pirates' top prospects fangraphs

pirates' top prospects fangraphs

pirates' top prospects fangraphs

Posted by on Mar 14, 2023

Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports. He also mixes in the occasional changeup or curveball, which accounted for a combined 11% of his offerings at Low-A. Quants and front office analyst types are more bearish, citing issues with Priesters fastball playability. When an opposing pitcher releases the ball, the scoop in Johnsons bat head is pointing at the mound with his back elbow hiked way up above his shoulder in a position that seems to defy the rules of normal human physiology. Massey, going on 23, is a very loose, projectable college prospect from Minnesota. 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. 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. The Pirates got a deal done for a cool million, nearly twice the slot amount in the fourth round. Juan Jerez, 3B Milwaukee Brewers Batting Postseason Stats 2021. 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. 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. Across the 2022 calendar, Davis had nearly as many HBPs as he did extra-base hits, to which the wrist fracture likely contributed. He commands it consistently enough to his glove side to project as a starter. Flowers velocity has never really popped in a big way despite some of the late projection because of his conversion. 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 time around, the Top 100 has even more Moreno types, prospects who combine . The site listed four Dodgers prospects on their list. For instance, hes struggled badly on defense, wracking up 46 errors combined the last two seasons. Here are the Pirates' 2023 Top 30 prospects March 1, 2023 Pirates' Chandler going all in on pitching February 28, 2023 Pirates return No. Format = Team Position Player | Age on 4/1/23 | Highest level played | ETA. His low-80s slider, which has late, two-plane bite, has improved considerably and is now an above-average big league pitch. If you split his season exactly in half, the improvement is obvious. His range, footwork, ability to bend, and overall athleticism are all plus, and it made sense to try to develop him as a shortstop for as long as possible, but Peguero finally saw time at second base in 2022 and a permanent move there will hopefully help him throw more confidently and accurately. He stayed healthy throughout 2022, throwing 70.1 innings, and was more effective out of the bullpen than in his late-season starts. His breaking ball is now a mid-80s power breaker thats up to 88-89 at peak and generates plus chase and whiff rates. Maikol Escotto, 2B Webb dealt with a forearm strain that delayed the start of his 2022 season. 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. by Retrosheet. A proactive bullpen move could put him in position to debut in 2024. Jesus Castillo, SS Those games were taking place amid weight-lifting and practice for the coming football season and then during the season itself, so Whites balance of strength and flexibility might change as he trains just for baseball. Be warned that he may hit for huge power at Greensboro in 2023, but the key thing to watch is his strikeout rate. ago They do not like solemeto or Gonzalez. Pittsburgh to add him to their 40-man roster after the season, indicating that hell be a big league relief option in 2023. 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. Drafted 91st overall by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2021 out of a Huntington Beach junior college, the 20-year-old southpaw not only finished last season in Double-A, he dominated at all three levels where he saw action. Here hes projected as a no. But he was then shut down and had TJ, which ended his season early enough that he could be back in 2023. Tony Sanchez / C 6. Acquired in a. His delivery has a relief-only look to it. in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. He throws precise, high-quality strikes with the heater, and the pitch has enough tailing action to have stayed off of A-ball barrels. 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. 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 The Pirates claimed him off waivers and quickly lost him to the Diamondbacks in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 draft. His range and footwork are great, while his actions and arm are fine. 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. Hes now 23 but could still be a fifth outfielder. He spent much of the season leading off for Altoona, where he slashed .282/.376/.419 and stole 24 stolen bases. You can really see his athleticism and remarkable hip/shoulder separation on his throws down to second. Thats a very walkable path. The effects of a pro strength and conditioning program might kick-start him down the path toward finding a more consistent release and sustaining the big velocity as a pro starter. The Pittsburgh Pirates are hiring. It felt like the Pirates were slow-playing him a little too much after the pandemic (Nolasco was easily physical enough to go to Low-A in 2021), but perhaps they simply knew he wasnt ready to parse full-season pitching. 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 average draft position (ADP) included is from Draft Champions leagues from January 19 to February 19 at the NFBC, which you can find here.These leagues draft 50 players and that's all they get for the year no pickups or drops. Their top ten, in. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, He mixed in four pitches, with his four-seamer and slider accounting for 88% of his pitches, and the changeup and two-seamer bringing up the rear. Nicolas spent most of his college career in the bullpen, but hes held up well as a starter in pro ball, developing two distinct breaking balls that hes using much more than he did at Ball State. Jerez has above-average power and a 70 arm. Finding a great changeup (or maybe a split?) He practically straddles the plate and was hit by 20 pitches during an injury-shortened regular season, then was somehow beaned seven more times in just 17 Arizona Fall League games. Hes not a great defender right now, and probably wont ever be better than a 40-grade glove, but Davis frames high strikes well and has plus raw arm strength. FanGraphs released their top 100 prospect rankings on Wednesday. His fastball remains in the mid-90s but continues to underperform in terms of its bat-missing ability due to its hittable line. He projects as a quick-moving no. Uribe, 20, is a projectable lefty with a 92-93 mph fastball and high-spin breaking ball. He has above-average bat-to-ball skills and very little power. It shows above-average arm-side action on occasion, but hes only throwing it 12% of the time. 2023 600 PA / 200 IP Projections Steamer600. This impressive performance inspired his offseason 40-man addition. An extreme groundball pitcher in a small sample, he allowed just two home runs in 35.2 innings of work in 2022. The high-waisted Lopez has a wide range of athletic/mobility outcomes that will impact where he ultimately ends up on defense. Roelmy Garcia, 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. Not Quite Enough Hit Tool He was passed over in the 2022 Rule 5 Draft despite his stuff quality because hes so raw as a strike-thrower. 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. It sounds like Brannigan is going to develop as a two-way player. Scouting reports were. His slider has a sweeping horizontal shape, but his inability to locate it has hampered its utility. Jackson Glenn, 2B. Hell also show you a 92-96 mph fastball that plays down a bit due to its shape and Jimenezs lack of command, which caused him to walk 5.8 per 9 IP in 2022. Harry Ford is one of the top prospects in the Seattle Mariners organization, and he is also unique among his peers. Opinions around Shim vary because he offers less physical projection than is typical in the international talent space, even for an older pitcher. 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. 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. 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. 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. Yean, 21, was once a 40+ FV prospect in Washingtons system. 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. 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. Very Young Prospects to Monitor His turn at the 2022 Futures Game gave viewers a glimpse of his heater/curveball combo, showcasing the carry on his mid-90s fastball in contrast to the vertical depth of the high-spin (2,800 rpm) curve. As a wrap-up, the Pirates have. Nolasco had two years of surface-level statistical success in rookie ball and the huge exit velos to match, but now after three pro seasons, his strikeout rates show a troubling upward trend. He showed a velo spike (92-96) at the onset of the 2022 college season before his arm strength and command regressed. This also may have been part of why the Pirates lost so many players (11!) Pegueros lack of throwing accuracy from shortstop is concerning. But at other times, he had difficulty maintaining the velocity as the innings wore on, which was compounded by his ongoing command inconsistency. Lolo Sanchez, CF 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). Most of his swings and misses over the last few years have been on fastballs running away from him, but in 2022, he displayed a more advanced ability to poke the barrel at balls on the outer edge of the plate, extending his short levers in an effort to slap outside pitches the other way. 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. Pedro Alvarez / 3B 2. Its possible Flowers strike-throwing consistency will make a big league manager feel secure going to him with consistency in the middle innings, but on stuff he projects more as a near-ready up/down reliever. RotoGraphs. Reports, tool grades, . 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. His delivery also creates an odd angle on a mid-80s cutter/slider, which Solometo commands to his glove side. 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. Hard-Throwers 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. On Friday, FanGraphs released updated rankings. Chen began his career with 26 consecutive walk-free innings in the 2021 Florida Complex League, then spent all of 2022 at Bradenton, where he had a solid second pro season, carrying a 3.76 FIP across 98 innings. Cheng entered 2022 coming off an incredible season in which he slashed .311/.449/.492 with twice as many walks as he had strikeouts. 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. ago 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. Indeed, of his offerings, only his four-seamer had a whiff rate above the big league average, and he struggled to keep that pitch competitive, only throwing it for a strike 57% of the time. 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. Mlodzinski started for most of his 2022 season at Double-A but was called upon for middle-inning relief on a few occasions, and though it was only a handful of appearances, he was more effective as a reliever than as a starter. Obviously the 2021 draft was the big one, and seven players from that class are currently on the list. He has the talent to be an everyday player, but has to improve in one or two key areas (throwing accuracy, slider recognition) for that to be his outcome. That makes it seem all but inevitable that Chandler will eventually ditch the bat to optimize his development on the mound. . 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 on track to debut in 2025 as a starter if those issues improve and as a reliever if they do not. For now, hes lithe enough for third, where he has a shot to be an everyday player based largely on his power projection. Priesters four-seamer is divisive. Even though both Davis and Rodriguez are near-ready catching prospects, they arent redundant, and in fact they complement each other well. 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. He and Solometo have the same flavor of stuff wrapped in different packages. He moved into a minor league relief role in 2022. Hes still on a path toward a glove-reliant bench role but is closer to having meaningful pop than he was last year. Spotty command and limited fastball utility push Mlodzinski into a multi-inning relief role. Could Solometo eventually throw harder? His 2022 performance deserves some age-related adjustment, but its possible we saw flaws in Pegueros game exposed by upper-level pitching. 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. Melendez (sitting 97) and Mateo (sitting 95) are upper-level relievers with poor control. Jose Tabata / OF. Still, his tendency to roll his wrists over early in his swing, breaking up his attack angle, resulted in a groundball rate above 50%. Andrew McCutchen / OF 3. That creates backspin and carry on his fastball and big depth on his curve. Matt Fraizer, CF We considered Glenn a high priority senior sign in the 2021 draft, but he needed to hit all the way up the minor league ladder and didnt do that in 2022. He was one of the younger players available in the 2022 draft and yet at a listed 205 pounds, Kennedy is more physically mature than most of his peers, even some who are a year or two older than he is. Hes been able to maintain nearly average contact rates despite a pull-heavy approach to contact. Neither his slider nor changeup is fully baked quite yet, but if either (or both) become viable, they would bring with them a higher probability that Priester slots in as a mid-rotation starter. Terrero is a compact outfielder with a well-rounded skill set and strong rookie-level line. This is the case with De Los Santos. He spent more of his big league time in the outfield than at his native second base. His two-plane slider has nasty, late break and his changeup might have late projection because his arm action is so clean and loose. When healthy, he was a hard-throwing 40 FV reliever. Still, his strikeouts come primarily on in-zone swing-and-miss, so its important for the strike-throwing to improve for him to capitalize on his ability to overpower hitters as he continues to advance. That said, it's getting harder. He had all the markers of a major league-ready Top 100 prospect prior to the injury, largely due to the progression of his changeup and its usage. His multi-tasking fastball plays at the letters due to angle and also gets a groundball when located down, but at just 91-94 mph, its still a below-average pitch. Defensively, he has mostly played second base so far in his professional career, with just a handful of starts at short. Nicolas has consistent glove-side command of his entire repertoire, and he tends to live on that half of the plate exclusively. 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. All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. Pro teams are more open to east/west fastball operation and the Pirates might be able to coax more sweep out of Harringtons slider, though Campbell does a pretty good job developing pitchers, so there may be less developmental meat on the bone here than youd guess considering hes coming from a smaller program. He seems able to make some mid at-bat adjustments to this type of pitch but then ends up playing a guessing game with breaking balls. 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. document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () { Triolo earned industry praise for his defensive aptitude and high marks for his baseball IQ and instincts. Hes already taken a sizable step in the breaking ball department in just two pros seasons. Might the changeup develop over time into a plus pitch? Youll occasionally see a low-90s changeup from Hernandez as well, but hes a relief prospect all the way and likely to stick in Pittsburghs bullpen despite below-average command. The organization will be thrilled if . His swing is already geared for lift, but he doesnt currently have the raw juice to make the most of it. Stratton, 26, sat 94-96 mph in 2022 and has a plus-flashing slider that he rarely throws for strikes. Pittsburgh Pirates: Top 10 Players Under Age 26 (as of 4/1/11) 1. 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. Top Prospects. 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). Moreover, he has one of the more unusual profiles in professional baseball. 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. The swing length and approach combination is scary enough to keep Lopez out of the 40+ FV tier even though he has this sort of upside. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 2023 Updated In-Season Projections Bins is athletic for a catcher and has a good arm, but his receiving and contact skills are both 30s. 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. The husky Nunez swings really hard and generates big peak exit velocities. His overall pitch recognition, especially against breaking balls, has become a more noticeable issue. 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. He barely played in 2022 due to hamstring, elbow, and hip flexor injuries that cost him all but a couple of games. Davis was on the IL multiple times in 2022 with issues stemming from a small nondisplaced fracture of his left wrist that he suffered when he was hit by a pitch in May. Instead, Triolo looks like hell be a superutility guy. He has a delivery similar to Ubaldo Jimnezs, where his front side flies way open and he tilts out, which helps Kellington get to a vertical arm slot. His mother spent her childhood in London, while his father "a real Brit; he still has an . He was Rule 5 eligible after the season, and hitters who have performed that well at High-A tend to be added to their clubs 40-man roster, but Lopez doesnt have a crystal clear defensive home and his plate discipline needs a lot of seasoning, so he wasnt a real threat to be taken. Ke'Bryan Hayes, Oneil Cruz, Mitch Keller, Travis Swaggerty, Tahnaj Thomas and. March 3, 2023. He doesnt always look comfortable out there, but his speed makes him viable at all three spots, solidifying his role as a heavily-used role player even without the power production. Meanwhile, Chandlers post-promotion production at the plate plummeted to a sub-.200 batting average and an OPS of just .574, thanks largely to a strikeout rate just barely south of 40%; he launched just a single dinger in his 32 Low-A games compared to three in his 14 games on the complex. Thats hard enough to do for any batter, let alone one whose schedule also includes the grueling demands of pitching development. 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. Some of his early-career success seems to have stemmed from his physical maturity. To be fair, he was only about average in terms of OAA. Its bat-missing capabilities are limited to the bottom arm-side portion of the zone, where this two-seam-ish fastball tends to finish. 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. If it does, he should be a 50, and that grade was discussed during the Pirates list-making process. Across his 94.1 innings, he racked up 111 strikeouts against just 31 walks, with a 1.21 WHIP. 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. Not exactly on topic, but Id love to get some thoughts on the recently graduated Jack Suwinski. 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. Clubs like the Pirates arent making buyers trades, so they have little to no incentive to move a potentially great young player, which in turn means teams have little incentive to scout said player. His size creates some stiffness and imbalance during his swing, which can lead to him putting suboptimal contact in play. They have Hunter. With Endy Rodriguez around, it may not matter a ton. 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. His pop times are routinely in the 1.85-1.95 range in part because Endy has a strong arm, but also because hes almost always leaving his crouch before he even receives the pitch on steal attempts, which hastens his exchange. 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. Selbys fastball sits 96-98 mph and he looks to blow it past hitters up in the zone. 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. 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.

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