Pittsburgh Pirates: Projecting Top 5 Prospects at the End of 2021

Number 4 – Pitcher Brennan Malone

Now let’s take a look at the yet another pitcher we’ll talk about today, right-hander Brennan Malone. Overall, the Bucs have a ton of notable pitching prospects. Malone was considered one of the top prep arms in the 2019 draft, and up there with Priester in that category.

The Arizona Diamondbacks took the right-hander with the 33rd overall pick. However, he was projected to go a lot sooner than when he was selected, but signing concerns bumped him down a handful of spots. He was part of the Starling Marte trade and while he wasn’t the headliner, he could easily be the best of the two pieces that come out of it.

Malone has yet to even toss a whole game’s worth of professional innings yet, but definitely has shown the stuff that makes top of the line pitchers. He has a fastball with a future grade of 60, average out in the 92-96 MPH range, but has touched 99 MPH with. Both his slider and curveball grade out as above average pitches as well with a 55-future grade and his changeup is technically his worst pitch, but a fourth offering that is projected to be at least a 50-grade offering.

Like Priester, Malone will get a good long look by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2021. He’s only going into his age-20 season, so he still has two or so years before we see him reach the Majors. However, his stuff is already very highly regarded and is a third pitcher who could become one of the Bucs’ best. He could be the team’s next Priester, going unranked to a consensus top 50 prospect.