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. 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. 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. 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. Quants and front office analyst types are more bearish, citing issues with Priesters fastball playability. Hunter Stratton, RHP He walked more than a batter per inning in 2022. 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. Hes already taken a sizable step in the breaking ball department in just two pros seasons. Endy had an incredible 2022 statline .323/.407/.590 most of which was generated at hitter-friendly Greensboro. Carter Bins, C 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. His player page shows him above average in UZR/150, OAA and RAA (although only 1 in each of the latter two). 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. 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. 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. 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. That puts pressure on his plate discipline to improve, since right now Lopez is a little too proactive at the plate and might be exposed at the upper levels. 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. Prospects Coverage | FanGraphs Baseball In addition to sending Bradley back to Boston, the Milwaukee Brewers are also sending two of their top-30 prospects. Pathways toward a more impactful role are most likely to be carved by Harringtons command outperforming this projection. Rodriguezs arm is comfortably plus. The top 38 spots on the list are all 55 FV or higher. Thomas 2022 was a tale of two seasons. as compiled by Ben Clemens and the FanGraphs staff. 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. Even though hes so young, youre not really projecting on his frame in a positive way so much as it feels possible Kennedy could have impact command at maturity, because his delivery is so effortless and the quality of his fastball strikes so advanced. Luigi Hernandez, RHP. He pairs it with two above-average secondaries: a high-80s slider with sharp, downward movement that garnered a 48% chase rate against righties, and an 11-5 curveball with a shape that mimics the slider, only slower and looser, which helps keep batters off balance and enables him to pitch backwards. Mason Martin, 1B Triolos swing and footwork in the box make him vulnerable in a couple of obvious ways (high heat, sliders away), and we dont think the 60-grade hit, 45-grade power profile that he has put on paper so far will hold quite that much water against big league arms. 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. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. Cubs pitching prospect Hayden Wesneski is proving he belongs in his latest Spring Training outing. Any Top 100 prospects, regardless of their ETA, are also included on this list. Solometos fastball sits in the 88-92 mph range. His quality of contact is very good when he does make it, and is already on par with the typical starting major league second baseman even though hes barely 22. His fastball remains in the mid-90s but continues to underperform in terms of its bat-missing ability due to its hittable line. Instead, Triolo looks like hell be a superutility guy. Vilade spent some time near the top of the Rockies list due to his feel for contact. Selbys fastball sits 96-98 mph and he looks to blow it past hitters up in the zone. His overall pitch recognition, especially against breaking balls, has become a more noticeable issue. All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. The FanGraphs prospect team presents their 2022 top 100 list . Enmanuel Terrero, OF The depth charts found on the Team Pages are based on projected playing time, NOT the current status of a team's roster. Pittsburgh Pirates: Top 10 Players Under Age 26 (as of 4/1/11) 1. Davis plate crowding helps enable his pull-heavy approach. 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. Its a shorter, less natural looking delivery than what Flowers had as an amateur, but hes been able to throw strikes with it. 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. Plaz had a cartoonish line in the DSL (he slugged over .700), but hes very burly and physically mature for a 17-year-old, so wed like to see him do it stateside. 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. 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. 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. Yean, 21, was once a 40+ FV prospect in Washingtons system. Acquired in a. You can really see his athleticism and remarkable hip/shoulder separation on his throws down to second. ago They do not like solemeto or Gonzalez. 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. His delivery has a relief-only look to it. 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. Across the 2022 calendar, Davis had nearly as many HBPs as he did extra-base hits, to which the wrist fracture likely contributed. He can play a fine shortstop. 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. A proactive bullpen move could put him in position to debut in 2024. FanGraphs Prospects. Still 17 years old as of initial list publication, De Los Santos DSL barrel rate (its more a proxy for a barrel rate the exit velo and launch benchmarks arent exactly the same as Statcasts Barrels, but its the same idea) is so high that it actually breaks an age-adjusted 20-80 scale, grading out as an 83. Meanwhile, put on the tape, limited though it may be, and youll see an explosive young athlete with a prototypical baseball frame and premium bat speed, sizzling line drives all over the field. That makes it seem all but inevitable that Chandler will eventually ditch the bat to optimize his development on the mound. 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. On defense, Rodriguezs size is both a feature and a bug. 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. 4/5 starter. 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. 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. These rankings include six Pittsburgh Pirates prospects cracking the FanGraph top 100. In some respects, its easy to assess DSL players. It shows above-average arm-side action on occasion, but hes only throwing it 12% of the time. 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. He barely played in 2022 due to hamstring, elbow, and hip flexor injuries that cost him all but a couple of games. FanGraphs Top 43 Pirates prospects blogs.fangraphs Vote 3 comments Best Add a Comment Robert_roberts82 14 min. He has now struck out nearly 30% of the time during each of the last two seasons, but hes still performed comfortably above the league average at each stop because of the quality of the contact he does make. He 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. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, Here's a link to the Top 25.. Link to the Top 50.. Link to the Top 75.. 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. 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. Jones checked all but two scouting boxes as a high school pitcher. 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. None of his other pitches are above average in fact most of them are currently below average but Chen has plus command projection and a plus changeup, so hes pretty likely to pitch at the back of a big league rotation or as an innings-eating spot starter. 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. This impressive performance inspired his offseason 40-man addition. Its going to be fascinating to watch him develop, and if it doesnt work, hell probably still be a viable reliever. 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. ago Opinions around Shim vary because he offers less physical projection than is typical in the international talent space, even for an older pitcher. Hes been up to 100 mph, sits 96, and has solid glove-side command of a mid-80s slider. 2023 Opening Day Tracker. Melendez (sitting 97) and Mateo (sitting 95) are upper-level relievers with poor control. 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. 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. Blanco is a gigantic corner outfield/1B prospect who had the most present raw power in the January 2022 international signing class. 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. 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. How impactful a starter may depend on how his changeup, currently a tertiary offering, develops at the big league level. DeVito is a bird of a feather that has flocked together in the Pirates system: a promising arm with in-zone swing-and-miss, but one whose unsteady command has prevented him from capitalizing on that whiff rate. While it may seem like a lot of time has passed since he put his name on the prospect map with his otherworldly 2018 DSL performance, Nunez is still very young; hell turn 22 during spring training, where hes a non-roster invitee. 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. Webb dealt with a forearm strain that delayed the start of his 2022 season. Cristofer Melendez, RHP His slider has a sweeping horizontal shape, but his inability to locate it has hampered its utility. 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. 2018 Brewers batting, pitching, and fielding traditional and advanced stats. 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. Maggi is, by definition, a Major Leaguer. The Pirates claimed him off waivers and quickly lost him to the Diamondbacks in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 draft. A 2022 eighth rounder, Nielsens velocity has been up and down depending on when hes been seen, peaking at 94 in 2022 but at 96 in years prior. Hes still on a path toward a glove-reliant bench role but is closer to having meaningful pop than he was last year. Out over the plate, he has a tendency to stay inside fastballs and lift them toward the opposite field gap. He also mixes in the occasional changeup or curveball, which accounted for a combined 11% of his offerings at Low-A. He finished 2022 at Altoona and has a chance to be in the big leagues at some point this season. Thats the situation were projecting here. From a heuristics standpoint, you cant do much better than Rodriguezs profile. 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. 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. Unlike the other lists released yesterday, Fangraphs has not posted their top 100 prospects list yet, so we didn't already have some idea of the top of their list. He did not pass. Jackson Glenn, 2B. Johnson was a well-regarded prospect basically as soon as he reached high school, and there were scouts who were so excited when they first watched him hit that they considered him a future top 5-10 pick when he was only a freshman. The 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. He has the strength to do damage the other way, but save for the occasional pitch on the outer edge, hes geared to pull. In most cases, corner-only outfielders who play consistent big league roles have better actualized their raw power in games. We added RosterResource's Depth Charts; these reflect a team's current. A fresh start with a new org (he was a waiver claim this offseason) might help him find a swing that produces more power. 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. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports. Axiel Plaz, C He was throwing as hard as ever when he returned but still got shelled, and was quite wild at Double-A before he was sent to Arizona to audition to keep his 40-man spot with Kansas City. Andres Silvera, RHP. Hes 19 and struggled over the winter in Australia. He could get a cup of coffee in 2023. Besides Johnson and Harrington, two other 2022 draft picks made the top 30. An extreme groundball pitcher in a small sample, he allowed just two home runs in 35.2 innings of work in 2022. Davis skills and offensive style are tailored like those of Evan Gattis. Hard-Throwers 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. 1/ . He and Solometo have the same flavor of stuff wrapped in different packages. Ercolani, an 18-year-old righty from San Marino, had a velo spike during the winter and has been up to 97 mph in the bullpen recently. Sergio Campana, CF The site listed four Dodgers prospects on their list. The barrel-chested Smith-Njigba has huge strength-driven power and a patient approach that borders on passive. His breaking ball is now a mid-80s power breaker thats up to 88-89 at peak and generates plus chase and whiff rates. Robert_roberts82 1 min. Thats something to watch as Jones continues to progress through the minors. 2023 600 PA / 200 IP Projections Steamer600. After bouncing around many websites covering hockey, he . Here hes projected as a no. Both feel like high-floored backend or long relief types who need to walk an atypical path to an impact role. Middle infielder Termarr Johnson, who the Pittsburgh. Maikol Escotto, 2B 2023 Updated In-Season Projections A second base-only defensive fit puts the onus on Pegueros bat to perform at an everyday level. Isaias Uribe, LHP 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. Lopez swings exceptionally hard and makes some mechanical compromises to do so, but not in a way that has impacted his performance yet. 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. Format = Team Position Player | Age on 4/1/23 | Highest level played | ETA. 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. . Ryan Vilade, LF His breaking ball has inconsistent length and he has a relief-only mechanical look, but hes throwing quite hard. His slot also helps generate two-plane sweep on his breaking ball. 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. FanGraphs released their top 100 prospect rankings on Wednesday. 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. He commands it consistently enough to his glove side to project as a starter. Defensively, he has mostly played second base so far in his professional career, with just a handful of starts at short. 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. Theyve tripled since his claim-staking 2019 DSL season and Nolsaco Kd at a whopping 34% rate in the 2022 Florida State League. FanGraphs Prospects. Alessandro Ercolani, RHP He missed basically all of September and was shelled in the only start he made coming off the IL. 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. If he continues missing bats at High-A in 2023, though, Pittsburgh may be forced to add him. 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. 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. Still, his tendency to roll his wrists over early in his swing, breaking up his attack angle, resulted in a groundball rate above 50%. RT @NorthShoreNine: wNS9+ With @longenhagen Discussing the @fangraphs Pirates Top Prospect List You found it controversial, so we discussed it Subscribe & Listen . 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. Cy Nielson, LHP in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. 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. 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. Bins is athletic for a catcher and has a good arm, but his receiving and contact skills are both 30s. Brennan Malone, RHP. He has a wide arsenal, including a changeup and a two-seamer, but tends to rely more heavily on pairing his riding fastball and curveball to keep hitters off balance. He ultimately went fourth overall to Pittsburgh, and because hes a relatively advanced hitter with a mature build, theres a good chance the Pirates move Johnson through the minors pretty quickly if he hits the ground running offensively. He appears tentative on routine throws and still isnt a sure-handed defender. 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. 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. But as Triolos pro success with the bat continued at a high level, and with KeBryan Hayes manning the hot corner for the Pirates foreseeable future, the Pirates began searching for defensive alternatives in order to plug Triolo into their lineup. Jimenez has a very good sweeping, upper-70s curveball and creates plus action on a changeup that he sells with fantastic arm speed. 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). 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. His range and footwork are great, while his actions and arm are fine. Even if sliders are a chronic issue for Davis, hell likely still get to enough power to produce better than the average everyday catcher. Sammy Siani, LF. 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. This also may have been part of why the Pirates lost so many players (11!) The bumps and bruises suffered from catching can sometimes level players for whole seasons, and Davis had a lot of them in 2022. 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. They all received. While likely of low impact, Solometos feel to pitch will almost certainly enable him to be a big leaguer of some kind, either a backend starter or long reliever. Despite all of that, Priester took a hit in a lot of the national prospect outlets, dropping off quite a few Top 100 lists. He pitched five innings of relief over two games in early May for the Pirates without allowing a run.