Pittsburgh Pirates: Potential Top 100 Prospects By End Of 2021

Shortstop Liover Peguero

Liover Peguero was the aforementioned second piece of the Marte trade. The infielder was signed out of the Dominican Republic during the 2017 international signing period. While the shortstop struggled in his first taste of professional action in 2018, he did marginally better in 2019.

Starting at Rookie-Ball, Peguero put up a .364/.410/.559 line in 156 plate appearances. That came with a strong .423 wOBA and 159 wRC+. Peguero did see a noticeable drop off in production when he was promoted to Low-A as his wOBA fell to just .329 and wRC+ fell to 101, however he still had respectable league average numbers. Plus he saw his walk rate go from 7.7% to 8.8% and strikeout rate fall from 21.8% to 28.3% between the two levels. To go with that, he put up an average exit velocity of 90 MPH.

Peguero’s best tool is his hit tool as FanGraphs sees as a 60-future tool. He also is a plus defender with a strong arm with both registering 55-future grades. The only question is his power. Peguero stands at 6’1″, 160 pounds. He only has a future game power grade of 40 and raw power grade of 50. But he’s only going to be in his age-20 season and has plenty of time to fill out. As he fills out, he may lose a step or two, but while he currently has a 60 speed grade, he still projects as an above average runner at 55.

Recently, MLB Pipeline named Liover Peguero as one of the prospects to just miss the top 100, so there’s a pretty good chance he reaches the list before the end of the year.