Pittsburgh Pirates: Potential Top 100 Prospects By End Of 2021

The Pittsburgh Pirates have built up a deep farmsystem, but who are some prospects that could rise to top 100 lists before the end of this upcoming season.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have built up one of the best farm systems in all of baseball. Since taking over as general manager, Ben Cherington has traded many of the team’s veterans for large and worthwhile prospect packages.

Many of the prospects Cherington brought in through trade are not ranked as top 100 prospects, at least not yet. However, every year, there are a ton of players who graduate prospect status, moving the borderline ones into the top 100. Breakout seasons will also help a prospect move up in the rankings.

This year, we could see a whole lot of new faces that are part of the Pirates’ organization end the year as top 100 prospects. Today we will examine five players in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system who could become top 100 prospects by the end of the year.

Outfielder Hudson Head

Hudson Head was the headliner going back to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Joe Musgrove deal. Head was selected out of Winston Churchill High School in San Antonio, Texas. The San Diego Padres drafted him with their third-round selection in 2019, but Head had first round talent. He was selected much later than his ability suggests as he was committed to playing quarterback for his school’s football team. Scouts didn’t get a full look at him during the season.

Head got his first taste of professional action in 2019 with the Padres’ Arizona League affiliate. Through 141 plate appearances, the lefty batter put up a very solid .284/.383/.417 line with a 119 wRC+ and .375 wOBA. Head posted a walk rate above 10% at 10.6% while having a low strikeout rate of just 20.6%.

Head didn’t show much game power throughout the season, but many believe he can be a five tool outfielder with 55-60 grade power, according to the San Diego Tribune. FanGraphs rates his best tools as his hit and speed tool with both having a future 60-grade. He does have the potential to reach that 55-60 game power grade with a 55-future raw power grade and 89 MPH average exit velocity during his age-18 season. He also is a good fielder with a strong arm as both are seen as future 55 grade tools.

Head is highly athletic with very good bat speed. He’s already shown decent plate discipline at a young age and his power should continue to get better as he matures. After all, his 2021 season will only be his age-20 season.

Pitcher Brennan Malone

Right-handed pitcher Brennan Malone is personally one of my favorite prospects in the Pirate organization. Malone was taken with the 33rd overall selection in 2019 by the Arizona Diamondbacks. While being drafted outside the top 30 picks, Malone was seen as a top 20-25 draft prospect by both MLB Pipeline and FanGraphs. His commitment to college made his status a bit questionable and bump down his prospect stock. The Pittbsurgh Pirates received Malone in the Starling Marte trade, along with another piece that will also be featured on this list.

Malone stands at 6’3″, 203 pounds. He uses his big frame to generate a big fastball, one that MLB Pipeline sees as a 65-grade pitch and FanGraphs sees as a 60-future grade pitch. The pitch averages out at 92-96 MPH with 2300 RPM, but can reach upwards of 99 MPH.

Malone has two breaking balls. Both his curveball and slider could be above average offerings. FanGraphs sees both as 55-future grade pitches. Meanwhile, MLB Pipeline sees his slider as a 60-grade offering and his curveball as a 50 grade pitch. Then he has a fourth pitch, a change up, which both Pipeline and FanGraphs see as a 50-grade offering.

This gives Malone three offerings that could be above average and a fourth that could be average. If you can find a pitcher with multiple plus pitches, you have a good prospect on your hands.

Malone has little pro experience as he pitched just 8 innings in 2019. 2021 will be his first full professional season and his age-20 campaign. He is an extremely talented right-handed pitcher who, if he breaks out in 2021, could be a top 100 prospect before the year’s end.

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.

Pitcher Miguel Yajure

One of the key pieces the Pittsburgh Pirates received in the Jameson Taillon trade was right-handed pitcher Miguel Yajure. Yajure, going into his age-23 season, was signed out of Venezuela by the New York Yankees. He made his professional debut in 2015 and pitched well through his first two professional seasons, showing improvement as well, but underwent Tommy John surgery. This caused him to miss all of 2017.

He rebounded with a solid 2018 season with the Yanks’ Low-A affiliate, but really put everything together in 2019 with their High-A and Double-A teams. Through 138.2 innings, Yajure posted a 2.14 ERA, 2.51 FIP and 1.07 WHIP. Yajure posted a career-best FIP and strikeout rate (23.9%) while having an outstanding 5.4% walk rate and 0.3 HR/9 rate. He also had an identical 2.88 xFIP at High-A and Double-A.

He’s also seen his strikeout rate rise every level he’s been promoted to. Starting out in 2015 in the Dominican Summer League, Yajure struck out just 15.3% of all the batters he faced. Now in 2020, Yajure made his major league debut and struck out 27.6% of the 29 batters he faced. While it is a small sample size, his strikeout rate has taken major steps forward.

Yajure uses four different pitches. He has two variations of his fastball. The first is a four-seamer that averages out in the 92-95 MPH range and has a 55-future grade according to FanGraphs. The other is a cutter that is seen as a 60-grade future offering by FanGraphs. His primary breaking pitch is a curveball, which averaged 2600 RPM on in 2019 but is only seen as a 50-grade pitch. He also will throw a change up that is seen as a third above average offering.

Yajure could be a top 100 prospect before the season’s end because of his very high floor. At the very least, he’s seen as a guy who can lockdown a back of the rotation spot, which is something that could be very important for the next Pirates’ core. Since he doesn’t have overpowering stuff, he needs to prove he can miss bats at the major league level consistently, but that may not be a big concern as, like stated earlier, he’s improved his strikeout rate at every level of pro baseball he’s been at.

Honorable Mentions

There are a ton of Pirate prospects that we could see breakout and rise to spots on top 100 lists in baseball. So while Head, Malone, Peguero, Thomas and Yajure are some of the most prominent, there are other names that are worth mentioning.

Infielder Maikol Escotto

Maikol Escotto was another piece that was part of the Taillon trade. The 18-year-old hasn’t gotten much professional playing time, only collecting 218 plate appearances with the Yankees’ Domincan Summer League team, but he was very productive with them. He put up a .315/.429/.552 line and hit 8 home runs while having a .465 wOBA and 167 wRC+. He also showed some defensive versatility being a solid defender at second base, third base and shortstop.

Pitcher Eddy Yean

Eddy Yean was the headliner in the Josh Bell trade. So far, 2019 has been his best season with a rock solid 3.50 ERA, 3.44 FIP and 1.16 WHIP in 46.1 innings with the Washington Nationals’ Rookie-Ball and Low-A affiliates. While he hasn’t been overly impressive throughout the minors yet, he definitely has an impressive arsenal of pitches. FanGraphs grades his fastball with 60-grade potential with both his slider and change-up having 55-grade potential.

Pitcher Michael Burrows

The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Burrows with their 11th round draft pick in 2018 and he got his professional career off with a bang, rattling off 14 scoreless innings. During 2019, he put up a 4.33 ERA, 3.54 FIP and 1.46 WHIP in 43.2 innings of work.

So far, Burrows hasn’t shown a strong ability of control, nor strong ability to miss bats, having a 21.3% strikeout rate and 9.8% walk rate. However, he’s only allowed two home runs. There’s also the possibility he gets moved to the pen as he doesn’t have a reliable third pitch right now. However, his fastball/curveball combo is very strong. His four seamer averaged 2550 RPM, which ranked 21st among all of FanGraphs’ listed prospects while his curveball came in with 2800 RPM, the 31st highest mark among all breaking pitches. Among Pirate pitching prospects, his fastball had the highest spin rate while his curve had the 4th highest breaking ball spin rate.

Pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski

Carmen Mlodzinski was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates with their compensation pick last year. Overall, he was the 31st pick in the draft. While he didn’t have ace numbers in college, he still has three plus pitches according to MLB Pipeline with a 60-grade fastball and 55 grade curveball and change up.