding them. 2023 Updated In-Season Projections Now 24 and neither protected from nor claimed during the 2022 Rule 5 draft, its imperative for him to start throwing strikes more consistently in order to find his way to a big league bullpen. DSL data is noisy, in part because pitchers there dont yet throw enough strikes or with much velocity compared to more advanced levels of the minors. Matt Gorski, OF Neil Walker / 2B 5. He also mixes in the occasional changeup or curveball, which accounted for a combined 11% of his offerings at Low-A. Johnson was a well-regarded prospect basically as soon as he reached high school, and there were scouts who were so excited when they first watched him hit that they considered him a future top 5-10 pick when he was only a freshman. The Pirates are going to develop him at many different positions with the hope that he can provide a late-game upgrade at a couple different spots (hes already very good at third base), serve as righty power off the bench, and work in middle relief. His breaking ball is now a mid-80s power breaker thats up to 88-89 at peak and generates plus chase and whiff rates. He sits in the upper 80s right now but has promising underlying traits and plenty of time to develop. Pegueros lack of throwing accuracy from shortstop is concerning. Prospects Coverage | FanGraphs Baseball In addition to sending Bradley back to Boston, the Milwaukee Brewers are also sending two of their top-30 prospects. Thats something to watch as Jones continues to progress through the minors. In his time at Bradenton, Chandler struck out 33 batters over 26 innings, and while his walk rate was an unacceptably high 15.8%, thats actually down a notch from what he was allowing over a larger sample on the complex. A second base-only defensive fit puts the onus on Pegueros bat to perform at an everyday level. Hes on track to debut in 2025 as a starter if those issues improve and as a reliever if they do not. Endy had an incredible 2022 statline .323/.407/.590 most of which was generated at hitter-friendly Greensboro. From a heuristics standpoint, you cant do much better than Rodriguezs profile. Grant Hartwig is one of the most promising under-the-radar prospects in the New York Mets system. His footwork on throws to second is clunky and variable, which often impacts his throw times and accuracy, but the pure arm strength is in there. Its unlikely hell make enough of an offensive impact to be a primary catcher, but hes very likely to spend time on big league 40-man rosters as a second or third catcher. Every once in a while he will show you the power, and hes very good at hitting pitches out away from him to the opposite field with authority, but you can get him out if you can execute location against Gonzales, and big league pitchers often do. Back with former Astros pitching coach Brent Strom in Arizona . Eddy Yean, RHP Joness velocity and breaking ball quality (a power, mid-80s slider with vertical action) give him the floor of a really good reliever, especially if he can somehow throw harder an inning at a time. Pedro Alvarez / 3B 2. Theres still some prospect clout here because of Nolascos power and long-haul physicality, but at this stage, he should be considered more of power-driven flier than a likely big leaguer. by Handedness, 25th on the Pirates list at the end of 2022, Effectively Wild Episode 1966: Joe West, Young Man, Ben Cherington on Pittsburghs Two Top Prospects. The type of contact he makes is unlikely to ever lead to home run power commensurate with a true everyday player, but Bae makes enough stinging, all-fields contact that he projects to hit plenty of doubles and triples. Mason Martin, 1B Barring a velo bump or another significant alteration to some of the more concerning elements of his profile, he looks like a single-inning up/down reliever. None of his other pitches are above average in fact most of them are currently below average but Chen has plus command projection and a plus changeup, so hes pretty likely to pitch at the back of a big league rotation or as an innings-eating spot starter. Still right on the cusp of graduating from prospect eligibility, Kranick made four appearances in the minors to start the 2022 season before being called up to the major league bullpen. If it does, he should be a 50, and that grade was discussed during the Pirates list-making process. The recent track record of hitters this size isnt favorable, with only Franmil Reyes really panning out, but its exciting to watch Blanco take BP and see how loose and athletic he is for his size. ago Barco is a low-slot lefty with advanced command and several underlying pitch traits that give clubs hope of more upside even though he looks like a lower-variance backend starter prospect on the surface. Quick backfield looks at him have his tools in more of an extra outfielder bucket for now. Hudson Head, CF Chandler started the 2022 season on the complex, where he showed two-way promise, slashing .231/.444/.654 over 36 plate appearances while annihilating opposing batters, issuing 27 strikeouts and giving up just three hits without allowing a run over 15.1 innings. Thats hard enough to do for any batter, let alone one whose schedule also includes the grueling demands of pitching development. He re-emerged in 2022 as a 24-year-old at Triple-A, and had an offensive season commensurate with that of an extra outfield prospect, a lefty stick with more raw power than hed hit for in games, but enough bat to play a bench role provided hes capable of playing center field. He has a career .387 OBP but hasnt been able to actualize his plus raw power in games, driving the ball into the ground at a whopping 66% clip in 2021 and a 54% rate in 2022. Jerez has above-average power and a 70 arm. As a right-handed hitter almost all of Endys damage is done on outer-third pitches that he can get fully extended against. While hes played a bunch of shortstop, he is much more likely to wind up on the edge of 3B/1B than he is to see middle infield time at maturity. Unlike the other lists released yesterday, Fangraphs has not posted their top 100 prospects list yet, so we didn't already have some idea of the top of their list. Signed as an undrafted free agent in 2021, the 25-year-old right-hander has a degree in microbiology and premedical studies from Oxford, Ohio's Miami University, and he has worked as a . Pathways toward a more impactful role are most likely to be carved by Harringtons command outperforming this projection. Whats more, theres a chance Triolo hits enough to simply be an everyday option at second (or if he turns out to be okay in center). ago They do not like solemeto or Gonzalez. Pittsburgh Pirates: Top 10 Players Under Age 26 (as of 4/1/11) 1. That fact isn't apparent on his Baseball-Reference or FanGraphs pages, but for about 48 hours, Maggi, who homered to break up the Yankees' shutout bid in the ninth inning of the Pirates' 9-1 split-squad loss on Thursday, enjoyed life in the Majors. Garcia is only 19 but is already sitting 96. But the improvement on his slider means he could solidify a role as a middle reliever, especially if the converted infielder is able to re-establish the fastball velos he flirted with a few years ago. Gonzales had a 68% Z-contact% as a 23-year-old at Double-A. Pittsburgh Pirates 2021 Top 50 Prospects January 1, 2021 Kyle Brown General, MiLB, NL Central, Pirates, Top 50 Lists 2 Graphic design by John Stewart, @jonance on Twitter The Pirates had a woeful time in 2020 once the season got going. If he moves to first base, this will become especially scary. Climbing the minor league ladder often comes with offensive slumps, many of which are cured as hitters accrue at-bats at the more advanced level. Readers should note that taking an aggressive line with players like this has yielded predictably mixed results in the past (so far, so good: Kevin Alcantara, Marco Luciano, Alexander Canario, Jordy Vargas, etc. We added RosterResource's Depth Charts; these reflect a team's current. A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. Even though hes so young, youre not really projecting on his frame in a positive way so much as it feels possible Kennedy could have impact command at maturity, because his delivery is so effortless and the quality of his fastball strikes so advanced. Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Here's a link to the Top 25.. Link to the Top 50.. Link to the Top 75.. as compiled by Ben Clemens and the FanGraphs staff. Big league sliders might force Davis to make an adjustment, but so far his contact performance has been solidly average. ), and some of the recent, perhaps overzealous examples (Maikel Escotto, Rodolfo Nolasco) are in this system. Martin has plus-plus raw power and a 30-grade hit tool, not enough for first base but maybe enough for consideration overseas. Cubs pitching prospect Hayden Wesneski is proving he belongs in his latest Spring Training outing. He has a pronounced bat wrap. The organization will be thrilled if . As a wrap-up, the Pirates have. RotoWire News: Gonzales will join the Pirates' major-league camp this spring. The FanGraphs prospect team presents their 2022 top 100 list . Across his 94.1 innings, he racked up 111 strikeouts against just 31 walks, with a 1.21 WHIP. 2 prospect to Minors camp after injury February 24, 2023 Bucs invite top prospects Davis, Johnson, Priester to camp February 2, 2023 Shim realizes first part of dream as prospect signs with Bucs January 26, 2023 Even with that in mind, any team would be happy to sign a teenager with this kind of stuff for just $750,000 of their bonus pool. His fastball remains in the mid-90s but continues to underperform in terms of its bat-missing ability due to its hittable line. In August of 2022, Jun-Seok announced he would skip the September KBO draft in order to sign with an MLB club right away. 2018 Brewers batting, pitching, and fielding traditional and advanced stats. Hes on the 40-man roster and will likely get a chance to sink or swim on the big league roster in 2023. We. Those risks apply here. He has a wide arsenal, including a changeup and a two-seamer, but tends to rely more heavily on pairing his riding fastball and curveball to keep hitters off balance. Their top ten, in. His fastball velocity is down, in the 92-94 mph range, a far cry from Priesters upper-90s peak. . Swaggerty matched the nine home runs he posted in 2019, but this time, he did so against better pitching, in fewer at-bats, and in a much less hitter-friendly park, and he improved on his walk rate by a couple of ticks. Hes different from Kieboom (lever length) and Kiura (simpler footwork) in meaningful ways, but that entire group (and Downs) has had issues with letter-high fastballs, which Gonzales often swings underneath. There were only three big league hitters with 100 plate appearances who had sub-70% in-zone contact rates in 2022 (Chris Morel, Brett Phillips, Eli White). Last year, Fraizers 2021 performance at Greensboro (which included 20 homers) convinced us that he had a chance to be a big deal, but his plate discipline was a big problem against Double-A pitching. Jones spent 2022, his second full pro season, at High-A Greensboro, where he sat 94-98 mph across 122.2 innings and posted a 26.7% K% and 9.6% BB%. He might end up becoming the player the industry hoped Francisco Meja would become. Roelmy Garcia, RHP The Pirates snagged him in Decembers Rule 5 draft, making him only the second lefty reliever on their 40-man, so hell likely be called upon for consistent use out of the big league pen in 2023. In the past, Ortizs high-effort delivery and sub-optimal fastball shape put him on the starter/reliever line, but hes thrown plenty of strikes across multiple seasons while simultaneously developing more velocity and comfortably projects as a starting pitcher now. 2022 Top Prospects | THE BOARD | FanGraphs A draft-eligible sophomore in 2022, Harrington is an athletic, pitchability righty with a tailing low-90s fastball and a power-sink changeup in the mid-80s. He has a short arm action, which aids in his command, though refining his location will likely be the order of the day upon his return from injury as he continues to work out of the Pirates pen. That pitch plays up against lefties for reasons that are probably obvious, but it isnt a nasty pitch in a vacuum. Cy Nielson, LHP This FV grade is commensurate with a mid-first round high school infield prospect. Bolton was able to stay healthy for the entirety of 2022, which was an accomplishment in itself given that his professional career has been plagued by injury since it began. The high-waisted Lopez has a wide range of athletic/mobility outcomes that will impact where he ultimately ends up on defense. His swing may look different in 2023 and prompt a re-evaluation. Solometos fastball sits in the 88-92 mph range. Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports. Looking forward to fangraphs being wrong Campman92 5 min. Ke'Bryan Hayes, Oneil Cruz, Mitch Keller, Travis Swaggerty, Tahnaj Thomas and. Top 35 Prospects: Pittsburgh Pirates by Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel November 26, 2018 Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hes now a career .303/.394/.533 hitter and has had meaningful statistical success up through Double-A, where he spent about a month toward the end of 2022. Pittsburgh Pirates Top 10 Prospects Updated by Marc Hulet September 10, 2018 The Pirates system doesn't have immense depth or a long line of high-impact players but the big league club could. Chandlers pitching performance wasnt as lights-out as it had been pre-promotion, but it was still a display of the rightys potential. Luigi Hernandez, RHP. Pirates Prospects Daily: Bryan Reynolds Plays Left Field In His Spring Short but not small, his lack of length and size is actually an advantage for Johnsons swing, as he can enjoy a bat path geared for power and lift without it being too long. To that point in the season, his mid-teens walk rate had inspired guarded optimism regarding an improved approach, though Nunez also may have become intentionally passive, as his raw swing% was a minuscule 40%. Not counting his time at the alt site in 2020, last season was Boltons first time back in competitive action since 2019. Hes 19 and struggled over the winter in Australia. Might the changeup develop over time into a plus pitch? Gorski had a nutty statline at Greensboro and indeed has plus raw power, but its tough to project a real role for a 25-year-old who struck out as much as he did at High- and Double-A. Hes a good enough defender that hed probably being playing shortstop had he ended up at Arizona State, but in pro ball the keystone is Johnsons likeliest defensive home given his maxed-out, stocky build and what projects to be somewhat limited range. This also may have been part of why the Pirates lost so many players (11!) Its now fair to expect that the current version of Nicolas will be capable of holding down a spot toward the back of Pittsburghs rotation by the middle of 2024. Spending all season at Triple-A, he put up decent numbers, striking out roughly a quarter of opposing batters and allowing just four homers all season. He has above-average bat-to-ball skills and very little power. 2022 Pittsburgh Pirates Summary Stats Schedule Player Usage Depth Chart The depth charts found on the Team Pages are based on projected playing time, NOT the current status of a team's roster. He spent two years at a JUCO before heading to South Alabama in 2020, and he only pitched 21 total innings for the Jaguars due to the timing of his transfer. D-backs Dodgers Giants Padres Rockies: Offseason Tools. Some of his early-career success seems to have stemmed from his physical maturity. He absolutely towers over his father, who was twice a Baseball America Top 100 prospect but spent most of his pro career in Japan. While he hasnt continued producing the mid-to-upper-90s velocity he did during college relief outings, Nicolas still sits a respectable 92-95 mph and leans on his two above-average breaking balls, a low-80s curveball and a mid-80s slider. He is a 6-foot-5 20-year-old, after all. ago I'm surprised how far Nick Gonzalez and Hudson Head dropped in a few years. A proactive bullpen move could put him in position to debut in 2024. Hes an arm strength reclamation project with a shot to pitch in Pittsburghs bullpen. That makes changeup development, or anything that might help him deal with righties, important, and indeed thats already underway Solometo has begun to more heavily incorporate a mid-80s changeup into his pitch mix. Hes naturally adept at framing low strikes because hes already so low to the ground, but its also fair to wonder if such a small athlete can withstand the grind of catching 80-100 games every summer. Hes a young, switch-hitting catcher with cartoonish offensive numbers (especially from a bat-to-ball standpoint) and uncommon defensive versatility, as hes played a bunch of second base and left field as well. The site listed four Dodgers prospects on their list. However, Priester makes up for it with his preferred secondaries a huge, arcing curveball that Priester has had forever, and a more recently developed mid-80s slider both of which have garnered swing-and-miss rates well above the big league average. This was a four-year rookie-level player who had suddenly been added to the Royals 40-man roster after the 2021 season even though he had all of 32 innings above Low-A. Drafted as a shortstop, he fell down the defensive spectrum pretty quickly but without finding a way to lift the ball and hit for power in games. Defensively, Nunez has transitioned from full-time third baseman to mostly first base, with a handful of innings in the other corner of the infield still mixed in. On the showcase circuit, he was less whiff-prone than is typical for a multi-sport guy from the Northeast, though he was a pull-only hitter and struggled to contact fastballs in the upper/outer quadrant of the zone. Here hes projected as a no. Lopez is a huge-framed infielder who hit .286/.329/.476 and launched 19 homers in just 106 games as a 20-year-old at hitter-friendly Greensboro in 2022. Juan Jerez, 3B Instead, Triolo looks like hell be a superutility guy. White was seen early and often as an underclassman since he went to a Philadelphia high school with University of Virginia outfielder Chris Newell, and would frequently match up against the Siani brothers during varsity play. Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Updated FanGraph Rankings After the season, he again played winter ball, this time in Puerto Rico with Carolina, where Cheng struggled. As for the top three prospects on all six lists, their average rankings: Termarr Johnson - 28.2 Endy Rodriguez - 38.5 Henry Davis - 52 John Dreker + posts John started working at Pirates. Format = Team Position Player | Age on 4/1/23 | Highest level played | ETA. Davis plate crowding helps enable his pull-heavy approach. During a full season at Double-A in 2022, he saw time at third base, shortstop, and center field, and in 2023 hell start seeing more time at second base. FanGraphs Top 43 Pirates prospects blogs.fangraphs Vote 3 comments Best Add a Comment Robert_roberts82 14 min. If he continues missing bats at High-A in 2023, though, Pittsburgh may be forced to add him. His fastball velo is up a tick since 2021, now comfortably sitting in the 95-96 mph range and routinely touching 98. Terrero is a compact outfielder with a well-rounded skill set and strong rookie-level line. These rankings are now available on The Board on the 2023 Fantasy Rankings tab, where you can also see the Top 120 Dynasty Rankings!. Shim is a big, physically mature righty with huge present arm strength, creeping into the upper 90s. Because theyre about the same age as high school draft prospects, apples-to-apples projection and tools comparisons are feasible, which then allows you to triangulate where theyd be selected in a draft based on those comparisons and get a sense of how to FV them. The powerfully built Kelly, 19, is a squat but loose righty who sits 93-95 mph and throws quality strikes with his fastball. on Twitter: "wNS9+ With @longenhagen Discussing the @fangraphs Overall, the Pirates adding six prospects to their top 50 list is pretty impressive. Chen is a very advanced righty with a deep repertoire led by his plus changeup. Injured Arms Triolo earned industry praise for his defensive aptitude and high marks for his baseball IQ and instincts. If you want to read me wax poetic about that you can check out my end of year review. His four-seamer was around the same velo as it had been at the alt site, sitting comfortably at 93 mph and maxing out at 95. Reports around his once-stellar defense have dimmed, and were hoping its due more to rust and lost time than to an actual regression in ability. Hard-Throwers Poised to compete for a rotation spot when 2023 camp breaks, Ortiz is one of a few high-upside Pirates youngsters who look like theyd fit in a contenders rotation. From that point on, however, Triolo walked more and struck out less, such that both rates sat in the mid-teens, while flipping the slugging switch on to the tune of 13 doubles, five triples, and eight home runs over the course of the same number of games. His chase rates were at or below league average across the board, further emphasizing the troubling command. His arm action is very long, and he bends at his torso as he lunges toward the plate, allowing for more extension during his release, but also creating an uncomfy angle that adds stress to his shoulder. He missed basically all of September and was shelled in the only start he made coming off the IL. Both feel like high-floored backend or long relief types who need to walk an atypical path to an impact role. Harry Ford is one of the top prospects in the Seattle Mariners organization, and he is also unique among his peers. Carter Bins, C The top of this draft class right now is LSU outfielder Dylan Crews, who had a big weekend. Jones checked all but two scouting boxes as a high school pitcher. Pirates 2B Termarr Johnson | 18 | A | 2025. Aspects of the offensive profile that made him exciting in the first place are still here, led by Pegueros compact but authoritative swing, which is especially good at punishing pitches at the very top of the strike zone. Nunez started 2022 at St. Louis Double-A affiliate before being dealt to Pittsburgh as part of the Jos Quintana deal at the trade deadline.

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