Pittsburgh Pirates: Analyzing Farm System’s Best Pitching Tools

Curveball

Quinn Priester

FanGraphs: 70 Current, 80 future

MLB Pipeline: 60

The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Quinn Priester with their first-round pick in 2019 and he’s blossomed into their best pitching prospect. Part of his development into a top tier pitching prospect has been to his curveball. FanGraphs sees it as a potential 80-grade offering in the future while MLB Pipeline has it as a 60-grade pitch right now. Not only is it the best curveball among Pirates’ pitching prospects, but it’s also one of the best in the minor leagues.

Priester hasn’t had very much minor league play, tossing just 36.2 innings between Rookie-Ball and Low-A. However, he pitched extremely well posting a 3.19 ERA, 2.90 FIP and 1.255 WHIP. Priester allowed just a single home run while having a solid 25.8% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate.

While his curveball is a deadly weapon, it’s not the only pitch he can throw to an above average level. He also throws a fastball that both Pipeline and FanGraphs see as a 60-grade offering in the future. He averages out in the upper-90’s, hovering in the 94-97 MPH range, but can crank it up and has topped out at 99 MPH. He also has a slider and change-up, both of which MLB Pipeline sees as average offerings.

Much of the praise Priester has recently received was because of his work at the alternative training site and throughout instructionals. Priester went unranked on both FanGraphs and MLB Pipeline’s top 100 lists in 2020 to ranking at the #45 and #52 spots of each list respectively. MLB Pipeline’s Jonathan Mayo even stated that he has the potential to be the best pitching prospect in all of baseball in the very near future.

Slider

Jared Jones

FanGraphs: 50 Current, 60 Future

MLB Pipeline: 55

This one was a bit tougher as there wasn’t a clear player out in front like before. Both Jared Jones and Brennan Malone have well above average sliders. MLB Pipeline see’s Malone’s slider as a 60 while FanGraphs has it as a 55-future grade, while Jones has opposite grades. Ultimately, I chose Jones as I weighed FanGraphs’s ratings a bit more.

The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Jones with their second-round pick in 2020. He was a high school pick and was taken out of La Mirada High School. The team selected him with the 44th overall pick in the draft.

According to MLB Pipeline’s write-up on Jones the best version of his slider sits in the 80-82 MPH range and has harder break. He also misses a fair amount of bats with the pitch. Jones also works with a fastball that sits around 96-97 MPH. This is seen as a 60-grade offering by MLB Pipeline and FanGraphs. He’ll also throw in a changeup, which has the potential to be a third average or better offering.

Jones is still young as this upcoming season will be his age 19 season. He’ll turn 20 in early August. Right now, both FanGraphs and MLB Pipeline rank him as the team’s 17th best prospect. However given his potential, he could rise and be one of the team’s top 10-12 prospects before the end of the season.

Changeup and Command

Miguel Yajure

Changeup Grades:

FanGraphs: 50 Current, 55 Future

MLB Pipeline: 55

Command Grades:

FanGraphs: 50 Current, 60 Future

MLB Pipeline: 55

Miguel Yajure has some of the best control in the Pirate far, system and the best changeup as well. Yajure was the headliner of the package of prospects heading back to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Jameson Taillon trade and is a one of the team’s more notable prospects.

Yajure has improved every level of the minor leagues he has pitched at. In 2019, the right-handed starting pitcher spent the year at High-A and Double-A pitching to the tune of an outstanding 2.14 ERA, 2.51 FIP and 1.07 WHIP in 138.2 innings of work. Yajure displayed that ability to command his pitches with a walk rate of just 5.4%. He also allowed just 5 home runs impart to a strong 54.6% ground ball rate at High-A where he pitched 127.2 of his innings.

While he isn’t a strikeout machine, racking up 133 strikeouts for a 23.9% rate, it’s still a very solid mark and a huge improvement from what it was in his first two pro seasons (13.4% in 88.1 innings). He’s also pitched some in the MLB, but only has thrown 7 innings, allowing 1 run but walking five.

Yajure has an impressive arsenal of pitches. His changeup is seen as a 55-grade by both MLB Pipeline and FanGraphs. However, that’s far from even his best pitch. That would belong to either his cutter. His cutter is seen as a 60-grade offering in the near future by FanGraphs and has a 55 grade on MLB Pipeline. He also will toss a four seam fastball that’s seen as an above average offering by FanGraphs and curveball with the potential to be a fourth average or better pitch.

Yajure’s ability to throw four pitches with average or better potential while having great command make him one of the team’s most intriguing and highest floor prospects in the system. The former Yankee prospect will turn 23 on the first day of May. While he may not open the season in the team’s rotation, he’s an easy candidate to make a mid-season appearance and lock down a rotation spot before the end of the 2021 campaign.