Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects Who Will Benefit From a Full 2022 Season

The Pittsburgh Pirates deep system has a ton of young prospects, many of which haven’t played a full season. Which prospects can benefit the most from a regular campaign?

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a ton of young talent. A lot of that talent has already gotten their fair share of minor league games in. Nick Gonzales played a mostly full season this season, Liover Peguero played a full season at High-A (with Gonzales) and rose up through the prospect rankings, and Oneil Cruz already had built up his prospect status, just to keep building this year.

But there are some prospects that haven’t gotten a full season’s worth of playing time yet in the minor leagues. This mostly consists of high school level picks from their last few drafts, as well as very young internationally signed prospects, and ones who haven’t had the best injury luck. Many of these young prospects who have barely gotten their feet wet would greatly benefit from regular playing time across an entire campaign.

To make things a bit more clear, I’m looking at prospects who aren’t necessarily considered the cream of the crop already. If someone like Henry Davis, who only has 8 professional games with the Pittsburgh Pirates under his belt, comes out of the gates red hot, his value will increase, but not to a major degree because he is already conisdered one of the best prospects in baseball. I’m looking at players who have the potential to rise up the rankings ala Roansy Contreras going from a projected mid-to-back of the rotation arm to a top 50 prospect with low-end #1 starting pitcher talent.

I also want to keep this to players who have yet to play very much in their professional careers. So while a guy like Jose Soriano may also greatly benefit from a full 2022 campaign in the minors, he’s already pitched 241.1 innings professionally. So with that made clear, what prospects have the most to gain the most from a full season.

Outfielder Rodolfo Nolasco

I recently ranked Rodolfo Nolasco as the best international prospect the Pirates themselves signed (aka, not traded for or had previously signed with another team). While Nolasco is still considered a very talented player, a full season of play could dramatically increase his prospect stock.

This past season Nolasco hit .284/.402/.552 with 8 home runs in just 164 plate appearances. That’s a pace of 29 over the course of a 600-PA season. His power output was reflected in his strong .269 isolated slugging percentage. While his strikeout rate sat at 26.2%, he had a phenomenal 15.9% walk rate. Overall, Nolasco had a .436 wOBA and 150 wRC+. This is also the second season in a row Nolasco has put up a wRC+ above 130 (133 mark in 2019).

All around, Nolasco the only area of the game Nolasco lacks in is speed. He only projects to be a 40-grade runner. But he has an average projected hit tool, above-average projected game and raw power, and a solid glove with a good arm out in right field. Though once he fills out and matures more, a move to left field is likely in the cards for Nolasco.

But overall, between his two professional seasons, the outfielder only has 96 games played and 389 trips to the plate. Next year will be his age-20 season, so he’ll likely start the year out at A-Ball. While he might spend the entirety of the season at Low-A he has the talent to be one of the Pittsburgh Pirates better power-hitting prospects within the next few seasons.

Right-handed pitcher Ricky DeVito

In my opinion, Ricky DeVito is one of the more overlooked prospects in the Pirates farm system. He isn’t very flashy, nor was he some sort of high draft pick. But he gets the job done and has a fair bit of talent. If he gets a taste of a full season in 2022, he could solidify himself as a potential long term part of the Pirates’ pitching staff.

DeVito was taken in the 8th round by the Atlanta Braves in 2019. While not the most exciting pitcher taken throughout the draft, DeVito has pitched well when he has taken the mound. Throughout 57 innings throughout his pro career so far, DeVito has a 3.16 ERA, 3.60 FIP, and 1.33 WHIP. He’s kept up a healthy strikeout rate with a 24.5% mark and has paired that with a .79 HR/9 rate. While his 9.1% walk rate isn’t going to blow anybody away, it’s good enough to get by.

This year, the right-hander started the season out at High-A where he tossed just 20.1 innings with the Braves’ affiliate. He only allowed 6 earned runs with 27 strikeouts but was cut short because of an injury. Still, the talent is there for the right-hander. He displayed it during his small sample size of innings.

DeVito isn’t a hard thrower. He only comes in around 92-95 MPH and tops out at 97 MPH. But his fastball is still considered average. His curveball is also considered an average offering. His best pitch is a splitter. It’s considered a 60-grade offering in the future, giving him three offerings that project as average or better.

I will admit, DeVito’s ceiling is considerably lower than Malone’s, Nolasco’s, or the last name I’ll be talking about. But I do think he has the potential to fill a role many overlook. DeVito has the makings to be a very good swingman-type pitcher. That’s a guy who can fill in as a starter, provide multiple innings out of the pen, and even pitch a few higher leverage spots, essentially being a pitching version of a super-utility man by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Right-handed pitcher Owen Kellington

One of the most looked-over selections from the 2021 draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates was Owen Kellington. It’s gonna happen when you have names such as Henry Davis, Anthony Solometo, Lonnie White Jr., and Bubba Chander being selected before you, but just because he isn’t the flashiest prospect to come from the 2021 draft doesn’t mean he wasn’t worth the selection.

Kellington’s numbers at U-32 High School in Vermont were outrageous. He pitched 49 innings posting a .22 ERA while having 133 strikeouts. Of the 147 outs he made (49 innings, 3 outs each inning), 90.5% of them were strikeouts. That is insane. Just to put into perspective how crazy that is, Jacob deGrom, who had a historic start to the 2021 season, had an out to strikeout percentage of just 52.9%. Aroldis Chapman in 2014 set the highest single-season strikeout percentage record of all time in at least 50 innings at 52.5%. Only 65.4% of the outs he made were K’s.

Even though it’s high school level in Vermont, you have to be doing something right to get over 90% of outs made by batters faced. According to Ben Cherington, when scouting a guy like Kellington who wasn’t facing the highest end, high school hitters, the main focus on the young right-hander wasn’t the numbers, as crazy as they were. More so the athletic ability, mechanics, the quality of his offerings, as well as his makeup and his personality. How that can improve his game.

Kellington only throws in the lower-90’s with a strong 12-6 curveball to go with it. The right-hander will be going into his age-19 season. Now starting him out at A-Ball isn’t out of the question. The Pirates started another young prospect from the 2020 draft, Jared Jones at Bradenton and he pitched well despite running into bad luck. Seeing as the Pirates have been a bit more aggressive with their more talented prospects, Kellington getting a full season at Bradenton is completely possible. In a full season, I think Kellington could climb the rankings and become a more noteworthy pitching prospect.