Pittsburgh Pirates 2021: Three Young Prospects to Watch This Season

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May 11, 2021; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington observes batting practice before the Pirates host the Cincinnati Reds at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports /

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a handful of prospects in their farm system who are 20-years-old or younger that have a high ceiling. Let’s take a look at three of these prospects that fans should be focusing on during the 2021 minor league season.

The Pittsburgh Pirates arguably have one of the top farm systems in all of baseball. They have high-end young talents like Nick Gonzales, Quinn Priester and Ke’Bryan Hayes, but the system has depth and talent throughout it. They have the most 40 or higher future value grade prospects than any other system FanGraphs has ranked so far.

However, many of their youngest prospects are ranked lower than they’ll probably end up. That’s normal for extremely young prospects. Not very many late teen professional ballplayers rank among the best prospects in the entire sport. However, by the end of 2021, they could climb the ranks and eventually put themselves into top 100 prospect watch.

Today, we will take a look at a few prospects who are 20-years-old or younger who have the best chance of reaching the top 100 or borderline top 100 status in the very near future and possibly by the end of this season. The Pittsburgh Pirates have plenty of these prospects, so let’s get into our first player.

PITTSBURGH, PA – APRIL 13: Players line up along the first and third base lines prior to the start of the Opening Day game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Detroit Tigers at PNC Park on April 13, 2015 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images) /

Maikol Escotto

The Pirates acquired infielder Maikol Escotto as part of the Jameson Taillon trade. To say the 18-year-old has looked outstanding would be an understatement. So far at A-Ball Bradenton, Esoctto has stepped to the plate 47 times, is batting .316/.447/.395, and has a .423 wOBA and 144 wRC+. He also has a very strong 15.7% walk rate, albeit with a bit of a high strikeout rate of 25.5%.

Escotto hasn’t shown much power this year yet. He only has an isolated slugging percentage of .079, but he has shown this power potential in the past before. In 2019 with the Yankees, the infielder hit .315/.429/.552 with 8 home runs, a .465 wOBA, and 167 wRC+.

Despite it only being his age 16/17 season, he had an 89 MPH exit velocity and a 40% hard-hit rate. His ISO during his first professional season was .238. This raw power potential is reflected in his 60-future raw power grade and 55-future game power grade.

As a defender, he’s almost split his time evenly between shortstop (49 innings) and second base (42 innings) this year. He also played some third base during 2019, giving him plenty of flexibility to play the infield. Overall, he’s an average defender, but his bat will surely make up for the lack of gold glove caliber defense.

Escotto is still a very young player. He’s only 18-years-old and will turn 19 on June 4th. He’s still got a handful of more years before we see him in the majors, but he’s already showing a good ability to barrel the ball and display some patience at the plate.

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Outfielder Rodolfo Nolasco

Rodolfo Nolasco was one of the 2018 international signings by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Nolasco’s first taste of professional action was very strong. Through 225 plate appearances in the Dominican Summer League in 2019 Nolasco put up a .302/.373/.472 line with 5 home runs and 13 doubles.

Nolasco only walked at a 7.1% rate but went down on strikes in just 11.7% of all his plate appearances. Nolasco showed some decent power with a .171 isolated slugging percentage as well. All told, the outfield prospect had a .405 wOBA and 133 wRC+.

Nolasco has high power potential. He’s only 19-years-old, but has a 6’1″, 175-pound frame. He also had an outstanding 89 MPH exit velocity and a 46% hard-hit rate. Just for reference, a 47% hard-hit rate in 2020 would rank among the top 25 batters at the major league level. However, his overall numbers could have looked better had it not been for terrible batted ball rates. His line drive percentage was just 15.7%, meanwhile, he had a 57.6% ground ball rate.

His future will be a corner outfielder spot but his bat will play at either left field or right field. He’s only considered a 50-grade runner now and by the time he fills out, he’s only projected to be a 40-grade runner. However, he can hold his own with the glove and has a strong enough arm to remain a corner outfielder.

PITTSBURGH, PA – JULY 20: A New Era pillbox Pittsburgh Pirates baseball hat is seen in the dugout during the game against the Philadelphia Phillies at PNC Park on July 20, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) /

Pitcher Jared Jones

The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Jared Jones with their second-round pick in the 2020 MLB Draft. Jones was a high school level pick, coming out of La Mirada High School in California. Jones will turn 20 in August and was drafted at 18-years-old.

Jones has a strong three-pitch mix. He has a fastball which could be an elite-level offering shortly. His four-seam fastball comes in the upper-90s, around 96-97 MPH with some tail. However, he topped out at 99 MPH. Both FanGraphs and MLB Pipeline see this as a 60-grade offering.

His breaking pitch is a slider, which he throws at two different speeds with different break. His mid-70s slider is more of a slurve, but his low-80s slider is a version with much harder and sharper break. Overall, he’s seen to have a 55-grade slider by Pipeline, while FanGraphs sees it as a 60-grade offering. His final offering is a changeup. Although it’s not his go-to pitch, it’s a third offering that he can throw to an average degree. FanGraphs also grades out a curveball for Jones, however, this grade may be for his slurve-like offering.

Jones is still fairly young. It would be fun to see him be able to differentiate his hard slider and slurve into a slider and curveball, but he first needs to work on his ability to command his offerings and control the strike zone. His MLB Pipeline states that his command, at best, is inconsistent. His control only has a 40-grade on MLB Pipeline, meanwhile, his command on FanGraphs is seen as a 35-grade tool.

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If Jones can get over his mild control issue you’re looking at an extremely talented pitcher. Jones has ace-like stuff. A right-handed starter who throws in the upper-90s, while having a well above-average slider, and will occasionally throw a slurve and changeup, gives him an ace’s arsenal. It’ll just depend if he can refine it to truly weaponize it.

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