Pittsburgh Pirates: Keep an Eye on Santiago Florez This Season

There are plenty of intriguing arms in the farm system for fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates to keep an eye on this season, one of which is righty Santiago Florez

The Pittsburgh Pirates are not short on talented pitching throughout their minor league system. From top-ranking prospects like Quinn Priester, Tahnaj Thomas and Brennan Malone to more under the radar yet still extremely intriguing arms like Roansy Contreras, Nick Garcia and Jared Jones, there’s a whole lot of young pitching up and down the farm. After all, that will happen when 5 of your 6 draft picks are pitchers and then you go on to acquire 8 more in the offseason.

However, one name that got sort of buried this past year is right-hander Santiago Florez. Despite his lackluster professional numbers so far, he has an extremely high ceiling. Potentially, he has one of the highest ceilings in the entire system.

The right-handed Florez was signed out of Colombia during the 2016 international signing period. His first three years in professional baseball were nothing special. Florez struggled with control, putting up a 13.3% walk rate. It also didn’t help that he wasn’t striking out many batters either, having a 16.4% strikeout rate. One silver lining was that he only had a 0.39 HR/9 rate. Overall, he had a 4.11 ERA, 4.32 FIP and 1.42 WHIP, which were very underwhelming.

However, what made it even more underwhelming is that he flashed some pretty decent stuff. In 2019, he averaged around 92-94 MPH on his four-seam fastball. Not bad for a 19-year-old. Even better is that he averaged 2400 RPM. In terms of spin and velocity alone, you can draw comparisons to Freddy Peralta’s four-seamer in 2020. That year, he averaged 93 MPH and had 2416 RPM. Overall, he ended the season with a -8 RV on the offering. FanGraphs sees Florez’s fastball as a potential 60-grade pitch in the future.

Florez’s curveball is another above-average offering. His curve averaged 2800 RPM of spin. This makes it yet another pitch with 60-grade potential in the future. He’s also working on a changeup, but it’s definitely a work in progress.

The amount of raw talent Florez has is immense. Much of that comes from his huge frame. Florez is listed at 6’5″, 225 pounds. He definitely has the height and weight to leverage his fastball better and get to a point where he’s averaging out in the 96-98 MPH range. If he can manage that while keeping up a similar or better spin rate compared to right now, you’re looking at a potential-70 grade pitch.

As Cody wrote about on Friday, Florez made his season debut with Bradenton on Thursday night. He looked outstanding, tossing 4 near-perfect innings with the only blemish being a hit. He also struck out 7 batters along the way.

At the very worst, Florez eventually develops two plus pitches. This would make him a relief pitcher with elite stuff and the potential to be one of the team’s many late-inning, high leverage options. However, if Florez can develop his change-up into a useable offering, you’re looking at one of the higher-end prospects the Pittsburgh Pirates have.