Pittsburgh Pirates: Pitching Prospect Named Future Impact Player

Throughout the offseason Quinn Priester has been garnering praise from prospect outlets across baseball. Earlier this week, the top pitching prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system was named as a prospect who can make an impact by 2023.

Prospects, prospects, prospects, as many of you know that is my true passion. Over my time with Rum Bunter I have written over 80 pieces, and I’d say more than half of them deal with prospects. A couple of those pieces deal with one Pittsburgh Pirates prospect in particular, and this prospect has generated enough buzz to make comparisons to a guy like Gerrit Cole. If you haven’t figured it out already it’s Quinn Priester.

Priester has come a long way from watching YouTube videos on dominant pitchers and trying to formulate his own unique style from them. In an interview Priester did with Rum Bunter last year he stated he never had a true pitching coach prior to pro-ball, hence his YouTube research. This makes his ability to become one of the top pitching prospects even more impressive.

On Thursday, Jonathan Mayo, Jim Callis and Mike Rosenbaum of MLB Pipeline came together to write about prospects who could make an impact with their MLB club by 2023. Unsurprisingly, Priester was found on this list. This continues what has been an offseason of praise for Priester.

Priester is well-deserving of this recognition, and if I’m honest, this pitching prospect gives me so much hope for the future.

Last season Priester had the opportunity to pitch in Altoona at the Pirates’ alternate training site. While there, Priester turned heads. When I talked to fellow Pirate prospect Mason Martin he said that Priester has some nasty stuff along with the entire pitching staff that was there. Priester has all the tools needed to be a special pitcher and if the Pittsburgh Pirates plan on being a contender in three years or so as they have planned, he is going to be a big part of it.

The priase for Priester from the authors of the article was not found just in the article. Callis also took to Twitter to sing Priester’s praise.

Looking at Priester’s 2019 stats, you can see that he showed promise. He posted a 3.03 ERA, 2.96 xFIP and induced ground balls at a 55.4% rate. Besides his stats, we have to go off of reports from instructs, and from all accounts, this kid is developing at a very good rate, and his stuff is getting filthier by the second. There is also similarities between Priester and former Pirate ace A.J. Burnet.

Priester and Burnett have a similar arm action, as well as curveball shape. Similar to Burnett, Priester has a presence on the mound. He intimidates batters and controls the at-bat. By all accounts Priester has the same bulldog mentality that Burnett did.

To finish this off, I will leave you with what MLB Pipeline had to say about the youngster:

"Despite there being no real 2020 season, Priester’s efforts at the end of the Pirates’ alternate site work and then at instructs created a good amount of buzz. The 2019 first-rounder leapt into the middle of our Top 100 as a result, with strength gains fueling an uptick of stuff, a fastball that averaged a touch over 97 mph in 2020, a plus curve, a distinct slider, and an improving changeup."