Pittsburgh Pirates Minors: Top 5 Performers in May

With one month of the minor league season complete, let’s take a look at the five best performances from the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league system.

After the delayed start to the minor league season, things are in full swing. The Pittsburgh Pirates have one of the deepest farm systems among all MLB teams. They really added a ton of depth it out this offseason, acquiring very good prospect packages for the likes of Josh Bell, Jameson Taillon and Joe Musgrove. With so many notable prospects within the system, there are bound to be some really good performances once the season got underway.

With one whole month of minor league ball in, why don’t we take a look at some of the best performances Pirate prospects had to offer. The Pittsburgh Pirates had many notable monthly performances, but let’s look at what I considered the five best. Note that these players aren’t in any specific order.

Starting Pitcher Roansy Contreras

We’ve covered pitching prospect Roansy Contreras a handful of times here before, and for a good reason. The right-hander has been dominating at Double-A. Contreras was part of the Jameson Taillon trade. Although he wasn’t the most touted piece heading to Pittsburgh, he’s pitching like he was.

So far at Altoona, Contreras has pitched 21.1 innings posting a 2.08 ERA, 1.96 FIP and 0.78 WHIP. Contreras threw 18.2 straight scoreless innings. He gave up 5 earned runs in his most recent start, but even then, he struck out 6 batters and only allowed 4 hits in 4 innings of work. It was the walks (3) and the lone long ball that killed him.

Despite his most recent outing Contreras still carries an outstanding 42% strikeout rate to pair with a solid 7.4% walk rate. The one home run he gave up on May 25 is the only one he has surrendered this year. He’s currently carrying a strong 48.7% ground ball rate and only has allowed batters to hit a line-drive 7.7% of the time.

Contreras’s success has mainly been due to all of his offerings looking much improved compared to 2019 when he was with the Yankee High-A affiliate. In 2019, he was averaging out in the 92-94 MPH range, and only topping out at 96 MPH. However, 96 MPH has been the norm for him, and he’s topping out in the upper-90’s. His breaking pitch is also looking much sharper, and his change-up has been getting decent reviews.

Contreras’ most recent start has inflated his ERA a bit, but he’s still second in FIP, 4th in strikeout rate, opponent batting average (.147), third in WHIP, 4th in xFIP (2.47), and 5th in K/BB ratio (5.67). Overall, he’s been a top-five minor league pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates this year.

Overall, it’s an extremely promising start to his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Contreras entered the season with some questions as to whether he’d be a starter long-term, but he seemed to prove he belongs in the rotation based on the early returns.

Starting Pitcher Michael Burrows

The hot start to the 2021 season of Michael Burrows has been sliding under many radars. Burrows has simply been one of the best pitchers at the High-A level and isn’t getting nearly as much attention for it as he deserves.

Burrows has pitched to the tune of a 1.13 ERA, 2.27 FIP and 0.69 WHIP through 16 innings of work in his 4 starts. The right-hander has gotten a ton of strikeouts. He currently sits with a 43.1% strikeout rate, a huge improvement from his 2018-2019 mark of 21.3%. He’s improved his walk rate as well. His 8.6% walk rate is a 1.8% improvement since 2019. Burrows has always been good at suppressing home runs and is doing it again this year. He currently only has allowed 1 home run for a 0.56 HR/9 rate.

The 11th round draft pick in the 2018 draft, Burrows is currently among the Pirate minor league leaders. Among their pitchers with at least 10 innings, Burrows is first in opponent average against, second in WHIP, third in strikeout rate, ERA, 4th in walk rate, 5th in FIP and 6th in xFIP (3.00).

Burrows fastball has always had a high spin rate, but he’s also added a few ticks of velocity. He also has a plus curveball. The question remains if he can develop a third offering, which may be the decision-maker as to whether or not he remains in as a starting pitcher or not. So far, the most innings he’s gone in a single game is 4.1 innings.

Outfielder Lolo Sanchez

Another season no one has talked about this year belongs to outfielder Lolo Sanchez. He’s completely flown under the radar and despite that, he’s among the organization’s minor league leaders in many statistical categories.

On the season, Sanchez is demolishing pitches at the tune of a .269/.412/.493 line with a .410 wOBA and 159 wRC+ in 85 May plate appearances. Sanchez has been crushing the ball, with 9 of his 18 total hits going for extra bases (3 home runs, 6 doubles). This has led to an outstanding .224 isolated slugging percentage. That’s, by far, a single-season career-high. He has almost matched his own highest single-season home run total when he hit 5 in 2019. Sanchez has always had speed, and he’s stolen 6 bags in 7 attempts so far this season. He’s on pace for 37 across a 500 plate appearance season.

Among the Pirate minor league hitters with at least 60 trips to the plate, he leads them in OPS, strikeout rate is second in on-base percentage, wOBA, wRC+, 5th in slugging percentage, and 7th in isolated slugging. He’s just 1 of 40 minor league players to have more walks than strikeouts this year in at least 60 plate appearances, coming in with a 12/9 BB/K ratio.

Sanchez showing power is very promising. He’s always been more of a light-hitting, on-base speed threat more than a power threat, but he’s still walking at a very strong rate while also throwing some pop into the mix. He’s also been able to increase his power output without having to sell out his strikeout rate, going down on strike three just 11.3% of the time. Sanchez just turned 22 at the later half of April, so he’s still pretty young. But he could quickly move up the minors, and potentially to the majors, between the next two seasons.

Pitcher Santiago Florez

The Pittsburgh Pirates signed Santiago Florez back during the 2016 international signing date. After three middling seasons from 2017 to 2019, the high-ceiling right-hander finally looks like he’s hitting his stride at age 21.

Florez has tossed 17.2 innings with the Low-A Bradenton Marauders. All told, he has a 2.04 ERA, 2.09 FIP and 0.85 WHIP. Florez struggled with control from 2017-2019, posting a 13.3% walk rate. But this year, he’s walked 7.2% of the batters he’s faced. Florez also struggled heavily with getting swings and misses. He had a sub-20% strikeout rate, 16.4% to be exact, but he’s gotten 27 batters to go down on strike three. Just to show how good that is, his single-season career-high entering 2021 was 36 in 41.2 innings during 2019.

Florez is getting ground balls at relatively the same rate he was throughout his first 3 professional seasons, currently having a solid 45.5% mark, and he’s yet to give up a home run. Keeping the ball in the park was one of his few bright spots throughout his first few seasons. He allowed just six in 138.1 innings, leading to a 0.39 HR/9 rate.

Like Burrows, Florez has always had a high spin rate on his fastball, but his breaking ball is absurdly wicked. Overall, Florez is second among Pirates’ minor league hurlers in FIP, 7th in K/BB ratio, strikeout rate, WHIP, and 5th in xFIP. He’s just one of 7 Pirate pitchers to not allow a home run in at least 10 innings.

Honorable Mentions

Like I stated in the beginning, there are a ton of notable prospects within the Pirate farm system. That means there were a lot of really worthwhile performances throughout May. Some just missed the mark, and I think are still deserving of at least a mention.

Catcher Endy Rodriguez

Endy Rodriguez came over from the New York Mets, who were the third team involved in the Joe Musgrove trade. Rodriguez hit .259/.337/.494 with a .383 wOBA and 121 wRC+ in 92 PAs. What is promising is that he has seen an uptick in power with a .235 ISO, compared to just a .211 ISO in 2019 and .139 mark in 2018. Overall, he was about a top 15-18 minor league catcher this month.

Pitcher Travis MacGregor

Travis MacGregor returned from his Tommy John surgery with a vengeance, pitching to the tune of a 2.63 ERA, 2.36 FIP and 0.95 WHIP in 13.2 innings. He’s struck out well over 40% of all the batters he’s faced (44.2%) while only walking 7.7% and giving up a single home run. He was a second-round draft pick by the Pirates in 2016 but has been hindered by injuries, so it’s nice to see him performing well.

Pitcher Logan Hofmann

Logan Hofmann started his professional career where he left off in college. After ending his time at Northern State University with 28 innings without allowing an earned run, he started his pro career off, rattling off 9.2 more no-earned run innings. He struggled in his most recent game, giving up 3 earned runs, but he still has a strong 35% strikeout rate and has yet to give up a long ball in 13.1 total innings. Pretty decent numbers for a 5th round pick.