Pittsburgh Pirates: Bullpen Will Get Better with Return of Jose Soriano

The Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen has been one of the many early season success stories.  However, the bullpen could get even better.

Concern. If there was one word to describe the feelings toward the Pittsburgh Pirates 2021 bullpen that would have been it.  There were a lot of question marks.  Entering 2021, the only relievers that had definite spots in the bullpen were Richard Rodriguez and Chris Stratton.  Everyone else was essentially battling for the other spots in the bullpen as Spring Training started up.

No one expected the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen to be good this year.  The team lost several key pieces to it over the last few years, and have not seen any young prospects step up.  In addition, there were a lot of questions around the in-house options.  Would Sam Howard pick up where he left off after a solid 2020 season?  Would Geoff Hartlieb find that more consistent command on his pitches?  Would Kyle Crick regain his form of a couple of years ago and would that mid 90s velocity be back?  Just to name a few.

Overall, the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen has been everything they could have hoped for.  The team has seen Kyle Crick bounce back and have had a big time breakout in pitcher Duane Underwood Jr., whom they acquired from the Cubs.  Also, local product David Bednar has already emerged as a potential back end reliever, of course he was brought in from the Padres as part of the Joe Musgrove deal.  Combine that with Richard Rodriguez, Chris Stratton, and Sam Howard, who has continued to pitch well, and the team’s bullpen is a real strength.

However, the bullpen is still missing one piece that could take it to the next level.  In this past offseason’s Rule Five Draft, the Pittsburgh Pirates had the top selection.  The Rule Five Draft was uncharacteristically stacked with talent, with several teams exposing top prospects.  The Bucs used the top selection on hard throwing right-handed pitcher Jose Soriano.

Soriano checked a lot of the boxes for an obvious Rule Five selection.  He is a hard throwing pitcher who projects to be more of a reliever than a starter, so the Bucs could stash him in the bullpen.  However, when the Bucs selected Soriano they knew they were getting a player who was rehabbing from Tommy-John Surgery.  In a way, that benefitted the team as Soriano was placed on the 60-Day Injured List, which protects him from an immediate roster decision.

With all that being said, Soriano also had the talent to be the first selection.  The 22 year old has an athletic frame at 6’3” and weighing around 190 pounds.  With a solid frame, Soriano was being clocked as high as 99 miles per hour as a starter in the minor leagues.  The Angels were developing Soriano as a starter, but his trajectory at this point makes him a future bullpen piece.

Pittsburgh Pirates: Jose Soriano Ranks  as the team’s #22 Prospect according to FanGraphs

Soriano is still a little ways off from returning, but he is progressing well in his rehab.  The most recent update on Soriano from the Pittsburgh Pirates came during the first week of April:

Since then, Soriano has thrown sim games with things progressing as according to plan.  This likely puts Soriano on a path to join the team this summer, with June being the earliest.  The team will be able to give Soriano plenty of time to rehab with the minor league season starting in May.  Soriano will likely be developed as a reliever with the team being watchful of his arm.  Also, with a potential triple-digit fastball and a plus breaking pitch, Soriano really has the nice two pitch combo to make an effective backend reliever.