Pittsburgh Pirates: Examining Potential 2023 Bullpen Arms

Blake Cederlind

2023 Opening Day Age: 27

Hard throwing right hander, Blake Cederlind, is probably the best known relief prospect the Pittsburgh Pirates have. Currently, he ranks as the organization’s 31st best prospect according to FanGraphs, and for a good reason.

Last year, Cederlind had a great breakout season at Double-A. Through 45.2 innings at Altoona, Cederlind had a 1.77 ERA, 3.06 FIP and 1.02 WHIP. He also only allowed one home run throughout his time at Double-A. Cederlind did struggle when he was moved to Triple-A, allowing 5 earned runs in six innings, but it was a very small amount of time, and he did get partially unlucky with a .435 opponent BAbip despite seeing his ground ball and fly ball rates move in the right direction.

Cederlind’s best pitch is his power fastball. FanGraphs gives the pitch a 65 future and current grade. It averages out in the high-90s, but Cederlind definitely can touch triple digits to blow it by batters. He also has a slider and change-up, but right now, they only are seen as future average pitches.

While the young right hander is good at limiting long balls, Cederlind needs to work on either striking out more batters, or drastically improving his walk rate. At Double-A, he had an 8.6% walk rate and 22.7% strikeout rate. Not bad numbers, but definitely could be better. However with his power fastball that can touch triple digits, Cederlind might see his strikeout rate improve.