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Pittsburgh Pirates Minors: Top 5 Performers in May
By Noah Wright
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.