pirates' top prospects fangraphs

His carrying tool is still his defense, especially his receiving, which is crafty and advanced. Mason Martin, 1B 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. Pittsburgh Pirates 2021 Top 50 Prospects 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. Dombkowski is a lefty whose high-80s fastball plays up thanks to his low arm slot and excellent command over his above-average secondaries. His slow, mid-70s curveball is easy to identify out of his hand, but it has lovely shape and depth of break, so perhaps it can be sculpted into a more traditional big league breaking ball. Davis plate crowding helps enable his pull-heavy approach. He also mixes in the occasional changeup or curveball, which accounted for a combined 11% of his offerings at Low-A. Sergio Campana, CF 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 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 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. Jerez has above-average power and a 70 arm. JP Massey, RHP The 11-15 group consists of Jared Jones, Ji-hwan Bae, Anthony Solometo, Kyle Nicolas and Jared Triolo. His low-80s slider, which has late, two-plane bite, has improved considerably and is now an above-average big league pitch. He threw it 16% of the time (up from 9% the previous season) and induced a 53% whiff rate with this power-action, mid-80s change. But at other times, he had difficulty maintaining the velocity as the innings wore on, which was compounded by his ongoing command inconsistency. 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. Gutierrez has soft, quiet hands, he doesnt tip pitch type or location with runners on base, and he will drop to one knee when he receives some pitches as a means of framing them. Jimenez has a very good sweeping, upper-70s curveball and creates plus action on a changeup that he sells with fantastic arm speed. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, If you split his season exactly in half, the improvement is obvious. Thats a very walkable path. 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. Counter to our past reports, his swing is rather stiff and some of Lopezs length makes him vulnerable to pitches in on his hands. He has the strength to do damage the other way, but save for the occasional pitch on the outer edge, hes geared to pull. The site listed four Dodgers prospects on their list. He did not hit well after the injury, but thats typical of hitters coming off a wrist fracture, and a second IL stint due to the wrist was an indication that it was bothering Davis throughout the year. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as our own observations. He walked more than a batter per inning in 2022. As the Pirates improve and fall into the middle of the draft order, opportunities to do this might dwindle since they cant create a big pool space surplus as easily, but their steady stream of competitive balance picks should give them at least some opportunity to explore creativity in the draft room just about every year. 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. Once-Loved Outfielders 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. 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. Back with former Astros pitching coach Brent Strom in Arizona . His delivery has a relief-only look to it. He and Solometo have the same flavor of stuff wrapped in different packages. 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). 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. Fangraphs' Top 42 Pirates Prospects 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. Looking forward to fangraphs being wrong Campman92 5 min. Very Young Prospects to Monitor A fresh start with a new org (he was a waiver claim this offseason) might help him find a swing that produces more power. For now, hes lithe enough for third, where he has a shot to be an everyday player based largely on his power projection. 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. 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. 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. 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. Escotto, 20, was a 40+ FV prospect after his huge DSL season and later became part of the Jameson Taillon trade, but he struggled very badly in 2022 and needed to be demoted back to Low-A. Alessandro Ercolani, RHP 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. 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. After the season, he again played winter ball, this time in Puerto Rico with Carolina, where Cheng struggled. The powerfully built Kelly, 19, is a squat but loose righty who sits 93-95 mph and throws quality strikes with his fastball. Pegueros lack of throwing accuracy from shortstop is concerning. Updated Top 30 Pirates Prospects List from MLB Pipeline Webb dealt with a forearm strain that delayed the start of his 2022 season. So the question is, was there actual improvement in his ability or is this just noise in the signal? Either way, he played over half the season in the outfield and was roughly average, which is much better than I would have expected after the reporting on him previously called him a positionless defender. 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. Reports, tool grades, . It could stand to have more consistent depth, but the flashes are there, and remember that Kennedy is barely 18. Pirates Top Prospects | MLB.com Hernandez sat 93-96 mph in 2021 and when seen prior to Dodgers list publication last season, then kept throwing harder throughout the summer and ended up averaging 95-97 and touching 101 while with Double-A Tulsa. 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. While especially adept at launching pitches on the inner third, Johnson also shows some ability to shorten up and cover the top and outer edge of the strike zone. Ryan Vilade, LF 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. His swing is already geared for lift, but he doesnt currently have the raw juice to make the most of it. Many scouts are champing at the bit over Priesters prototypical frame and four- or five-pitch mix, depending on whether you consider his fastballs two distinct pitches. 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. That pitch plays up against lefties for reasons that are probably obvious, but it isnt a nasty pitch in a vacuum. He could get a cup of coffee in 2023. Tony Sanchez / C 6. 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. Cubs prospect Hayden Wesneski proving he belongs in the big leagues It shows above-average arm-side action on occasion, but hes only throwing it 12% of the time. He also has a promising sweeper slider, but he lacks typical physical projection for a teenage pitcher. He clearly wasnt comfortable in center field during his brief time there last season, but he only played there once every couple of weeks and he isnt a firm no at the position, even if he is bad there right now. Johnsons swing bears some mechanical resemblance to Bryce Harpers, especially its lower half usage and finish. 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. Thats hard enough to do for any batter, let alone one whose schedule also includes the grueling demands of pitching development. 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). The Pirates got a deal done for a cool million, nearly twice the slot amount in the fourth round. A second base-only defensive fit puts the onus on Pegueros bat to perform at an everyday level. 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. 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. But he was then shut down and had TJ, which ended his season early enough that he could be back in 2023. As a wrap-up, the Pirates have. 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. 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. While prospect list ultimately isn't what makes a player great, it is . He also threw a smattering of changeups in 2022, though it amounted to fewer than a dozen across his 50.2 innings of work at Double-A, and the changeup didnt show up at all when the Bahamian took the mound for Great Britains WBC squad. While he has a low three-quarters slot that creates natural tail on his heater, Kennedy can still create riding life at the letters. 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. Luigi Hernandez, RHP. His swing decisions and ability to make contact out front and tap into his latent power improved throughout the season. ago Gonzales had a 68% Z-contact% as a 23-year-old at Double-A. 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. Pittsburgh Pirates Top 43 Prospects by Eric Longenhagen and Tess Taruskin February 9, 2023 Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports Top Prospects Team Lists 2023 2022 AL NL Below is an analysis. Eddy Yean, RHP Prospects Coverage | FanGraphs Baseball In addition to sending Bradley back to Boston, the Milwaukee Brewers are also sending two of their top-30 prospects. A core scouting rule of thumb is to take the long view with catchers who have impact offensive potential. He commands it consistently enough to his glove side to project as a starter. 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. 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. But theres big arm speed here and big riding life to Shims fastball. Diego Cartaya (37) - Catcher Cartaya is listed a little higher in The. 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. Chandlers pitching performance wasnt as lights-out as it had been pre-promotion, but it was still a display of the rightys potential. Thats something to watch as Jones continues to progress through the minors. You can really see his athleticism and remarkable hip/shoulder separation on his throws down to second. 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. 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. 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. It should be noted that DeVitos development has been plagued by stops and starts caused first by the pandemic and then by an ulnar nerve issue that shortened his 2021 season. The Pittsburgh Pirates are hiring. The top six were already know from this list, because Fangraphs had six Pirates in their top 100 prospects. on Twitter: "wNS9+ With @longenhagen Discussing the @fangraphs His 2022 performance deserves some age-related adjustment, but its possible we saw flaws in Pegueros game exposed by upper-level pitching.

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