Pittsburgh Pirates: Anthony Alford Deserves Shot at 2022 Roster Spot

Mercifully, the 2021 season for the Pittsburgh Pirates will be over in a few days but one feel good story has been the strong September play of former FBS quarterback (yes, you read that correctly – scroll to the bottom to read a quick tidbit on that) Anthony Alford.

I wrote an article a while back about Alford deserving another chance after he put up a poor first few weeks with the Pittsburgh Pirates but hit well at Triple-A over a several month period this summer.

Pirate and baseball fans alike who have followed Alford over his career know his weaknesses – so feel free to Google those on your own – the point of this article is to showcase the things he is doing well and give the outfielder props for coming full circle in what has been a trying career to this point by finally receiving regular playing time on a team that has nothing to lose by letting him play nearly everyday. Let’s see how Alford has done in the final month of the 2021 campaign and how it positions him for next year.

Alford has had a very strong final month of the 2021 campaign as he has put up a .270/.353/.541 line in September with 7 extra base hits and 3 stolen bases entering play Tuesday. This combination of speed and power is what scouts foresaw a long time ago and it is nice to see it coming to fruition even in a small sample size.

A .351 BAbip (batting average on balls in play) has helped him with the good average but when Alford isn’t striking out generally good things are happening with the baseball. I will only briefly touch on his plate discipline – his September numbers (7% walk rate, 29% strikeout rate) are extremely strong considering what he has put up in the minors and throughout his other MLB stints, as he has made about 6% more contact (58% vs 66%) and has swung through less pitches (19% vs 15.9%) in September vs the rest of his time with the pirates this year.

As mentioned before good things happen when he isn’t striking out – among Pirate batters with 100+ PAs this season Alford ranks 1st in barrel rate (10.8%), 2nd in hard-hit rate (44.8%), 2nd in slugging percentage (.415) and 4th in average exit velocity (89.3 mph).

Again – Alford has less Plate appearances then many of the regulars but by comparison he has barreled just 1 less ball then Kevin Newman who has seen more than 3 times as many pitches as Alford this year.

Alford also has drawn great reviews for his outfield defense, and again even though he does not have enough plate appearances to qualify among the league leaders Alford has elite speed as his sprint speed time of 29.7 feet/second would rank near the top of the league if he was qualified and has allowed him to get to batted balls much faster than the average defender. It would admittedly be fun to watch play defense on a regular basis next season.

Not everyone is going to agree with this sentiment but I think Anthony Alford has done enough to earn a shot at a roster spot next season. Yes, the Pittsburgh Pirates finally have a farm system chalk full of high end prospects but we still do not know exactly what they will provide against big league pitching.

Yes, Alford has some weaknesses (again Google them the the point of this article isn’t to highlight them) but if he can put up similar offensive numbers to what he has done in September and provide high end defense he is at least a viable option to be a stopgap to the young talent that hopefully will produce for the Pirates.

And, as I alluded to in the opening, and because it’s an interesting fact and we are in football season, Alford was actually a college quarterback for Southern Mississippi suiting up for 9 games and scoring 8 total touchdowns (2 passing, 6 rushing). I would imagine Alford is in a rare group of athletes that have both rushed and thrown for a TD for a FBS college football program, and have hit a MLB home run.