Pittsburgh Pirates Minors: Quinn Priester Humming in Altoona

The Pittsburgh Pirates recently added one of their top starting pitching prospects to their 60 man roster.  Apparently, he is already catching attention.

With the trade deadline passing and the Pittsburgh Pirates being relatively quiet, there was not a whole lot of roster turn over.  Many were hoping to see a wave of new prospects enter the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, but instead the team did not acquire anyone.  The one trade they did make was to send Jarrod Dyson to the Chicago White Sox for international bonus money (cap space).

However, the Bucs made some internal moves.  They promoted their top hitting prospect Ke’Bryan Hayes to the Major League roster.  With that, the Bucs were able to add another prospect to their alternate training site in Altoona.  The team added one of their top pitching prospects in Quinn Priester.

Priester was the Pittsburgh Pirates first-round pick in 2019, Neal Huntington’s last draft as the team’s General Manager.  He was selected 18th overall, but was actually the top prep pitcher to be drafted.  He got off to a really strong start to his professional career (3.19 ERA in 2019) and looked to make the jump to Low-A this season.  Instead, he was working out on his own, likely following along some sort of workout plan from the Pirates.

It looks like whatever Priester has been doing during his time away has been working. Rob Biertempfel, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat writer for The Athletic, tweeted about how dominant Priester was in his first scrimmage start:

The biggest take away from this is the velocity.  Obviously with a pitcher training on his own and basically just throwing bullpen side sessions, it would be hard to predict if pitchers arms are in tip top shape.  Priester’s obviously is; in fact, he is throwing harder than he ever has at 98 miles per hour.  Also, the fact that he struck out six hitters in three innings is super impressive.

Right now Altoona is made up of not only a lot of top prospects, but ones from the upper minors.  Hitters like Oneil Cruz, Nick Gonzales, Will Craig, and Mason Martin are there, along with some veterans.  The fact that Priester was able to step right in a dominant is a good sign for things to come.  Hopefully, he continues to perform well and the Pittsburgh Pirates act aggressive with his minor league placement in 2021.  Priester currently ranks as the Bucs fourth best prospect and top pitching prospect on MLB Pipeline.