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This season the site will be posting articles every Friday that will be titled ‘Future Friday.’ These articles will be about a specific Pittsburgh Pirates minor league prospects who is having a successful season.
These articles will feature Pittsburgh Pirates prospects who range anywhere from top prospects to lower level players who are working their way up the prospect ranks. The articles will outline a bio about them, what they have done in their careers, how they are doing this year, and give some insight on what their future could potentially hold.
Yondry Contreras: Contreras is 6’1” 175lbs out-fielder from the Dominican Republic. He is considered very athletic which is a plus for him to stick in center field. He has good strength and has line drive power. Obviously he is 16 year sold and could develop more power with his frame as he matures. He is a well above average runner and has and above average arm. I have watched video on him the thing that impressed me most was his quick hands the zone. One thing that hurts him is that he has poor discipline. With quick hands he often times will chase bad pitches. The Pirates have dealt with young players with similar issues a such as Starling Marte and Alen Hanson. Contreras earned a 400,00$ dollar bonus.
Contreras was 17 years old in his first professional season, last year. He played the full year in the Dominican Summer League, or the DSL. Through the first month he was batting .293 with a .388 on-base percentage, a .463 slugging percentage, and a .851 OPS. It seemed that the Pirates found another talented player. Contreras was considered the Pirates’ top international signing in 2014. He portrayed the class athletic outfielder with a high upside that the Pirates like signing. They did this in 2011 when they signed Harold Ramirez and Elvis Escobar. The Pirates have done a great job of developing young athletic outfielders and Contreras looked to follow that same path.
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However, after the first month Contreras numbers started to plunge. His plate discipline problems started to catch up to him. As pitchers and teams started to figure out his weakness he started to fail. By the end of the season he was batting under the “Mendoza Line”. On the year he a meager .195 with a .546 OPS. He also struck out 84 times in just 58 games. Meanwhile his best attribute is supposed to be his speed, however he only stole two bags in eight attempts. With his inability to get on base he was not able to learn how to steal a base in professional baseball. He did hit 2 home runs which was nice to see. Contreras’ bat does possess pop, it is just a matter of him be able to lay off bad pitches.
As mentioned earlier, Contreras has a lot of of upside, but also he has a lot of issues. He is very young and will not be polished yet. He enters this season at the age of 18. He most likely will play at the Gulf Coast League Level. Unless he really shows advanced improvements, he likely will spend the whole season there. Last year he averages 1.44 strike outs for every one game played. This is the biggest things to watch this year. If he can decrease his strikeouts per game, then that would result in his batting average and on-base percentage increasing.
With players so young, management wants to see the little things gradually improve. If Contreras improves the little things over this year then by the time he is the prime prospect age of 21-23 he will be a legitimate prospect. The Pirates did not sign him at 16 thinking he would be a prime prospect, no team does. They saw tools that they believe they can work with and turn him into a potential major league player. So this year when looking up the box score of minor league games check for Yondry Contreras’ name on the GCL stat sheet.