Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Potential Breakout Prospects for 2021

Outfielder Rodolfo Nolasco

19-year-old Dominican product Rodolfo Nolasco is a player we have talked about a bunch here at Rum Bunter. His recognition has also reached other publication, as Jim Bowed of The Athletic recently named Nolasco as one of the most underrated prospects in baseball.

In his lone taste of professional baseball Nolasco raked with DSL Pirates in 2019. Nolasco hit for a .302/.373/.472 slash line to go with a 133 wRC+ and 10.6% extra base hit rate in 54 games played.

Power is Nolasco’s calling card. FanGraphs gives his raw power a future value of 50. He also displayed great plate discipline in the DSL with a 7.1% walk rate and just an 11.6% strikeout rate. The strikeout rate was esepcially great to see. Both young hitters and power hitters struggle to avoid the strikeout, Nolasco, however, did not struggle with this in 2019.

Moving forward, Nolasco will need to prove he can continue to keep the strikeouts down while flashing his power. If he can do this while also improving on a hit tool, that FanGraphs currently gives a FV of just 25, he could emerge in 2021 as one of the top hitting prospects in the Pirate farm system.