Canaan Smith-Njigba Is The Pittsburgh Pirates Long Term Left Fielder

The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired four prospects in the Jameson Taillon trade, but may have acquired their long term left fielder in the deal.

The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired 11 prospects in their three big trades this off season. Four of those players came over in the Jameson Taillon deal with the New York Yankees. While the headliner of the deal was Miguel Yajure, they also got another prospect who could be part of their long term picture. That’s left fielder Canaan Smith-Njigba.

Smith-Njigba was drafted in the 4th round of the 2017 draft and got off to a hot start to his professional career. His first 237 plate appearances at Rookie-Ball saw the lefty batter hit .289/.430/.422 with a .416 wOBA and 151 wRC+. Njigba didn’t show big power numbers with just 5 home runs and a .134 isolated slugging percentage, but he did rack up 10 doubles. Smith-Njigba showed fantastic plate discipline walking 19.4% of the time to oppose a strikeout rate of 18.6%.

Smith-Njigba was promoted to Low-A-Ball the following season, but the overall production didn’t translate. He hit just .191/.181/.216 with a sub-.300 wOBA (.288) and 81 wRC+. However, he continued to walk at a decent rate of 11.1%, albeit with a strikeout rate of 30.4%.

2019 was his best season by far. Now at A-Ball, Smith-Njigba posted a line of .307/.405/.465 with a .398 wOBA and 154 wRC+ through 528 plate appearances. He saw his walk rate rebound to 15% while cutting his strikeout rate down by nearly 10% to 20.5%. He also saw an increase in power. While he did rack up a ton of doubles, 32 to be exact, he hit 11 home runs while having a career best .158 isolated slugging percentage. While he may not be a fast runner, he still was able to swipe 16 bases in 20 attempts.

Now long term, his defensive home is left field. He’s only seen as an average to below average defender. FanGraphs only grades his fielding as a 45-grade while MLB Pipeline grades him as a 50. He also has a similarly unimpressive arm with a 45 throw grade on FanGraphs and 50 grade on MLB Pipeline.

While he isn’t the best fielder, he has some real power. Smith-Njigba has a 55-future game power and 60-future raw power. He stands with a 6-foot, 210 pound stocky frame and based on his increased power output in 2019, he could eventually reach that peak. He has a 45-future grade hit tool on FanGraphs, but MLB Pipeline sees it as a 55-grade tool.

It also helps that he walks a lot and doesn’t strike out a whole lot. So far, he has a career 14.9% walk rate to go against a 21.8% strikeout rate. However, it should be noted that about 25.5% of all of his strikeouts came in 2018 when he struggled heavily.

During this upcoming season, he should start the year out at High-A ball, but if he keeps hitting like he did in 2019, then he’ll definitely end the season at Altoona. 2022 will be his age 22 season and could very well end up making his debut at the tail end of the season and get in a few plate appearances before the end of the year.

Right now, the projected long term left fielder is Bryan Reynolds. However with Reynolds improved defense, he could end up being used more often in center. In right field, the Pirates may end up having multiple options. Many think Oneil Cruz will eventually make the transition to right field, however if Reynolds sticks in CF, then Swaggerty, or even Hudson Head may make the transition to right.

This could leave the door open for Canaan Smith-Njigba in left field. Smith-Njigba has a good skill set of keeping strikeouts to a minimum while walking a good amount and making hard contact consistently. This kind of skill set translates better than an all or nothing power hitter, or a slap hitter with no power.