Pittsburgh Pirates: Prospect to Watch at Every Position in 2021

The Pittsburgh Pirates have many young players who did not get an opportunity to play baseball in 2020 due to the lack of a minor league season. So, keep an eye on these prospects next season.

As we turn the calendar to 2021 we get to leave behind a terrible, no good, very bad year that was 2020. The 2020 baseball season was, like everything else during the year, completely flipped on its head. Expanded playoffs, weird extra inning rules, 28-man rosters, but more notably, no minor league season. The lack of a minor league season was a hinderance for many prospects in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system.

Instead of a minor league season, teams opened up alternative training sites. Obviously, running scrimmages is not the same as playing competitively. This meant that many prospects that may have moved up prospect charts under normal circumstances didn’t get that opportunity and didn’t get to develop all that much, if at all if they weren’t at the alternative site.

Because of this there are some prospects that fans should keep an eye on in 2021. The Pittsburgh Pirates have many of these players. While the Major League roster may not have that many exciting players aside from some of the young guns, the future is where many are turning their attention to, which are the team’s prospects.

Today, let’s discuss one prospect at every position that you should watch this season. They may just become one of the more notable prospects the Pittsburgh Pirates have. I tried to keep this list to players who haven’t played a full season in the minors yet but do have some professional experience and obvious names as well. So without further ado, let’s get into a catching prospect.

Catcher: Geovanny Planchart

Currently, catcher is the position the Pittsburgh Pirates have the fewest notable young names. Neither FanGraphs nor MLB Pipeline list a single top catching prospect for the team. But while the Bucs don’t have any top catching prospects, that doesn’t mean they don’t have any young names to keep an eye on. Before the 2020 season, Nick pointed out two intriguing young catching prospects the Pirates had in their farm system. One was Geovanny Planchart.

Planchart was signed out of Venezuela in 2019. The backstop played his first professional season at just 17-years-old, but hit very well. Through 121 plate appearances with the Bucs’ Dominican Summer League affiliate Planchart hit .368/.406/.406 with a fantastic .417 wOBA and 140 wRC+.

Planchart didn’t show much power with an isolated slugging percentage of just .038 and two extra base hits, both of which were triples, but he showed really good plate discipline for a 17-year-old. He walked 9.9% of the time and struck out in just 7.4% of his plate appearances. He did have a high .389 batting average on balls in play, but his 22.9% line drive rate would have been above the Major League average in 2019 (21%). He also showed he can gun down runners with a 42% caught stealing percentage.

First Base: Alexander Mojica

Alexander Mojica was even younger than Planchart in his first professional season, which, like the catcher, was 2019 as well. Mojica was an international signing out of the Dominican Republic and was one of Planchart’s teammates. Mojica absolutely raked at the level for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Through 218 plate appearances, Mojica hit .351/.468/.580 with a .491 wOBA and 182 wRC+. In terms of wRC+, a stat weighed for league and park factors, a 182 mark at the DSL in 2019 would end up with similar offensive results to 2019 Mike Trout (180 wRC+). Mojica showed off some real pop. He blasted 8 home runs, racked up 14 doubles and put up a .230 isolated slugging percentage. He also displayed great plate discipline with a fantastic 17% walk rate and 15.6% strikeout rate.

Mojica mainly played third base during 2019. He does have an average arm for the hot corner, with a 50 grade, but a 35 current/40 future fielding grade at third base will eventually push him to first base. He isn’t unfamiliar with first though as he played 16 innings there in 2019. He also lacks range with a speed grade of just 20, the lowest possible grade a player can get for at tool.

Mojica’s best tool is his raw power. He’s already reached a 55 grade on FanGraphs, but could improve it to a 60. He also has future 55 grades for his hit and game power tools. He already averaged 89 MPH during his age-16 season. Next year will be his age-18 season and after his excellent showing at the DSL, Mojica could quickly rise through the prospect lists. Currently, FanGraphs ranks Mojica as the 36th best propsect that the Pittsburgh Pirates have.

Second Base: Ji-Hwan Bae

Pittsburgh’s 2020 first-round pick Nick Gonzales would have fit here too, but since he’s a consensus top 100 prospect already and doesn’t really significantly lack skill in any part of the game, I decided to put Ji-Hwan Bae here.

Bae was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates after the Atlanta Braves were forced to release him in the scandal that involved the permanent suspension of former general manager John Coppoella. The Korean prospect hit the ball well at the Low-A level during 2019. Through 380 plate appearances Bae hit .323/.403/.430. He’s one of the fastest players in the Pirate organization. His 65 future speed grade on FanGraphs ties him with 2018 first-round pick Travis Swaggerty for the third highest grade among Pirate prospects. Bae also used his speed to swipe 31 bags.

Bae’s season was fueled by a .417 batting average on balls in play and his 85 average exit velocity does not pair well with a 51.2% ground ball rate. But Bae played in the Australian Baseball League after the season and showed some promising steps forward. While it was just 77 plate appearances, Bae hit his first two home runs of his career in Australia. Despite his BAbip dropping to .354, he remained a strong hitter, posting a .297/.416/.469 line.

Bae has seen time at both shortstop and second base throughout his career where is seen as an average defender (50 future fielding grade) with a strong arm (55 future throw grade). Given his athleticism and arm, he can probably move to an outfield spot given the Pittsburgh Pirates have a crowded middle infield situation. Bae will look to play a full season in 2021 after his 2019 season was cut short by a domestic violence suspension.

Shortstop: Liover Peguero

Acquired by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Starling Marte trade, Liover Peguero is the organization’s second best shortstop prospect behind Oneil Cruz. Like all the names we’ve talked about so far today, Peugero was an international signing. This time by the Diamondbacks out of the Dominican Republic.

Peguero saw the most professional playing time of his young career in 2019. Through 249 plate appearances between Rookie-Ball and Low-A, Peguero hit .326/.382/.485. He hit much better at Rookie-Ball than Low-A, posting a 153 wRC+ and .423 wOBA there, but still put up a respectable .329 wOBA and 101 wRC+ at Low-A. Plus he showed improved plate discipline as his walk rate went from 7.7% to 8.6% and he cut his strikeout rate from 21.8% to 18.3%.

Peguero is a very athletic shortstop. He’s stolen 18 bases in 101 career games. He has a current speed grade of 60 but a future grade of 55, which is still above average. He’s also seen as a plus fielder (55 fielding grade) with a strong arm (55 throw grade).

However, there are a few things to note about Peguero. His season was carried by a high .401 batting average balls in play. He also had a ground ball well above 50% at both levels. While there is a bit of concern, this is all in less than 300 plate appearances. He’s yet to collect 400 plate appearances in a single season yet. He showed he can hit to all fields in Rookie-Ball and he just turned 20 on the 31st. He has a projectable 6’1″ frame. He already averaged 90 MPH off the bat. If he adds just a bit of bulk and starts getting the ball in the air more, then he could be one of the best shortstop prospects in the game. After all, we have yet to see how he does under the Pirate development and coaching.

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.

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.

Right Field: Rodolfo Nolasco

Another one of the top signing from the 2018 international class for the Pittsburgh Pirates was outfielder Rodolfo Nolasco. Like Campana, Nolasco made his pro debut in 2019 during his age-17 season. While with one of the Pirates’ Dominican Summer League teams, Nolasco hit .302/.373/.472 with 5 home runs, 13 doubles and a 133 wRC+ in 225 plate appearances.

Nolasco has some good power potential. Not only did he rack up 21 extra base hits with a .170 isolated slugging percentage, but he has a future 55 grade for his game power and raw power on FanGraphs. He also already averaged 89 MPH off the bat. Nolasco also showed some solid plate discipline. While he only walked 7.1% of the time, he put up a strikeout rate of just 11.6%.

The powerful outfielder had a line drive percent of just 15.3% and high ground ball rate of 57.6%. While it was a short amount of plate appearances these are not very good but it was in a short amount of time. In terms of fielding, he’s an average fielder with a future 50 grade but an above average arm at has a future 55 grade. He currently has a 50 speed grade but 40 future grade.

Nolasco has a fair amount of power potential in his future. Currently, FanGraphs ranks him as the Bucs’ 19th best prospect but given a full season, he could quickly rise through the rankings.

Starting Pitcher: Tahnaj Thomas

When the Pittsburgh Pirates traded Jordan Luplow and Max Moroff for Erik Gonzalez and two prospects, one of which was right-hander Tahnaj Thomas, in the 2018-2019 offseason, many overlooked the trade as a small move for both teams. However, now in the 2020-2021 offseason, Thomas looks like he could be a fantastic pitcher at the MLB level.

Throughout his first two years in the Indians’ farm system, Thomas struggled with his ability to control the ball coming out of his hand. In 58.1 innings and facing 261 batters, Thomas walked 43 for a 16.5% walk rate. He did show some strong strikeout numbers, getting 33.8% of the batters he faced in 2018 down on strike three. He also had a solid HR/9 of 0.93. Overall, he only had a 5.25 ERA and 4.77 FIP.

Following the trade to Pittsburgh, Thomas started his career with his new team at Bristol Rookie-Ball. He tossed 48.1 innings while showing greatly improved control, walking just 7% of the batters he faced. His strikeout rate didn’t suffer though as he had a strikeout rate of 29.5%. Through his first season with the Bucs, he had a 3.17 ERA, 3.67 FIP, 1.11 WHIP and 4.21 K/BB ratio, all of which are single season career bests. He also had a solid 3.49 xFIP.

Thomas’ best pitch is his fastball. It has a 70 grade because he can run it upwards of 100 MPH. While he can consistently touch 100 MPH, he averages out in the 93-98 MPH range. However, he has a great breaking pitch to go along with his power fastball. Different sources see different pitches. FanGraphs gives him a 60-future grade curveball while MLB Pipeline sees a 55 grade slider. Regardless, he has a plus breaking ball. He also is working on a third pitch, that being a change-up. While it is currently seen as a below average offering, it has a future grade of 50 on FanGraphs. Plus he’s only entering his age-22 season and given his talent, he could easily improve upon it.

Thomas has yet to throw more than 50 innings at any level yet. He’s shown improvement over his last two professional seasons and has the talent to keep improving. Currently, Thomas has an ETA of 2022 which is a very possible target if he stays healthy and continues to build off his last few seasons.