Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Prospects Running Out of Time

After years of toiling in the minor leagues, these three Pittsburgh Pirates prospects might soon be at the end of their road with the team.

In any sport, prospects are not an exact science. This is especially true in baseball, as fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates, as well as every other MLB team, have seen over the years.

A team’s first-round pick is not a guaranteed future MLB player, and just because you rank higher on prospect lists doesn’t mean you’re going to be a future star. Sometimes this isn’t the prospect’s fault. They get passed ahead by other more talented players, injuries occur and can further push a prospect back, or they simply just don’t live up to the hype.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a few prospects who are being passed on both the prospect and depth charts. So let’s take a look at three prospects who are running out of time to prove themselves, and become reliable MLB players.

Now just because they’re running out of time doesn’t mean they won’t ever be successful. But as the Pittsburgh Pirates currently stand, they’re not seen as long term building blocks with many other prospects now passing them, or because of an injury.

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.

Outfielder Jason Martin

The Pirates acquired Jason Martin in the Gerrit Cole trade along with Joe Musgrove and Michael Feliz. Martin, at the time, had risen through the Astros’ system showing a strong combination of power and speed. Drafted in the 8th round of the 2013 MLB draft, Martin really broke out in 2016. Through 416 plate appearances at the Astros’ High-A level affiliate, the lefty batter hit .270/.357/.533 with 23 home runs and 20 stolen bases. All told, he had a 134 wRC+ and .386 wOBA. Although not that much of a fielder, Martin did show a decent amount of potential with the bat, and on the basepaths.

Martin followed up his 2016 season with solid 2017 season. He split the season between Double-A and High-A ball, and batted .278/.332/.487 with 18 home runs and 16 stolen bases. Martin did see his plate discipline take a pretty big hit though. After walking 12% of the time in ‘16, he recorded a walk rate of just 7.5%. Still, he came in with a 136 wRC+ at High-A and 121 wRC+ at Double-A.

After the trade to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Martin started out the 2018 season on a strong note. His first 289 plate appearances at Double-A saw him hit for an outstanding .325/.392/.522 line, hitting 9 home runs, and recording a 152 wRC+. He did see his walk rate go up a bit, now at 9.2%. But the outstanding output at the plate didn’t carry over when he was moved to Triple-A. In his last 234 plate appearances of the year, Martin only hit .211/.270/.319 with a 65 wRC+. His walk rate dipped back down to it’s 2017 levels, now at 7.3%.

Although Martin didn’t continue to struggle in 2019 as bad as he did at Triple-A as to 2018, he still wasn’t all that great. Through 406 plate appearances, Martin had a .259/.312/.419 line, all coming to a 83 wRC+. He also made his major league debut in 2019, but only had 9 hits, 4 walks, and 10 strikeouts in 40 plate appearances.

Martin was originally not amount the players working out in Pittsburgh during summer camp. However, thanks to Gregory Polanco battling COVID-19, he was able to crack the opening day roster for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Martin only has an average future grade of 50 for his hit, and raw power tools. Defensively, FanGraphs puts him at a future of 50, and the same for his throwing grade. He only had -3 DRS, -0.3 range runs above average, -1 outfield arm runs above average, and -1.4 UZR in his short major league stint last year.

He does provide some value as a base runner as he ranks in the top 76th percentile of sprint speed, but now with fellow 2017-2018 off season acquisition Bryan Reynolds, top prospects Jared Oliva, and Travis Swaggerty, the Pirates needing to find a place for Oneil Cruz, which will probably be right field, along with Jarod Dyson and Gregory Polanco on the 60-man, Martin doesn’t have a really good shot at regular playing time, even if an injury occurs. Though he may never be nothing more than a fourth outfielder, his poor defense, combined with his uninspiring numbers at Triple-A put that into question as well.