Pittsburgh Pirates Top 30 Prospects 2019 Season Rewind: Max Kranick

We continue our Pittsburgh pirates top 30 Prospect countdown looking at pitching prospect Max Kranick, the team’s number 23 rank prospect.

In 2016, the Pittsburgh Pirates spent three of their draft picks on right handed prep pitching prospects.  The team took starters Travis Macgregor, Braeden Ogle, and Max Kranick throughout the first 11 rounds.  Kranick, who was drafted in the 11th round, is now ranked as the Pittsburgh Pirates 23rd best prospect in their system.  This ranking is according to MLB Pipeline and actually has him in front of  Travis MacGregor, who was drafted in the second round that year.

The Bucs took Kranick out of a high school in eastern Pennsylvania. He was committed to the University of Virginia but signed for an over slot deal with the Pittsburgh pirates to start his professional career instead. Kranick and the Pirates agreed to a $300,000 signing bonus, which was $200,000 over the allotment for a pick after the 10th round.

Kranick was considered to be a projectable pitcher standing at 6’3″ and 175 pounds with a fastball that was already hitting the low 90s at times but also a plus change up that he was much more comfortable throwing; something lacking in a lot of other prep pitching prospects in the 2016 draft.  In fact, Kranick did not start throwing a breaking pitch until his junior year of high school.  Kranick’s four seam fastball can reach as high as 96 mph but he also throws a sinker that sits in the lower to mid 90s.

Kranick, now 22, made 20 starts for High-A Bradenton this season.  With the Marauders , he pitched 109.1 innings and put together an all round solid season. He ended up with a record of 6-7 with a 3.79E RA and striking out 78 hitters and walking 30.  One area of concern was that he did give up 11 homer runs, but he did hold batters to a .246 average.

The underlying metrics were not as favorable on him despite the ERA; his FIP was at 4.23 and xFIP was 3.99.  Kranick got groundballs at an average rate, just 44 percent, and he only struck out hitters at a 17 percent clip.  Still, he showed strong control, only walking 6.0 percent of hitters, but he does need to start learning to use his secondary stuff for more strikeouts.  Until he does that, the metrics will continue to work against him.

After starting 20 games at High-A, Kranick  will likely start in Double-A next season.  Right now he’s on track to reach the majors by 2021.  He’s already thrown 245 innings in the minor leagues and as he continues to work his way up through the system, he will hopefully continue to develop into the pitcher that they believe they were signing for an over slot deal back in 2016.