Pittsburgh Pirates: Potential Top 100 Prospects By End Of 2021

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Sep 5, 2020; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; New York Yankees pitcher Miguel Yajure (89) delivers in the eighth inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports /

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.

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