Pittsburgh Pirates: Ranking Neal Huntington’s First-Round Draft Picks Part One

Number 8 – Outfielder Travis Swaggerty

The final player to appear on the first half of the countdown is outfielder Travis Swaggerty. Now, having Swaggerty this low may be a bit unfair. He still has the makings of a starting outfielder at the MLB level, but the seven players above him have all reached the MLB level which Swaggerty has done done yet.

Swaggerty was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the 10th overall pick in the 2018 draft. Entering the draft, many had the University of South Alabama star pegged as the best college bat in the draft. Thus far in his minor league career, Swaggerty has lived up to the billing.

He burst onto the scene in 2018 with the West Virginia Black Bears of the New York-Penn League. In 36 games for the Black Bears he hit for a .288/.365/.453 slash line to go with a 140 wRC+, 9.5% walk rate and a 10.1% extra base hit rate. This led to him being named a NY-Penn League All-Star, and being promoted to the full-season Low-A West Virginia Power.

Despite struggling with the Power, Swaggerty still made the jump to High-A in 2019. With Bradenton, Swaggerty walked 10.9% of the time, his strikeout rate dropped over 3% to 22.1%, he collected 32 extra base hits, and his wRC+, while it dropped, remained 20% above average at 120.

If there were a 2020 minor league season, there was a good shot Swaggerty would have started at Double-A. If not, he would have undoubtedly been with Double-A Altoona before the end of the season and potentially set himself up to earn a promotion to the MLB level at some point in 2021. Swaggerty is one prospect who will be hurt immensely by the lack of a minor league season in 2020.

That will do it for the first half of the list. Do you agree? Disagree? Sound off in the comments below! Also, make sure to check back here on Rum Bunter later in the week for part two of ranking the 13 first-round picks from the Neal Huntington era.