Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Prospects Running Out of Time

Utility Man Kevin Kramer

The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Kevin Kramer in the second-round of the 2015 draft, but he has yet to breakout into an MLB capable player. The UCLA product played his first full professional season in 2016 at High-A where he batted a solid .277/.352/.378 with a 12.3% strikeout rate, and 116 wRC+.

Although not a big power threat, Kramer was seen to have an above average hit tool, a decent, but not overwhelmingly fast base runner, and solid fielder with a weak arm. Kramer played second base in all of 2016, but had seen a little bit of time at shortstop in his professional debut season a year prior.

In 2017, Kramer would miss most of the year, only playing in 57 games and receiving 251 plate appearances because of a hand fracture. The lefty batter further built up his prospect stock as when he was healthy, hit .290/.371/.479 with 17 doubles, three home runs, stealing eight bases, and having a 141 wRC+ in Double-A. He played across three different levels in 2017, but most of his playing time came from Altoona where 234 of his 251 plate appearances came from.

By now, Kramer was seriously making a name for himself in the Pirates’ minor league system. He entered 2018 as the team’s 9th best prospect per MLB Pipeline. Kramer would only get better as in 2018, the middle infielder batted .311/.365/.492 with 15 long balls, 35 doubles, 13 stolen bases, and a 141 wRC+ through 527 plate appearances at Triple-A.

Although his strikeout rate nearly doubled from 2016, now sitting at 24.1%, Kramer would end the year as the Pirates’ 7th best prospect. He did receive a few MLB plate appearances in the Majors, but struggled in the small sample size of 40. Plus he also saw some time in left field, further widening his versatility.

But going into 2019, Kramer would see his value fall a decent amount. He followed up his outstanding 2018 Triple-A season with a subpar season at the same minor league level. This time through 448 plate appearances, Kramer hit just .260/.335/.417 with 10 home runs, and 30 doubles. All coming to a 92 wRC+. Kramer’s future with the Pittsburgh Pirates is now in serious limbo.

Not only has the awful season at Triple-A really brought down his value, but he has also struggled at the major league level. Although he has only 90 MLB plate appearances under his belt, Kramer is hitting for a .387 OPS and 7 OPS+. While I don’t think he’d hit that way for an entire season, and below average offense is passable for a super-utility guy, Kramer doesn’t really provide all that much defensive value. FanGraphs only gives him a 45 future fielding grade with a 50 future throwing grade. He also isn’t an asset on the base paths either with a 40 current and future run grade and a sprint speed in the bottom 31st percentile of baseball.

Kramer’s primary position of second base has many other prospects blocking him now. Many of the Pirates’ current shortstop prospects like Ji-Hwan Bae, Liover Peguero, and Nick Gonzalez could move over to second base to accommodate each other. Plus, with third base taken by Ke’Bryan Hayes, and Kramer is left positionless. Now he’ll miss any chance at playing in 2020 because of hip surgery. Kramer could eventually become a solid utility man somewhere, but he needs to improve his defense dramatically to do so.