Pittsburgh Pirates: Luis Oviedo Impresses in MLB Debut

Pittsburgh Pirates pitching prospect Luis Oviedo impressed in his first inning of his MLB career on Saturday afternoon

The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired many new, young pitching prospects throughout this past offseason. In the Josh Bell, Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon trades alone, they acquired seven new pitching prospects, but that wasn’t the only way they acquired notable names. One player they acquired via trade during the Rule 5 Draft was relief pitcher Luis Oviedo. He’s also an arm that I’ve personally been high on since the Pittsburgh Pirates acquired him.

The right-handed pitching prospect made his MLB debut on Saturday afternoon. He pitched just 1 inning, but was effective and efficient. It only took him 14 pitches to retire the side in order. Impressively, only three of the pitches he threw were called balls. He got Jason Heyward and David Bote to ground out, while getting Ian Happ to swing at a nasty curveball that fooled him so badly the bat slipped from his hand.

Oviedo mainly used his fastball as half of the pitches he threw were four-seamers. He bottomed out with the pitch at 95 MPH and fell just shy of 98 MPH at 97.7 MPH with the pitch. He also threw his curveball quite often, making up five of the total pitches he threw. This pitch gave a nice offset to his heater as it ranged from 77.8 MPH to 81. Lastly was his slider which he threw twice to Bote.

Oviedo is young at just 21-years-old. Prior to Saturday he had not pitched above the High-A level, but he looked very impressive in his first MLB appearance. He was primarily a starter throughout the minors as 51 of his 58 total appearances came out of the rotation.

At one point Oviedo was a top 10 prospect in the Indian farm system, but was left unprotected in this past winter’s Rule 5 Draft. It was the New York Mets who selected Oviedo before trading him to the Pittsburgh Pirates for cash shortly after the draft. While Oviedo did not pitch all that well at in 2019, he was considered a top 100 prospect by Baseball Prospectus.

Currently, he ranks as the 23rd best prospect in the Pirate farm system according to FanGraphs. FanGraphs also gives his fastball, curveball and changeup plus grades. His fastball is seen as a potential 60-grade offering while his curve and changeup come in with 55-future grades. Overall, it will be fun to watch Oveido pitch this season. He has some exciting stuff and could start seeing more time as a late inning, high leverage reliever as the season goes on.