pirates' top prospects fangraphs

Anthony began writing over 10 years ago, starting a personal blog to cover the 2011 MLB draft, where the Pirates selected first overall. Connor Scott, RF Overall, the Pirates adding six prospects to their top 50 list is pretty impressive. His curveball was his only secondary to induce an above-average chase rate. 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. Cederlind, 27, spent 2022 recovering from Tommy John, and he had renewed soreness during his rehab, which is part of why he missed the whole year. Theres an All-Star-caliber hit and power combination here, and while a bigger pro data sample might reveal some approach-related issues, Johnson has been one of the best hitters his age for going on a half decade and feels like a relatively high-probability high school hitting prospect. This is the case with De Los Santos. 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. 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. 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). (2/2/2021) He used his upper-90s fastball for in-zone whiffs, relying on his above-average slider as a chase pitch. But he was then shut down and had TJ, which ended his season early enough that he could be back in 2023. Quants and front office analyst types are more bearish, citing issues with Priesters fastball playability. 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. 11/ . Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as our own observations. Jose Tabata / OF. Hes a fun one cause he had 20 grade defense apparently but scored positive defensively and 30 grade speed but ran nearly 29 feet/second. A double-plus hit tool leads the way for Termarr Johnson, a 5'7" 175 lb left-handed hitter who calls Jose Ramirez to mind on a quick visual evaluation. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every teams list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. He can already land his breaker in the zone and its angle should help it become a viable back-foot offering to righties. 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. If he moves to first base, this will become especially scary. Thats hard enough to do for any batter, let alone one whose schedule also includes the grueling demands of pitching development. 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. 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. 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. 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. Garcia is only 19 but is already sitting 96. 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. If this were a high school draft prospect, you would already know his name based purely on how explosive De Los Santos is in the batters box. 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. Hes on the 40-man roster and will likely get a chance to sink or swim on the big league roster in 2023. 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. 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. 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. His low-80s slider, which has late, two-plane bite, has improved considerably and is now an above-average big league pitch. But given his age and the amount of runway still afforded to him, this was seen as a speed bump for his development rather than being of great concern at the time. 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. The component parts of a scouting, tools-oriented look De Los Santos frame, bat speed, and infield actions put him in that range, while the DSL data reinforces it somewhat. The Royals designated Webb for assignment in mid-November and he elected free agency before signing with the Pirates. Prospects 2022 Top 100 Prospects. 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. Blake Cederlind, RHP 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. Cristofer Melendez, RHP Pittsburgh Pirates: Top 10 Players Under Age 26 (as of 4/1/11) 1. 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. 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. 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. Hes an arm strength reclamation project with a shot to pitch in Pittsburghs bullpen. If he continues missing bats at High-A in 2023, though, Pittsburgh may be forced to add him. 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 fastball velocity is down, in the 92-94 mph range, a far cry from Priesters upper-90s peak. Here hes projected as a no. Milwaukee Brewers Batting Postseason Stats 2021. 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). Before he was drafted he was considered, at least at FanGraphs, a more likely reliever due to the quality of his stuff. JP Massey, RHP Top Prospects Team Lists 2022 2021 AL NL Pirates Top Prospects Reading Options Detail Level Data Only Full Position Filter All 60 FV Prospects 1. Hes 19 and struggled over the winter in Australia. Chen was the 22nd-ranked player on the 2019 International Player section of The Board and was generally seen as the best signable high school prospect in Taiwan. 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. As FanGraphs sourced TrackMan/Hawkeye data from team personnel after the season, De Los Santos hard hit rate and peak exit velocities stood apart from most of his peers, especially when limiting the sample to the DSLs age-appropriate players. He spins the hell out of everything that leaves his hand, in particular his slider, which averaged over 2,700 rpm, but his inability to fine tune his command puts a damper on its utility (his walk rate was an untenable 12.4% across his 75.2 innings of work). 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. 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. 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. 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. Could Solometo eventually throw harder? His slider has a sweeping horizontal shape, but his inability to locate it has hampered its utility. 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. 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. Very Young Prospects to Monitor 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. Reports, tool grades, . Jackson Glenn, 2B. The high-waisted Lopez has a wide range of athletic/mobility outcomes that will impact where he ultimately ends up on defense. He throws precise, high-quality strikes with the heater, and the pitch has enough tailing action to have stayed off of A-ball barrels. 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. 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. }); Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category. 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. 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. 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. 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. Ricky Tiedemann is one of the fastest-rising pitching prospects in the game. Massey, going on 23, is a very loose, projectable college prospect from Minnesota. 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. (One weird scouting note: Peguero chokes up with two strikes, but only with his top hand, creating separation between his two hands la Kevin Youkilis.) The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Chandlers pitching performance wasnt as lights-out as it had been pre-promotion, but it was still a display of the rightys potential. The barrel-chested Smith-Njigba has huge strength-driven power and a patient approach that borders on passive. Any Top 100 prospects, regardless of their ETA, are also included on this list. by Retrosheet. 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. On Friday, FanGraphs released updated rankings. His swing is already geared for lift, but he doesnt currently have the raw juice to make the most of it. His slot also helps generate two-plane sweep on his breaking ball. He and Solometo have the same flavor of stuff wrapped in different packages. wNS9+ With @longenhagen Discussing the @fangraphs Pirates Top Prospect List You found it controversial, so we discussed it Subscribe & Listen http://linktr.ee . As a right-handed hitter almost all of Endys damage is done on outer-third pitches that he can get fully extended against. 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. 76. Pre-draft rumors pegged Kennedy as a tough sign given a strong commitment to LSU. Overall, there is a ton of in-zone swing-and-miss happening here. It shows above-average arm-side action on occasion, but hes only throwing it 12% of the time. 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. His on-mound athleticism enables plus long-term command projection, though for right now Harrington really only locates his fastball to his arm side. 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. ago They do not like solemeto or Gonzalez. Cheng entered 2022 coming off an incredible season in which he slashed .311/.449/.492 with twice as many walks as he had strikeouts. 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. 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%. You can really see his athleticism and remarkable hip/shoulder separation on his throws down to second. Uribe, 20, is a projectable lefty with a 92-93 mph fastball and high-spin breaking ball. His 2022 performance deserves some age-related adjustment, but its possible we saw flaws in Pegueros game exposed by upper-level pitching. Matt Fraizer, CF 2018 Brewers batting, pitching, and fielding traditional and advanced stats. His chase rates were at or below league average across the board, further emphasizing the troubling command. Pirates 2B Termarr Johnson | 18 | A | 2025. He spent much of the season leading off for Altoona, where he slashed .282/.376/.419 and stole 24 stolen bases. ), and some of the recent, perhaps overzealous examples (Maikel Escotto, Rodolfo Nolasco) are in this system. Those risks apply here. His changeup is deceptive against batters in both boxes, but in particular against righties, who have a 40% chase rate on the offering. He then played for Taiwans National Team at the WBSC U23 World Cup and helped los Caimanes de Barranquilla win the Colombian Winter League and later the Caribbean Series. Melendez (sitting 97) and Mateo (sitting 95) are upper-level relievers with poor control. 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. 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. 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. 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. Thats something to watch as Jones continues to progress through the minors. document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () { Webb dealt with a forearm strain that delayed the start of his 2022 season. FanGraphs released their top 100 prospect rankings on Wednesday. A second base-only defensive fit puts the onus on Pegueros bat to perform at an everyday level. His overall pitch recognition, especially against breaking balls, has become a more noticeable issue. 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. Sanchez runs pretty well. Endy had an incredible 2022 statline .323/.407/.590 most of which was generated at hitter-friendly Greensboro. After the season, he again played winter ball, this time in Puerto Rico with Carolina, where Cheng struggled. Campana, soon to be 21, is the youngest of this group. Pegueros lack of throwing accuracy from shortstop is concerning. He still has a pretty exciting hit/power combination for a player his age, showing a proclivity for big contact to dead center and the opposite-field gap, the latter in part due to his length, which causes him to be late. March 3, 2023. When Smith-Njigba takes a comfortable, max-effort hack, its obvious that he has big power, and his exit velo data reinforces the visual evaluation. RT @NorthShoreNine: wNS9+ With @longenhagen Discussing the @fangraphs Pirates Top Prospect List You found it controversial, so we discussed it Subscribe & Listen . Terrero is a compact outfielder with a well-rounded skill set and strong rookie-level line. He showed a velo spike (92-96) at the onset of the 2022 college season before his arm strength and command regressed. He has a pronounced bat wrap. He might end up becoming the player the industry hoped Francisco Meja would become. 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. After pitching well at the U-18 World Championships and at a Nike showcase in Asia, he signed for about $1.25 million, which is pretty sizable for a late-market signee. Scouting. ago I'm surprised how far Nick Gonzalez and Hudson Head dropped in a few years. When healthy, he was a hard-throwing 40 FV reliever. His mother spent her childhood in London, while his father "a real Brit; he still has an . On defense, Rodriguezs size is both a feature and a bug. The depth-focused style of their rebuild in which the Pirates often got many mid-tier prospects back in trade rather than just one key piece has had some profound positive impacts on this system (its arguably why they have Cruz, Endy Rodriguez, Contreras, and four of their 40+ FV prospects or better on this years list) even as many of the pro departments targets have started to fizzle out at the upper levels. 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. 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. Scouting reports were. 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. He went 2-for-4 with two singles, two runs and an RBI on Friday night against Kansas State. His breaking ball is his best pitch and he could be a lefty relief piece. A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. While he has a low three-quarters slot that creates natural tail on his heater, Kennedy can still create riding life at the letters. Given their respective shapes, its easy to see how those pitches play off of one another, and they were the reason Burrows presented a traditional relief look prior to his changeups development. 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 has become meaningfully stronger over the last year and has more of a balanced, low-ball swing now, as opposed to the slash-and-dash style of contact in his pro debut. Rodriguezs arm is comfortably plus. The top 38 spots on the list are all 55 FV or higher. He did not pass. In 2022, it garnered just 8% whiffs and 13% chase during his time at Double-A, where he spent most of the season. Its going to be fascinating to watch him develop, and if it doesnt work, hell probably still be a viable reliever. 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. 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 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. Vilade spent some time near the top of the Rockies list due to his feel for contact. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted His slider lacks nasty, biting movement, but his arm slot makes it tough on lefty hitters, and his command of it gives it back-foot utility against righties. A fresh start with a new org (he was a waiver claim this offseason) might help him find a swing that produces more power. Hayden Wesneski is a 25-year-old starting pitcher in the Chicago Cubs system. Its bat-missing capabilities are limited to the bottom arm-side portion of the zone, where this two-seam-ish fastball tends to finish. 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. 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. 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. Moreover, he has one of the more unusual profiles in professional baseball. It sounds like Brannigan is going to develop as a two-way player. 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. Carter Bins, C 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. The organization will be thrilled if . 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.

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