Pittsburgh Pirates Set To Call Up Austin Meadows

The Pittsburgh Pirates are set to call up top position prospect Austin Meadows tomorrow and will place Starling Marte on the disabled list with an oblique injury.

Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic has reported that Austin Meadows will be recalled by the Pittsburgh Pirates, writing:

"The Pirates intend to call up Meadows from Triple-A Indianapolis before Friday’s game against the San Diego Padres at PNC Park….This likely will be a short-term call-up for Meadows”"

The Pittsburgh Pirates have confirmed that Meadows will be called up to the big league roster:

Meadows is ranked as the 44th top prospect by Baseball America, 47th by FanGraphs, 34th by Baseball Prospectus, and 42nd by MLB Pipeline.  Here at Rum Bunter Meadows ranks as the number two Pirates prospect in the organization.

Ever since being drafted ninth overall by the Pirates in 2013, Meadows has been seen as the future and consistently ranked in the top three of the clubs prospects.  In the prospect countdown here at RumBunter, we mentioned his progression in Baseball America’s rankings:

At the time, it was mentioned that this rise and fall in terms of rankings was similar to how Andrew McCutchen‘s rankings each preseason.

So far in Triple-A this year, entering games May 17th, Meadows is hitting .281/.326/.380, demonstrating good bat to ball skills, but his power and walk rate have not been there.

Marte will go on the disabled list, and he leads the Pirates in Baseball Prospectus’ WARP (wins above replacement player) and his .318 true average (TAv) is second among regulars, only trailing Francisco Cervelli‘s mark of .344.

Next: Will Craig's Developing Power

The loss of Marte is huge, but Biertempfel noted that the Pirates don’t believe the injury is severe.  For now, Austin Meadows will be called up in the interim to replace the current Pirates starting center fielder.