Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Best Player at Each Level

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a deep minor league system, but who has been he best player at every level of the minors this season?

The Pittsburgh Pirates have one of the best minor league systems in all of baseball. They have depth throughout the system at every level of the minor leagues. They have some of the most intriguing prospects in all of baseball. While they don’t have a Wander Franco-like uber-prospect yet, one could eventually develop into that mold.

But overall, you’re looking at a very talented group of prospects. The Pirates have gotten outstanding production from players at every level and today, I want to take a look at the best player at each of the Pirates minor league affiliates. We’ll be starting with the Bradenton Marauders and moving all the way up to the Indianapolis Indians.

Just to note, this player is still on this team’s roster. For example, right-handed pitching prospect Santiago Florez won’t be eligible for the best player at Low-A Bradenton (although he was great there) because he was promoted to High-A Greensboro. Also note this isn’t based on prospect rankings, rather overall statistical performance this season.

Low-A Bradenton Marauders – Catcher Endy Rodriguez

The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Endy Rodriguez from the New York Mets, who were the third party involved in the Joe Musgrove trade. The switch hitter had some strong seasons with the Mets and has continued to hit well for the Pirates. He’s caught fire over the past month, which has propelled him to be the best player at Bradenton in my eyes. There were other players in consideration here like pitcher Adrian Florencio, and prospects Hudson Head and Maikol Escotto. However, while Head is getting on base a ton and getting a lot of extra base hits, Rodriguez edges him out in OPS, wOBA and wRC+. Escotto is also getting on base a ton as well, but Rodriguez is getting more extra base hits and has a higher ISO despite having an identical wOBA and wRC+.

The switch-hitting backstop is putting up a .277/.361/.458 slash. Rodriguez has struck out just 19.2% of the time, which is a career-high rate but still below 20%. He’s walking a ton as well. He’s drawn ball four in 11% of his plate appearances. Again, that’s a career-worst rate despite still being a good number. Overall, he has a strong .382 wOBA and 122 wRC+. Since the beginning of July, Rodriguez is batting .319/.400/.468 with a .407 wOBA, and 137 wRC+.

Rodriguez is showing good power as well. He has a .182 isolated slugging percentage. His power has always been his weakest tool, so it’s good to see him putting up above-average power numbers for the second year in a row. He’s also provided some versatility, playing both catcher and first base.

High-A Greensboro Grasshoppers – Outfielder Matthew Fraizer

Who would have thought that a roster that housed Nick Gonzales, Quinn Priester, Liover Peguero, Carmen Mlodzinski, and Tahnaj Thomas, among all of the Pirates’ prospects, outfielder Matthew Fraizer would be the team’s best player? Both Gonzales and Peguero were in consideration as well since they’ve done extremely well over the past half month or so, but Fraizer has been one of the best batters in the minor leagues.

Probably not many, but Fraizer has been downright outstanding for the Grasshoppers. Through 346 plate appearances, he’s batted .317/.403/.583. He’s shown a ton of power, blasting 20 home runs and having a .267 isolated slugging percentage. Fraizer is on pace for 37 home runs across a 650 plate appearance season.

This kind of power was unprecedented for Fraizer going into this year. He had no home runs during his amateur career or his 171 plate appearances in 2019 in Low-A. Part of this power surge has been because of his near 10% decrease in ground ball rate. In 2019, he put the ball on the ground 47.4% of the time, but that currently sits at just 36.6% this year. Plus he has a strong 24.7% line drive rate, a 4.5% increase from 2019.

He isn’t just an all-or-nothing power hitter either. Fraizer has displayed strong plate discipline throughout the season. He has only gone down on strike three 20.8% of the time. Meanwhile, he’s drawing walks 12.1% of the time.

Overall, he has an outstanding .422 wOBA and 161 wRC+. Frazier hasn’t been just one of the best Pirates’ farmhands, but one of the best minor league players in general. Among all minor league players with at least 300 plate appearances, Fraizer ranks third in wRC+, 9th in wOBA, and 5th in OPS. He’s one of just 15 minor leagues to have a wRC+ above 150, and one of just 4 above 160. Currently, he isn’t a ranked prospect by FanGraphs or MLB Pipeline’s measurements, but his outstanding season should at least get him on some radars.

Double-A Altoona Curve – Pitcher Roansy Contreras

Picking who was the best player at Double-A was hard. You could make a very good case for Oneil Cruz, Mason Martin, and Canaan Smith-Njigba to be here. That trio of batters have all had great seasons at Altoona this year. Ultimately, I chose to go with Roansy Contreras. Contreras was acquired as part of the Jameson Taillon trade and he’s been flat-out dominant since arriving with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In 46 innings, the right-hander has a 2.35 ERA, 2.39 FIP and 0.91 WHIP. Contreras has struck out 35.5% of all the batters he has faced. His overall stuff has looked better this year, throwing in the 96-97 MPH range rather than the 92-94 MPH range he sat around when he was a New York Yankee prospect. Plus his breaking pitch has looked much sharper. However, all this improvement hasn’t come at the cost of his control. He has walked just 6% of all the batters he’s faced, a 0.7% decrease from 2019.

Home runs have been a non-issue. He’s surrendered just 3, mainly due to his amazing batted rates. Not only is he inducing ground balls over 50% of the time (52%), he’s preventing line drives, posting an 11% line drive rate. Contreras has missed the last few weeks, but is up and throwing again. Though he should be back in regular action very soon.