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. Jose Tabata / OF. He showed a velo spike (92-96) at the onset of the 2022 college season before his arm strength and command regressed. Melendez (sitting 97) and Mateo (sitting 95) are upper-level relievers with poor control. Cristofer Melendez, RHP 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. Top 35 Prospects: Pittsburgh Pirates | FanGraphs Baseball The Pittsburgh Pirates are hiring. Overall, there is a ton of in-zone swing-and-miss happening here. Across his 94.1 innings, he racked up 111 strikeouts against just 31 walks, with a 1.21 WHIP. Counter to our past reports, his swing is rather stiff and some of Lopezs length makes him vulnerable to pitches in on his hands. If it does, he should be a 50, and that grade was discussed during the Pirates list-making process. 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. 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. Top 100 Prospects For 2023 Fantasy Baseball: Spring Training Snapshot Andres Silvera, RHP. Here are the Pirates' 2023 Top 30 prospects March 1, 2023 Pirates' Chandler going all in on pitching February 28, 2023 Pirates return No. 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%. He used his upper-90s fastball for in-zone whiffs, relying on his above-average slider as a chase pitch. The FanGraphs prospect team presents their 2022 top 100 list . 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. Hes now 23 but could still be a fifth outfielder. Here hes projected as a no. Pedro Alvarez / 3B 2. That creates backspin and carry on his fastball and big depth on his curve. These rankings include six Pittsburgh Pirates prospects cracking the FanGraph top 100. Sunday Notes: Born To Brits, Harry Ford Could Be - blogs.fangraphs.com Spotty command and limited fastball utility push Mlodzinski into a multi-inning relief role. He entered the 2022 spring as a high-probability 40 FV prospect who some scouts thought belonged in the 40+ tier because of pitching approach changes Barco could make in pro ball that might enable a breakout, but he ended up blowing out his UCL and having Tommy John in May. His on-mound athleticism enables plus long-term command projection, though for right now Harrington really only locates his fastball to his arm side. Traded from Arizona to Pittsburgh as part of the Starling Marte deal, Peguero had been a top 100 prospect for the last couple of years, tracking like a plus bat middle infielder. Back with former Astros pitching coach Brent Strom in Arizona . 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. 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. 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. Silvera, 18, is a physically mature righty who missed a ton of DSL bats even though he only sits 88-90. He would slot among Priester and Ortiz on this list had he completed a totally healthy 2022. 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. Righties get a nice long look at everything Solometo does, and he could be very platoon-vulnerable against big leaguers. His slot also helps generate two-plane sweep on his breaking ball. document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () { 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. 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. Dodgers: FanGraphs Lists Four LA Prospects on Top 100 List Both feel like high-floored backend or long relief types who need to walk an atypical path to an impact role. Top 51 Prospects: Pittsburgh Pirates | FanGraphs Baseball 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. Not Quite Enough Hit Tool Pirates Reds: NL West. 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. ago I'm surprised how far Nick Gonzalez and Hudson Head dropped in a few years. He spent more of his big league time in the outfield than at his native second base. 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. Bins is athletic for a catcher and has a good arm, but his receiving and contact skills are both 30s. Whether his ability to go get it in center field bounces back is the X-factor that will determine his ability to play a long-term big league role. 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. Grant Hartwig is one of the most promising under-the-radar prospects in the New York Mets system. Reports, tool grades, . Alessandro Ercolani, RHP Pittsburgh Pirates: FanGraphs Add 2021 Draft Picks to Prospect Board Solometos fastball sits in the 88-92 mph range. 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. Martin has plus-plus raw power and a 30-grade hit tool, not enough for first base but maybe enough for consideration overseas. He missed basically all of September and was shelled in the only start he made coming off the IL. His breaking ball has inconsistent length and he has a relief-only mechanical look, but hes throwing quite hard. Gonzales had a 68% Z-contact% as a 23-year-old at Double-A. He appears tentative on routine throws and still isnt a sure-handed defender. Top 42 Prospects: Pittsburgh Pirates | FanGraphs Baseball Jackson Glenn, 2B. Finding a great changeup (or maybe a split?) Thats something to watch as Jones continues to progress through the minors. 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. But he was then shut down and had TJ, which ended his season early enough that he could be back in 2023. A two-way high school player, Jones was clearly a superior prospect as a pitcher, as he was one of the most electric on-mound athletes to roll through the high school ranks over the last decade. The Pirates got a deal done for a cool million, nearly twice the slot amount in the fourth round. 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. 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. Pittsburgh Pirates 2021 Top 50 Prospects 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 commands it consistently enough to his glove side to project as a starter. Hes still on a path toward a glove-reliant bench role but is closer to having meaningful pop than he was last year. 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. This is one of those prospects fantasy players should value more highly than this because of his potential home run output, whereas defensive limitations cause us to value his real-world roster fit in this range. 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. The timing of his surgery is more detrimental than that of the other college pitchers, as it ups the odds that he wont (or will barely) pitch in 2023. The barrel-chested Smith-Njigba has huge strength-driven power and a patient approach that borders on passive. Baseball America Releases Their List of the Top 30 Pirates Prospects Isaias Uribe, LHP His delivery evokes Madison Bumgarners long, slingin lefty arm stroke, and Solometos east/west feel for location is Bum-ish, but dont mistake this for a true comp, as Bumgarner had already made 24 big league starts at Solometos age. Even if sliders are a chronic issue for Davis, hell likely still get to enough power to produce better than the average everyday catcher. M.J. Melendezs 2019 and Bo Naylors 2020 are recent examples of otherwise good-hitting catchers who had a terrible offensive season in the mid-minors that was followed by an immediate and significant rebound the following year. His fastball velocity is down, in the 92-94 mph range, a far cry from Priesters upper-90s peak. His delivery has a relief-only look to it. 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. It can be found here. RT @NorthShoreNine: wNS9+ With @longenhagen Discussing the @fangraphs Pirates Top Prospect List You found it controversial, so we discussed it Subscribe & Listen . The bumps and bruises suffered from catching can sometimes level players for whole seasons, and Davis had a lot of them in 2022. 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. This time around, the Top 100 has even more Moreno types, prospects who combine . Roelmy Garcia, RHP 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. 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. 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. His slider has a sweeping horizontal shape, but his inability to locate it has hampered its utility. Signed as an undrafted free agent in 2021, the 25-year-old right-hander has a degree in microbiology and premedical studies from Oxford, Ohio's Miami University, and he has worked as a . As a high schooler, his ultra-low spin splitter seemed like the more promising pitch, but his feel for it has regressed. He also mixes in the occasional changeup or curveball, which accounted for a combined 11% of his offerings at Low-A. If he moves to first base, this will become especially scary. His low, short-armed slot is like a righty version of Reiver Sanmartins delivery. Triolo has long been viewed as a glove-first third baseman whod likely have some big league utility, similar to D-backs third baseman Emmanuel Rivera. Andrew McCutchen / OF 3. His swing may look different in 2023 and prompt a re-evaluation. Mechanically, Burrows adds additional length to his 6-foot-2 stature with an over-the-top delivery. 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. 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. Blanco is a gigantic corner outfield/1B prospect who had the most present raw power in the January 2022 international signing class.