Pittsburgh Pirates: Analyzing Best Position Player Prospect Tools

After going over each of the best pitching tools among the Pittsburgh Pirates prospects, now let’s take a look at each of the best position player tools.

Last week, we went over each of the best tools for Pittsburgh Pirates pitching prospects. That included their fastball, curveball, slider, changeup and control/command. Since FanGraphs and now MLB Pipeline released their top Pirates prospects. With the release of their lists, they also gave grades of each tool a player has. Now, we’ll take a look at the hitters.

There are a handful of different tools that are graded here. Hit, power/game/raw power, fielding, arm/throw and run/speed. MLB Pipeline grades out five tools while MLB Pipeline grades out six tools as they consider both game power and raw power two separate tools. They also give a current grade as well as a projected future grade. Both sites grade each tool on the 20-80 scale where 20 is considered a well below average mark while 80 is considered the best.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at our first tool and out first prospect.

Hit

Ke’Bryan Hayes

FanGraphs: 55 Current, 60 Future

MLB Pipeline: 60

While Ji-Hwan Bae was a close second, exciting young third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes takes the cake here. Though Bae had a 70 future hit grade on FanGraphs, Hayes had the higher current grade and higher grade on MLB Pipeline as well.

Hayes shot up prospect boards this year. After starting out 2020 as a top 50-60 prospect, he’s now considered a top 5-10 prospect. This is mainly due to his outstanding showing with the Pittsburgh Pirates last season. In his first 95 plate appearances at the major league level, Hayes batted for an outstanding .376/.442/.682 line with a .464 wOBA and 195 wRC+. He also cranked out 5 home runs and ran out 14 doubles. He also walked a fair amount with a 9.5% walk rate and struck out at a solid 21.5% rate. He also hit well in the second half of 2019, and hit for average and got on base at a strong rate in 2018.

Hayes runs well with a 60-current speed grade on FanGraphs and on MLB Pipeline. He also built up his power by a notable amount. According to FanGraphs, he started out as a hitter projected with a 40-game power grade, but has now risen to a 50-grade guy. Hayes does have the potential for good power, putting up 92 MPH exit velo in 2019 and 2020 and 55.4% hard hit rate in 2020. For his hit tool to play up to the 60-grade it’s projected as, he needs to start hitting more line drives and fly balls. He had a 47.7% ground ball rate in 2020 and struggled with a high ground ball rate in 2019 at Indianapolis. However if 2021 Spring Training is any indication, that won’t be a huge concern this year.

Power

Oneil Cruz

FanGraphs: Game: 30/60 Raw: 70/80

MLB Pipeline: 60

Some have soured their opinion on Oneil Cruz, but he’s still a top 100 prospect in the eyes of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline and a borderline top 100 prospect by FanGraphs. Plus, he has minimal playing time above High-A.

Cruz’s best tool is his raw power ability. His towering 6’7″, 210 pound frame helped him generate an exit velocity of 91 MPH and 50% hard hit rate. Those kind of batted ball numbers would be right at home with guys like Eloy Jimenez, Ronald Acuna Jr., J.D. Martinez, Nelson Cruz and Bryce Harper.

Cruz broke out as one of the top prospects the Pittsburgh Pirates have in 2018 when he hit .286/.343/.488 with 14 home runs, 25 doubles, with a .3 65 wOBA and 134 wRC+ in 443 plate appearances between at Low-A.

This is also where he started to show some pop with a .201 isolated slugging percentage. Cruz got off to a solid start in 2019 hitting .301/.345/.501 with 7 home runs, a .391 wOBA, 154 wRC+ and .211 ISO in his first 145 PA’s of the season with Bradenton, but a fractured foot hampered his power ability. When he was promoted to Double-A, he posted a solid .269/.346/.415 line with a .339 wOBA and 120 wRC+. While his power was brought down some, he doubled his walk rate while striking out just a bit less frequently than at High-A.

Cruz’s final position with the Pittsburgh Pirates is still up in the air. He mainly played third base early in his career, but with Hayes seen as the long term hot corner defender, that won’t be a long term option for Cruz. He’s mainly played shortstop throughout his pro career, and while he isn’t an awful defender at the middle infield position with a 45-grade on FanGraphs and 50-grade on MLB Pipeline, the Pirates have a more typically built SS in Liover Peguero. Cruz is starting to see some time in centerfield, which could be one of his long term homes.

Fielding

Ke’Bryan Hayes

FanGraphs: 70 Current/Future

MLB Pipeline: 75

Hayes reappears on this list once again, this time for his fielding prowess. Throughout the minor leagues, Hayes was a solid batter, but his defense was among the best. Currently, he’s one of, if not the best professional third baseman when it comes to defense.

FanGraphs sees his fielding as a 70-grade tool. They also see him as the second best defender, regardless of position, among all prospects with only Atlanta Braves’ center fielder Cristian Pache outranking the third baseman. His 75-grade on MLB Pipeline also only falls behind Pache, but being one grade shy of the top grade is still in elite range. He also has a strong arm with a 60-grade on FanGraphs and MLB Pipeline.

Hayes put that glove work on display with the Pittsburgh Pirates last season. Despite playing just under 200 innings at the hot corner, Hayes was 6th overall in Defensive Runs Saved among all third basemen with at least 150 innings played at the positon with +4. The only National League third basemen who outpaced Hayes were Nolan Arenado, Manny Machado and Carter Kieboom. Hayes also had a strong 8.9 UZR/150. Hayes is definitely a player who could end Arenado’s streak of eight straight Gold Glove awards.

Run

Ji-Hwan Bae

FanGraphs: 65 Current, 60 Future

MLB Pipeline: 70

Ji-Hwan Bae isn’t the fastest prospect in the Pirate system, but is ranked much higher than outfielder Sergio Campana and Campana isn’t ranked on MLB Pipeline, giving Bae the edge here.

Bae showed off his speed at Low-A in 2019. In 86 games, the middle infielder swiped 31 bases in 42 attempts. All told he hit for a strong .323/.403/.430 line with a .384 wOBA and 145 wRC+. Bae hit for very little power, having no home runs and a .107 isolated slugging percentage in his 380 plate appearances. But he did rack up 25 doubles, and 5 triples. He was definitely able to stretch out some hits into extra bases because of his speed.

Bae also walks a fair amount of the time, which makes his speed a very useful tool. At Greensboro, he put up an 11.3% walk rate. This off season, he played at the Australian Baseball League where he hit .297/.416/.469, hitting the first 2 home runs of his pro career, all while having an extremely strong 15.6% walk rate in 77 plate appearances.

The speedy infielder primarily plays middle infield. Most of his innings have came from shortstop, but he’s seen a decent bit of time at second base as well. Overall, he’s considered an average fielder with a 50-future grade on FanGraphs and MLB Pipeline, but does have a strong arm with a 55-grade on FanGraphs.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a crowded middle infield picture. The aforementioned Cruz and Liover Peguero are the team’s top shortstop prospects and the Pirates drafted a second baseman with their first round pick in 2020, that being Nick Gonzales. Plus the Pirates have other young players like Rodolfo Castro, Phillip Evans, Kevin Newman, Cole Tucker and acquired a very young infielder in Maikol Escotto in the Jameson Taillon trade. Even if Cruz starts seeing time at other positions, Bae could start seeing work in the outfield as well given his speed and arm in the next season or two to free up room up the middle.