His delivery also creates an odd angle on a mid-80s cutter/slider, which Solometo commands to his glove side. 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 can be found here. His curveball was his only secondary to induce an above-average chase rate. 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). It had exploded even further when he was seen following the pandemic shutdown, as he sat 95-97 mph and was touching 101 during the 2021 regular season. While he has a low three-quarters slot that creates natural tail on his heater, Kennedy can still create riding life at the letters. He has basically been the same guy since he entered pro ball, sitting 94-95 with ineffectual shape and a pretty good slider. 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. His slot also helps generate two-plane sweep on his breaking ball. Andres Silvera, RHP. Counter to our past reports, his swing is rather stiff and some of Lopezs length makes him vulnerable to pitches in on his hands. 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. Priesters four-seamer is divisive. Andrew McCutchen / OF 3. 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. 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. 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. 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. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb. Silvera, 18, is a physically mature righty who missed a ton of DSL bats even though he only sits 88-90. Format = Team Position Player | Age on 4/1/23 | Highest level played | ETA. Hes already taken a sizable step in the breaking ball department in just two pros seasons. 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. Rodriguezs arm is comfortably plus. Campana, soon to be 21, is the youngest of this group. 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. The top of this draft class right now is LSU outfielder Dylan Crews, who had a big weekend. Johnson often ends his swing with his torso having made a full 180 degree rotation, sometimes swinging with such ferocious bat speed that he loses his balance and faceplants in the batters box. 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. 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. As a high schooler, his ultra-low spin splitter seemed like the more promising pitch, but his feel for it has regressed. Like his other stuff, his feel for location is better than the movement hes creating on the pitch. 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. Currently, Kennedys best attribute is multi-faceted fastball utility. Connor Scott, RF Massey, going on 23, is a very loose, projectable college prospect from Minnesota. Barco is a low-slot lefty with advanced command and several underlying pitch traits that give clubs hope of more upside even though he looks like a lower-variance backend starter prospect on the surface. Looking forward to fangraphs being wrong Campman92 5 min. 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. Lolo Sanchez, CF Pittsburgh Pirates: Top 10 Players Under Age 26 (as of 4/1/11) 1. Those risks apply here. 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. 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. He also has a promising sweeper slider, but he lacks typical physical projection for a teenage pitcher. FanGraphs Top 43 Pirates prospects blogs.fangraphs Vote 3 comments Best Add a Comment Robert_roberts82 14 min. 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. Cristofer Melendez, RHP Might the changeup develop over time into a plus pitch? 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. His breaking ball is his best pitch and he could be a lefty relief piece. 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 also may have been part of why the Pirates lost so many players (11!) But when a potentially significant DSL prospect plays for a rebuilding team, it can be difficult to find other clubs that have pro scouting reports on them. 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. Cubs pitching prospect Hayden Wesneski is proving he belongs in his latest Spring Training outing. RT @NorthShoreNine: wNS9+ With @longenhagen Discussing the @fangraphs Pirates Top Prospect List You found it controversial, so we discussed it Subscribe & Listen . Moreover, he has one of the more unusual profiles in professional baseball. He missed basically all of September and was shelled in the only start he made coming off the IL. For now, hes lithe enough for third, where he has a shot to be an everyday player based largely on his power projection. Its going to be fascinating to watch him develop, and if it doesnt work, hell probably still be a viable reliever. His carrying tool is still his defense, especially his receiving, which is crafty and advanced. 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). His overall pitch recognition, especially against breaking balls, has become a more noticeable issue. 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. Barcos long, low arm slot creates a flat approach angle, but hes not really inclined to climb the ladder and pitch at the top of the zone right now, instead living on the arm-side third of the plate with sink and tail. Its bat-missing capabilities are limited to the bottom arm-side portion of the zone, where this two-seam-ish fastball tends to finish. While prospect list ultimately isn't what makes a player great, it is . 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. 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. He used his upper-90s fastball for in-zone whiffs, relying on his above-average slider as a chase pitch. Matt Fraizer, CF His finishing pitch, though, is his slider, a nasty upper-80s sweeper that generated a 50% whiff rate and 38% chase rate in 2022. document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () { After the season, he again played winter ball, this time in Puerto Rico with Carolina, where Cheng struggled. 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. 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. 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. Righties get a nice long look at everything Solometo does, and he could be very platoon-vulnerable against big leaguers. Milwaukee Brewers Batting Postseason Stats 2021. Because theyre about the same age as high school draft prospects, apples-to-apples projection and tools comparisons are feasible, which then allows you to triangulate where theyd be selected in a draft based on those comparisons and get a sense of how to FV them. His arm action is very long, and he bends at his torso as he lunges toward the plate, allowing for more extension during his release, but also creating an uncomfy angle that adds stress to his shoulder. Matt Gorski, OF Pre-draft rumors pegged Kennedy as a tough sign given a strong commitment to LSU. Be warned that he may hit for huge power at Greensboro in 2023, but the key thing to watch is his strikeout rate. Gonzales hands work in a short, explosive loop. In most cases, corner-only outfielders who play consistent big league roles have better actualized their raw power in games. His two-plane slider has nasty, late break and his changeup might have late projection because his arm action is so clean and loose. 2023 600 PA / 200 IP Projections Steamer600. Hes an arm strength reclamation project with a shot to pitch in Pittsburghs bullpen. 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. 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. While his walk and strikeout rates were both descent through the first half of 2022, only nine of his 57 hits through mid-June went for extra bases (eight doubles and a home run). However, Priester makes up for it with his preferred secondaries a huge, arcing curveball that Priester has had forever, and a more recently developed mid-80s slider both of which have garnered swing-and-miss rates well above the big league average. Back with former Astros pitching coach Brent Strom in Arizona . 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. The husky Nunez swings really hard and generates big peak exit velocities. Grant Hartwig is one of the most promising under-the-radar prospects in the New York Mets system. Jose Tabata / OF. The 2021 edition of this list featured some carping about Eric Longenhagen ranking Gabriel Moreno in the 100, because he was the exact kind of player who might not have been highly regarded in earlier eras of public prospect evaluation but who had all the markers of future success. 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. Besides Johnson and Harrington, two other 2022 draft picks made the top 30. More glove-side fastballs might help him set up his sweeping slider more effectively, as that pitch has good-looking movement but wasnt a dominant offering in college. These rankings are now available on The Board on the 2023 Fantasy Rankings tab, where you can also see the Top 120 Dynasty Rankings!. Bins is athletic for a catcher and has a good arm, but his receiving and contact skills are both 30s. 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. 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. So the question is, was there actual improvement in his ability or is this just noise in the signal? He is a 6-foot-5 20-year-old, after all. Theyre finding them. Stratton, 26, sat 94-96 mph in 2022 and has a plus-flashing slider that he rarely throws for strikes. He barely played in 2022 due to hamstring, elbow, and hip flexor injuries that cost him all but a couple of games. 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.