Pittsburgh Pirates: Two Middle Infielders Get High Remarks

The Pittsburgh Pirates season is underway already!  The minor league season does not get underway until next week, but a couple of infielders got high remarks.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a tendency to acquire prospect talent in bunches.  Earlier in this decade, the team was known for acquiring a lot of right-handed pitching and outfielders.  While the team acquiring right-handed pitching still holds true today, the team more recently has looked to acquire more infield talent.

At one point, the team brought in multiple shortstops through the draft and in trades in four consecutive years.  In 2014, the team drafted shortstop Cole Tucker with their first-round pick.  Then the very next year the team selected college shortstop Kevin Newman with their first-round pick.  Then in 2016, the Pittsburgh Pirates waited a little longer and in the third round took Stephen Alemais out of Tulane.  Finally, in 2017 the Bucs decided to trade for a shortstop prospect instead of drafting one when the team acquired Oneil Cruz from the Los Angeles Dodgers for reliever Tony Watson.

Well, Kevin Newman and Cole Tucker were immediately praised as top prospects in the Pittsburgh Pirates system while the other two are in the midst of making names for themselves .  It seems as though Cruz and Alemais are starting to get a little more recognition for their play and potential big league futures.

John Parker, a writer over at milb.com (the official Minor League Website), did a primer on the Bucs system entering the 2019 season.  He talked about some prospects who could help the team this year.  He also predicted the prospects that he thinks will break out and be the best future defender for the Pirates.

Parker wrote that he expects shortstop Stephen Alemais to be the best future defender, calling his defense the “loudest tool” in the system.  This is pretty high praise considering third base prospect Ke’Bryan Hayes has taken home back to back minor league third base Gold Gloves.  Still, that was always the scouting report on Alemais, who has also seen a defensive change.

Alemais is very much so the best pure shortstop in the system.  However, he has been playing alongside Cole Tucker the last two seasons and with Tucker being the overall better talent, Alemais shifted to second base.  Alemais has never hit for a lot of power but has turned into a decent, light hitter.  With that, he very well could be a future super utility player.

The second high remark went out to shortstop prospect Oneil Cruz.  Cruz was named by Parker’s the most likely prospect to breakout.  Some would say that he has already broken out batting .286 and slugging .488 last season at Low-A, all the while being just 19 years old.  His performance last season has helped him sneak just inside of some Top 100 Prospect lists.

Nonetheless, Parker is expecting him to take another step forward in terms of prospect status.  He is right to assume so.  Cruz showed off his raw ability in his limited chances this past spring.  He only had nine at-bats thing spring and had two hits, both being home runs.  Cruz is most notable for his ridiculous frame as the 20-year-old is listed at 6’6” (although at spring training talk was he is now at 6’7”), and he weighs just 175 pounds.  As he continues to mature physically and as a player, the sky should be the limit for him.

Alemais played in 120 games at Altoona last year.  It will be interesting to see if they keep him at Double-A to allow him to shift back to shortstop, or move him up to Triple-A and allow him to rotate around the infield with Hayes, Kramer, and Tucker.  Meanwhile, Cruz tore up Low-A last year and will be in High-A Bradenton to start this year.