pirates' top prospects fangraphs

While he was already throwing quite hard, Ortiz came into even more velocity in 2022 and averaged 97 mph on his fastball, up two ticks from 2021. A two-way high school prospect, Flowers was primarily a center fielder at Florida State but transitioned to the mound full-time in pro ball. Format = Team Position Player | Age on 4/1/23 | Highest level played | ETA. 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. Quick backfield looks at him have his tools in more of an extra outfielder bucket for now. 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. Hes already taken a sizable step in the breaking ball department in just two pros seasons. The clubs hit rate on these trades per prospect isnt great, but the hit rate per trade has been better than that because of their risk-mitigating approach. 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. His letter-high, heater-heavy style of pitching, like Gerrit Coles, results in lots of fly balls and he may have long-term vulnerability to the home run. This is the third year were delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which youll see in the position column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. 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 changeup is deceptive against batters in both boxes, but in particular against righties, who have a 40% chase rate on the offering. He and Solometo have the same flavor of stuff wrapped in different packages. Solometo was a very high-profile amateur pitcher, drafted in the second round but given a bonus commensurate with the 24th overall pick ($2.8 million) as one of several exciting high schoolers who Pittsburgh landed with the pool space freed up by Henry Davis under slot agreement. Pedro Alvarez / 3B 2. Here's a link to the Top 25.. Link to the Top 50.. Link to the Top 75.. Pittsburgh Pirates Top 10 Prospects Updated - FanGraphs Baseball Jones checked all but two scouting boxes as a high school pitcher. Pittsburgh graduated two top-50 prospects in 2022 (Oneil Cruz and Roansy Contreras) and still has a top-five system, or close to it, because of the three potential stars atop the group and the many upper-level, core role-playing hitters who should arrive in the big leagues soon. He has the stuff to continue developing as a starter just in case things click, but the bullpen is Jimenezs more likely future destination. Once-Loved Outfielders His defensive versatility will allow the Pirates to play in-game matchups that take advantage of Baes speed and ability to put balls in play. Quants and front office analyst types are more bearish, citing issues with Priesters fastball playability. A fresh start with a new org (he was a waiver claim this offseason) might help him find a swing that produces more power. He also mixes in the occasional changeup or curveball, which accounted for a combined 11% of his offerings at Low-A. Perhaps as an adjustment to deal with this issue, Priester now mixes in plenty of fastballs for which he pronates on release, giving the pitch screwball-like spin. Hayden Wesneski is a 25-year-old starting pitcher in the Chicago Cubs system. That makes it seem all but inevitable that Chandler will eventually ditch the bat to optimize his development on the mound. 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%. The Royals designated Webb for assignment in mid-November and he elected free agency before signing with the Pirates. Gonzales hands work in a short, explosive loop. Brennan Malone, RHP. 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. If it does, he should be a 50, and that grade was discussed during the Pirates list-making process. Traded from Miami during the 2021-22 offseason as part of the three-player package for Jacob Stallings, Nicolas spent 2022 with Altoona, where he worked 90 innings with a FIP and ERA close to 4.00. Hunter Stratton, RHP His slider has a sweeping horizontal shape, but his inability to locate it has hampered its utility. It sounds like Brannigan is going to develop as a two-way player. Injured Arms More glove-side fastballs might help him set up his sweeping slider more effectively, as that pitch has good-looking movement but wasnt a dominant offering in college. 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. Opinions around Shim vary because he offers less physical projection than is typical in the international talent space, even for an older pitcher. His mother spent her childhood in London, while his father "a real Brit; he still has an . This also may have been part of why the Pirates lost so many players (11!) In 2022, it garnered just 8% whiffs and 13% chase during his time at Double-A, where he spent most of the season. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, Hes been able to maintain nearly average contact rates despite a pull-heavy approach to contact. 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. RotoWire News: Gonzales will join the Pirates' major-league camp this spring. Acquired in a. Ryan Vilade, LF Given how good he is at third, it seems likely that Triolo will be a good defensive second baseman if given enough time, and hes a fine emergency option at short (Kyle Farmer has played there a ton and Triolo is about that good). As of list publication, Rodriguez is one of just two catchers on Pittsburghs 40-man roster, and while its possible hes beaten out by a veteran non-roster invitee like Tyler Heineman, Rodriguezs defensive chops and versatility give him a shot to break camp with the big club, split time with Austin Hedges, and moonlight at one or two other positions before eventually seizing the primary catcher job. Axiel Plaz, C A core scouting rule of thumb is to take the long view with catchers who have impact offensive potential. His breaking ball is his best pitch and he could be a lefty relief piece. FanGraphs Top 43 Pirates prospects : r/buccos - reddit.com Top 51 Prospects: Pittsburgh Pirates | FanGraphs Baseball 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. Campana, soon to be 21, is the youngest of this group. Samaniego looks like a typical second lefty out of a bullpen, sitting 92-94 mph with a deceptive, whippy arm action, and locating his fastball with precision on the arm-side part of the plate. 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. He walked more than a batter per inning in 2022. Ideally, Nicolas can develop an offering that has some arm-side movement, one better than his current changeup that can prevent hitters from sitting on those glove-side locations. 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. Pirates 2B Termarr Johnson | 18 | A | 2025. If his defense continues to look like it did in the 2022-23 Dominican Winter League during 2023 spring training, he may quickly be repositioned on this list. Before he was drafted he was considered, at least at FanGraphs, a more likely reliever due to the quality of his stuff. Its going to be fascinating to watch him develop, and if it doesnt work, hell probably still be a viable reliever. A successful 2022 pro debut (47.2 IP, 9.63 K/9, 3.59 BB/9, 2.64 ERA) driven by very advanced fastball command contrasts with skepticism about how Solometos stuff will play against older and better hitters. Out over the plate, he has a tendency to stay inside fastballs and lift them toward the opposite field gap. 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. Cubs prospect Hayden Wesneski proving he belongs in the big leagues Enmanuel Terrero, OF Mets Prospect Grant Hartwig Has an Unusual Background and an East-West ago They do not like solemeto or Gonzalez. Top 51 Prospects: Pittsburgh Pirates by Eric Longenhagen February 24, 2021 Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Aside from the persistent Bryan Reynolds trade rumors, the general industry sentiment is that the team is shifting from prospect collection mode and into a phase where those players start to arrive. He sits in the upper 80s right now but has promising underlying traits and plenty of time to develop. document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () { 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. The depth-drive approach has extended to the amateur side of things, where the Pirates tend to spread out their bonus pool to at least a couple of over-slot prospects every year. Not counting his time at the alt site in 2020, last season was Boltons first time back in competitive action since 2019. 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. His 2022 was not as remarkable from a walk and strikeout standpoint but it was still good, as he hit .270/.376/.418 with 38 extra-base hits (pretty good for the Florida State League) and 33 steals at Low-A Bradenton. Ke'Bryan Hayes, Oneil Cruz, Mitch Keller, Travis Swaggerty, Tahnaj Thomas and. Head, who was part of the Joe Musgrove trade, has Kd at a 33% clip in A-ball and might also be in the midst of a swing change that gets rid of his arm bar. 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. Priesters four-seamer is divisive. His maxed-out frame is cumbersome on the infield, but his footwork at first base has improved a ton since he started playing there, and weve updated our previous DH-only projection. 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. Thats hard enough to do for any batter, let alone one whose schedule also includes the grueling demands of pitching development. DeVito brandishes a five-pitch arsenal headlined by a filthy splitter, but he struggled to locate any of his pitches well enough for them to really complement each other. His arm action looks longer and looser than it was in his injury-shortened 2021, and his upper body appears more closed, which might be helping him hide the ball longer than before. 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. Davis skills and offensive style are tailored like those of Evan Gattis. John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. With Endy Rodriguez around, it may not matter a ton. But theres big arm speed here and big riding life to Shims fastball. Harry Ford is one of the top prospects in the Seattle Mariners organization, and he is also unique among his peers. Unfortunately, he then lost the 2020 season to the pandemic and most of 2021 to a shoulder injury he sustained just 12 games into the season. His carrying tool is still his defense, especially his receiving, which is crafty and advanced. So compact and short to the baseball is Rodriguez that he can wait an extra beat to diagnose pitch types, which enables him to make in-flight adjustments to breaking balls, spoil the well-located ones, and crush the hangers. Webb dealt with a forearm strain that delayed the start of his 2022 season. 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. Hunter Stanley - Game Logs - Pitching | FanGraphs Baseball In most cases, corner-only outfielders who play consistent big league roles have better actualized their raw power in games. He entered the 2022 spring as a high-probability 40 FV prospect who some scouts thought belonged in the 40+ tier because of pitching approach changes Barco could make in pro ball that might enable a breakout, but he ended up blowing out his UCL and having Tommy John in May. His size creates some stiffness and imbalance during his swing, which can lead to him putting suboptimal contact in play. You can really see his athleticism and remarkable hip/shoulder separation on his throws down to second. . He maintained his patient approach in Altoona, and when the Double-A season ended, he was sent up to Indianapolis for the last five games of the Triple-A season. All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. There isnt suddenly big power here or anything like that, but its the start of a physical step that was likely necessary for Cheng to take to play major league ball. His swing may look different in 2023 and prompt a re-evaluation. Some aspects of that optimistic projection still exist, while others have changed or are currently absent, but the tools package here is still on par with the middle of the everyday second baseman player population, and were hoping that young Peguero will polish up his games current smudges. The pitch has natural tailing action, but Ortiz can also blow it past hitters at the letters when he wants, and his TrackMan data shows hes mixing in four- and two-seamers in the locations where theyre most effective. Fourth-round high school pitcher Owen Kellington was a participant in the 2021 Draft League and Combine, and looked like an interesting, slow-burning developmental prospect prior to a hamstring injury than ended his 2022 season. A second base-only defensive fit puts the onus on Pegueros bat to perform at an everyday level. Pittsburgh Pirates: Top 10 Players Under Age 26 (as of 4/1/11) 1. He has an interesting long-term body projection and breaking ball combination. Maikol Escotto, 2B They had a ton of depth and a need to fill their Triple-A roster with external veterans in case of injury, and its likely that they mis-evaluated some of their own players who they should have protected, players like Trey McGough, Cristian Charle, Joelvis Del Rosario, Austin Roberts, Wilkin Ramos, Jared Oliva, and Peter Solomon, all of whom have either been on past prospect lists or were flagged for interesting performance or characteristics during this list cycle. Its bat-missing capabilities are limited to the bottom arm-side portion of the zone, where this two-seam-ish fastball tends to finish. 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. 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. You can see the power and athleticism in Davis lower half throughout other aspects of his game, and its an indication that he has the ability to polish this stuff up and control the running game. Martin has plus-plus raw power and a 30-grade hit tool, not enough for first base but maybe enough for consideration overseas. He has a pronounced bat wrap. Flowers has pitched very well in the mid-minors (he carried a 2.88 ERA with Altoona in 2022) and hes been especially good at avoiding walks for a pure relief prospect. In some respects, its easy to assess DSL players. But when a potentially significant DSL prospect plays for a rebuilding team, it can be difficult to find other clubs that have pro scouting reports on them. Its not a great look to lose half a minor league rosters worth of players in the Rule 5, but that whole group might produce one or two big league role players, which is a small price to pay if theyre byprospects of a bigger group from which the Pirates can pick and choose before exposing the rest to that arcane process. Still, the teenage pitcher demo is bust-prone and, anecdotally, this seems especially true when the prospect in question already throws really hard at age 17 or 18. Oneil Cruz, SS Video Signed: July 2nd. For instance, hes struggled badly on defense, wracking up 46 errors combined the last two seasons. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. The site listed four Dodgers prospects on their list. 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. 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. Kennedys delivery is simple, compact, repeatable, and easy-looking, and you can project heavily on his changeup because of this, though right now he often gets underneath it and it tends to cut on him. A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. Both can be in the lineup every night because of Rodriguezs defensive versatility and the universal DH, and a more liberal timeshare behind the plate might help keep them both healthier and more consistently productive on offense. Hes on the 40-man roster and will likely get a chance to sink or swim on the big league roster in 2023. Here hes projected as a no. 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. His swing decisions and ability to make contact out front and tap into his latent power improved throughout the season. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb. His 2022 performance deserves some age-related adjustment, but its possible we saw flaws in Pegueros game exposed by upper-level pitching. Burrows had success as a starter throughout a 2022 season split between Double- and Triple-A before shoulder inflammation effectively ended his season. 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. Nick Gonzales - Stats - Batting | FanGraphs Baseball Mason Martin, 1B Jimenez has a very good sweeping, upper-70s curveball and creates plus action on a changeup that he sells with fantastic arm speed. He hit his stride in mid-August with back-to-back scoreless starts in which his four-seamer averaged over 96 across a combined nine innings a high water mark for the season and a true glimpse of his upside. Hernandez showed up to 2022 spring training with a harder breaking ball than he had previously shown, and as the season went along, he added to his fastball as well. His breaking ball is now a mid-80s power breaker thats up to 88-89 at peak and generates plus chase and whiff rates. Selbys fastball sits 96-98 mph and he looks to blow it past hitters up in the zone. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. Roelmy Garcia, 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). Pegueros pull-heavy style of contact leaves him vulnerable to breaking balls on the outer half, even ones that catch a lot of the plate. The powerfully built Kelly, 19, is a squat but loose righty who sits 93-95 mph and throws quality strikes with his fastball. Sunday Notes: Born To Brits, Harry Ford Could Be - blogs.fangraphs.com Scouting reports are. Connor Scott, RF Stratton, 26, sat 94-96 mph in 2022 and has a plus-flashing slider that he rarely throws for strikes. From the left side of the plate, Rodriguez has an exceptional ability to rip his hands through pitches on the inner edge of the zone. He absolutely towers over his father, who was twice a Baseball America Top 100 prospect but spent most of his pro career in Japan. 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. Maggi is, by definition, a Major Leaguer. Hes 19 and struggled over the winter in Australia. He showed a tendency to expand the zone and make some sub-optimal contact as an amateur and in his 2022 pro sample, but there are times when Johnson does this and rather than frustrate scouts and analysts, he impresses them with his ability to identify and adjust to breaking balls, his barrel feel, and his hand-eye coordination. He will be an unmistakable fixture on Pittsburghs backfields for the next couple of years and is a power-hitting corner prospect of extreme variance. Mechanically, Burrows adds additional length to his 6-foot-2 stature with an over-the-top delivery. LSU played . His swing is already geared for lift, but he doesnt currently have the raw juice to make the most of it. Hes been a fast-mover thus far and looks likely to continue that pattern, with a chance to show up on the big-league roster later this season, though a 2024 big league debut is more likely. He pitched for Panamas U18 team in September and showed a good changeup and fair slider as well. Matt Gorski, OF The Pirates got a deal done for a cool million, nearly twice the slot amount in the fourth round. Shim is a big, physically mature righty with huge present arm strength, creeping into the upper 90s. In August of 2022, Jun-Seok announced he would skip the September KBO draft in order to sign with an MLB club right away. As a high schooler, his ultra-low spin splitter seemed like the more promising pitch, but his feel for it has regressed. 76. RotoGraphs. 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. After spending most of the year at Triple-A, where he hit .289/.362/.430, Bae spent the last couple weeks of the 2022 season as an everyday member of the big league club, where he seems likely to stick throughout the coming season as a lefty-hitting 2B/OF. He missed basically all of September and was shelled in the only start he made coming off the IL. The power might be enough to make him a 1-WAR player if given regular at-bats in the big leagues, but as a second base-only defender, its hard to find an on-roster role for a player like this if they arent hitting enough to play there all the time. Cy Nielson, LHP This level of athleticism might be an indication that Rodriguez will find a way to mature into more raw power despite not having a traditionally projectable frame. Scott, Siani, and Campana all have big physical tools and have all struggled badly from a bat-to-ball standpoint. 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. 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. The bumps and bruises suffered from catching can sometimes level players for whole seasons, and Davis had a lot of them in 2022. De Los Santos contact metrics are a hair south of average, and thats the biggest indicator that theres real risk here, but boy, there is also real ceiling. Gonzales has begun to track like Keston Hiura, Carter Kieboom, and Jeter Downs, and his swing shares mechanical similarities with both Hiura and Kieboom. 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. Top Prospects. FanGraphs Prospects. If he continues missing bats at High-A in 2023, though, Pittsburgh may be forced to add him. 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 commands it consistently enough to his glove side to project as a starter. (2/2/2021) Fangraphs Releases Their List of the Top 100+ Prospects

Patron Saint Of Diverticulitis, Student Room Cambridge Offers 2021, Wnoi Police Report, Articles P