Pittsburgh Pirates: Roansy Contreras Looking to Build from Last Start

The Altoona Curve had a really nice roster. The Pittsburgh Pirates will send one of their new, more intriguing pitching prospects to the mound tonight.

Roansy Contreras was acquired this past off-season as part of the Jameson Taillon trade and if his first game indicates anything he’ll look like in the future, he has an extremely promising outlook with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Contreras tossed five shutout innings, impressively striking out 11 batters while allowing just five hits.  The even more impressive thing is he did this while working in the mid to upper 90s without issuing a single free pass.

When the Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Contreras, nobody100 percent knew what to expect.  He had pitched well in the New York Yankees system and definitely was viewed to have upside. However, there were questions about whether he would make a better reliever or starter.  After impressing in his limited time in Spring Training as a reliever, Contreras will get every chance to start before converting to a reliever.  With that, most of the accurate scouting reports came from his 2019 season, nearly two years ago.  Since then, Contreras has grown a lot as a pitcher. The 22 year old is commanding all of his pitches, and he added some miles per hour to that fastball.

Contreras usually uses a four pitch mix to get outs. This includes a four-seam fastball, change-up, slider and a recently added curveball. Out of all his offerings, his fastball may be his best pitch. Contreras averaged about 92-95 MPH with the offering, topping out at 96 MPH.  However, he was working closer to the 96-98 MPH range throughout Spring Training. His curveball looked great in his first start as a Pirates prospect, and both his change-up and slider are considered pitches with the potential to be 55-grade offerings, according to FanGraphs.

It is important for Contreras to keep showing the ability to strike hitters our over extended outings. If he can continue to do that, the Bucs could be looking at a promising pitching prospect. Of course, this is something that the team desperately needs.