Five Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects 2015: Where Are They Now?

Reese McGuire

Reese McGuire was the other prospect packaged with Harold Ramirez so the Pittsburgh Pirates could trade Liriano’s contract to the Toronto Blue Jays. McGuire was drafted by the Bucs in the first round of the 2013 draft. Although he never was that big of a batter with the Pittsburgh Pirates, with him batting just .262/.307/.334 in 2014 and .254/.301/.294 in 2015. However, he still was considered a top tier defensive catcher with 60 grades for both his fielding and arm.

In 2016, McGuire wasn’t doing all that great again when he had a 93 wRC+ at Double-A, but that still wasn’t bad for a catcher with his defensive skill. Regardless, the Pirates sent him and Ramirez in a package to Toronto.

After an injury-plagued 2017 where he appeared in just 45 games, McGuire returned for a full year in 2018. Despite his overall lackluster numbers at Triple-A, coming in with a .651 OPS and 86 wRC+, he was still given the call to the majors where he appeared in 14 games and stepped to the plate 33 times. In 2019, McGuire did pretty similar at Triple-A as he did the previous season with a .683 OPS and 73 wRC+.

Regardless of his sub-par numbers in the minors, McGuire has done fairly well for himself in the short amount of time he has seen in the majors. Through just 135 plate appearances, McGuire has collected 38 hits, including 7 home runs and 10 doubles, and a 133 OPS+/wRC+. Although that is fueled by a fairly high .330 batting average on balls in play, and his expected stats are much lower than his actual stats, even if he grades out as a 90-100 OPS+/wRC+, he could still be a good contributor considering he still has 60 future grades for his fielding and arm.