Pittsburgh Pirates: Prospect to Watch at Every Position in 2021

PITTSBURGH, PA - JULY 22: Ji-hwan Bae #72 of the Pittsburgh Pirates in action during the exhibition game against the Cleveland Indians at PNC Park on July 22, 2020 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH, PA - JULY 22: Ji-hwan Bae #72 of the Pittsburgh Pirates in action during the exhibition game against the Cleveland Indians at PNC Park on July 22, 2020 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images) /

Left Field: Jack Herman

Jack Herman was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 30th round of the 2018 draft, but, so far, his professional career has been very good. Herman has collected 469 plate appearances between 2018 and 2019. His career batting line is .286/.374/.473 with 15 home runs and .371 wOBA.

His 2019 season was his biggest taste of big league action. Herman played at Low-A Greensboro and hit .257/.340/.464 with 13 home runs, a .364 wOBA and 134 wRC+. Herman’s best tool is his power. Across 700 plate appearances, he would have hit 22 long balls. He also put up an isolated slugging above .200 (.204) during 2019. He has a 55 future grade for both his game power and raw power grade. He did strike out 29.3% of the time in 2019, but walked 9.3% of the time and put up a 13.6% walk rate in 2018.

Herman is not a bad fielder with a 40 current and 50 future fielding grade. He has a very strong arm though with a 60 current/future throw grade. His worst tool is between his hit and speed, both of which have a future of 40.

Despite being drafted in the late rounds, FanGraphs grades him as the team’s 31st best prospect with a 40 future value grade. He’s only entering his age 21 season and it would be interesting to see what he could do given a full year’s worth of plate appearances.