Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Goals For The Bullpen In 2021

Goal 2: Get The Young Arms Some Playing Time

The Pittsburgh Pirates have many top relief pitching prospects coming up through the system. The first is right-hander Nick Mears. Mears has a 70-grade fastball that can reach triple digits and an above average curveball. He’s also a strikeout machine with a 37.2% strikeout rate, but does struggle with control sometimes. Overall, he’s done well in the minors with a 3.02 ERA, 2.71 FIP and 1.01 WHIP in 50.2 innings of work.

The Pirates next best relief prospect is David Bednar. The Pittsburgh-native came over as part of the Joe Musgrove trade and has one of the more interesting pitch mixes among all of the Pirates’ pitchers. This pitch mix gives Bednar the potential to be a high-leverage situation reliever for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Bednar will throw your typical mid-to-upper-90s fastball which comes in with a 60-grade and his upper-70s curveball which also has a 60-grade, but he’ll also toss a splitter too. This third pitch is seen as a future 55-grade offering. Like Mears, Bednar has also been a strikeout king throughout his minor league career with a 33.0% rate. All told, he’s tossed a total of 219.2 innings in the minors, has a 2.70 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and 2.14 FIP.

Blake Cederlind was originally drafted in the 5th round of the 2016 draft as a starter, but made a transition to the bullpen and broke out in 2019 in the first season he was solely used out of the pen. He pitched 59.1 innings and put up a 2.28 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 3.31 FIP. While he didn’t put up outstanding strikeout numbers with a21.9% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate, he allowed just 2 long balls. However, Cederlind has strikeout stuff with a 60-grade fastball that can reach triple digits and a slider that’s considered an average offering.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will also have a Rule 5 Draft pick in the bullpen. Luis Oviedo was selected with the 9th pick in the draft by the New York Mets from the Cleveland Indians. The Mets quickly dealt the right-hander to the Pittsburgh Pirates for cash.

Oviedo has mainly been a starter in the minors, but his stuff would play up in the pen. His fastball sits in the mid-to-upper 90 range and has hit 98. It’s a 60-grade offering that could see an uptick in velo out of the pen. He also uses a 60-grade curveball and 55-grade change-up to round out his repertoire. Oviedo hasn’t put up the greatest surface numbers in his professional career with a 4.66 ERA and 1.33 WHIP, but does have a good 3.14 FIP while having a sub-3 xFIP in 2016 and 2018.

Aside from those four, the Pirates should also make room for playing time for other young relief pitching prospects like lefties Blake Weiman and Braeden Ogle, Yerry De Los Santos and Shea Spitzbarth.

All four of Mears, Bednar, Cederlind and Oviedo are within the Pirates top 35 prospects and they could all be part of the Pirates next bullpen. All four also have very limited time in the big leagues. Oviedo hasn’t even played in the MLB, both Cederlind and Mears have less than 10 innings between the two and Bednar has the most, but still less than 20. The Pirates need to try and make as much playing time for their young relief prospects as possible.

Goal 3: Figure Out Who’s Part Of The Long Term Future

Mears, Bednar, Cederlind and Oviedo are all likely going to be part of the team’s long-term bullpen plan. Weiman, De Los Santos and Ogle could fill in other spots in the pen as well. But the Pirates have a handful of still fairly young arms with control remaining that need to prove themselves in 2021 to secure a long term role with the team.

Currently, the Pittsburgh Pirates have a handful of pitchers looking to bounceback. In 2018, Kyle Crick and Edgar Santana looked like two potential lon- term back of the bullpen arms. Then in 2019, Michael Feliz had a great second half of the season. However, Crick pitched horribly in 2019 and Santana underwent Tommy John surgery at the end of 2018. This caused the former to miss all of 2019. He was projected to bounceback in 2020, but a PED suspension kept him out for the entire season. Feliz only tossed just 1.2 innings in 2020.

Crick is going into his age-28 season and Santana will be 29 for the entirety of this upcoming season. They also have multiple years of control remaining so seeing one or both put up solid numbers in 2021 would be nice. Although Feliz only has two years of control remaining, a bounce back campaign from him could lead to a potential trade.

The Bucs also have a handful of breakout candidates. Geoff Hartlieb has shown the talent with an outstanding sinker/slider combo, but has yet to find the control. Clay Holmes, who was given the most money ever to a 9th round pick, had awful numbers in 2019 mainly due to his fastball. He’s coming back with a sinker/slider/curveball pitch mix, all of which could be above average offerings. Tyler Bashlor also has well above average stuff, but like Hartlieb, lacks the control.

There’s also a lot of fringe arms in the organization like Sam Howard, Sean Poppen, and recent waiver claim Duane Underwood Jr. that may get some innings throughout the season.

While most of these names are considered potentially elite-high-leverage arms like Oviedo, Bednar, Mears and Cederlind, most of them have the potential to be solid middle-inning relievers. Regardless of that, they should still get a shot with the 2021 Pittsburgh Pirates. Right now, the Bucs should be seeing what they have in arms like this and if they could potentially be part of the long-term plan.