
Third Base: Jared Triolo
Jared Triolo was selected in the second round of the 2019 draft. Selected out of the University of Houston, Triolo became one of the top hitters in the American Athletic Conference during 2018 and 2019. In his final season in college Triolo hit .332/.420/.512 with 25 extra base hits (17 doubles, 8 home runs) and 13 stolen bases in 262 plate appearances. He also had a 31:30 BB:K ratio. MLB Pipeline ranked him as the 146th best prospect available in the draft.
Triolo did not do all that bad in his first taste of professional action. In 264 plate appearances at West Virginia, the infielder put up a .239/.314/.389 line. He did show some pop with 19 doubles, 5 triples and a pair of long balls with a .151 isolated slugging percentage. This was above average as he had a 110 wRC+.
He also walked more than 10% of the time (10.2%) and had a sub-20% strikeout rate (18.6%). In terms of FanGraphs’ future grades, he has a 50 hit grade, 45 game power grade and 50 raw power grade. However, he only hit ground balls 38% of the time while posting a solid 24.6% line drive rate.
His strong suit is his defense. FanGraphs gives both his arm and fielding a 55 future grade. While third base is his primary position, he played a decent amount of shortstop in 2019 and could probably shift over to second base if he needed to. Plus, he played a fair amount of corner outfield during college.
It’ll be hard for Triolo to break through in the Majors as a third baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates given Ke’Bryan Hayes current status, but after being such an advanced hitter through college, you’d like to see what he can do given a full season of playing time. Plus, it’s not like he needs to be regulated to just third base given his versatility.