Pittsburgh Pirates: Analyzing Farm System’s Best Pitching Tools

With MLB Pipeline and FanGraphs releasing their top Pittsburgh Pirates prospects, let’s take a look at each of the team’s best tools, starting with pitchers.

FanGraphs and MLB Pipeline have now released both of their Pittsburgh Pirates top prospect lists. Each player is given grades for each of their tools. For pitchers, they’ll give them grades for each of their pitches plus their control on MLB Pipeline and command on FanGraphs. For hitters, they’ll give tools for their hit, power, running/speed, fielding and arm.

Today, we will be looking at each of the best tools for a pitcher including their fastball, curveball, slider, changeup plus their command/control. These tools are on the 20-80 scale where 20 is well below average and 80 is elite. FanGraphs gives both current and projected future grades for their tools as well, which will also be taken into account. We will start with the best fastball the Pittsburgh Pirates have in their farm system.

Fastball

Tahnaj Thomas

Fangraphs: 70 current, 80 future

MLB Pipeline: 65

Tahnaj Thomas, unsurprisingly, has the best fastball in the system. The 6’4″, 190 pound right-hander can reach triple digits with the offering and averages out in the 93-98 MPH range. Not only is he a flamethrower, but he also can put decent spin on the pitch at 2300 RPM. FanGraphs sees it as potentially one of the best fastballs among all prospects with a future-80 grade.

The prospect last pitched with the Pirates’ Rookie-Ball affiliate in 2019. The right-hander put up very solid numbers including a 3.17 ERA, 3.67 FIP and 1.11 WHIP through 48.2 innings of work. His big fastball helped him strikeout 29.5% of all the batters he faced. He previously struggled with control when he was a Cleveland Indians farmhand, but cut his walk rate down to a fantastic 7% rate. Home runs weren’t a huge issue for him either as he put up a 0.93 HR/9 rate.

Thomas’s breaking ball has been identified as both a slider and curveball. Up until this year, FanGraphs graded it out as a curve, but recently gave it a 55-future grade as a slider. Meanwhile, MLB Pipeline also sees it as a 55-grade slider. He also will throw a change up, a pitch he’s working on and could be his ticket to staying in the rotation long term. His command is seen as a 60-grade tool in the future as well, an upgrade from the 55-grade he got likely from his improved ability to locate.

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.