Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: 5 Breakout Seasons From 2021

No. 1 – right-handed pitcher Roansy Contreras

The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired right-handed starting pitcher Roansy Contreras from the New York Yankees throughout the 2020-2021 offseason. He was one of the four pieces going to Pittsburgh for Jameson Taillon. Contreras, who went into the season as a solid, albeit not very high ranking prospect, ended up as a top 50 prospect by FanGraphs’ measure.

Contreras did this because of his outstanding season down at Double-A Altoona. Contreras had a fantastic season, posting a 2.65 ERA, 2.74 FIP, and 0.90 WHIP through 54.1 innings. Contreras was striking out batters at an insane 34.9% rate while only dealing out free passes just 6.1% of the time. Plus, he rarely gave up a home run. His HR/9 sat at just 0.83. Though it could have been even better with a fantastic 47.5% ground ball rate and line-drive rate of 12.5%.

Contreras was given the opportunity to pitch at Triple-A and even a few innings in the major leagues during the last week of the season. Between the two levels, he only pitched 6.2 innings but allowed just1 earned run, struck out 10, and walked just 2.

The big reason Contreras had such an effective breakout campaign was his improved fastball and breaking ball. Both are pitches with 60-grade potential based on velocity and spin rate. Plus he has a good changeup. He’s always been considered to have decent control as well.

There are a few reasons Contreras is #1. The first reason is his improved offerings. He now projects as a much higher end starting pitcher than before. Coming into 2021, Contreras wasn’t even considered one of the Pirates’s top 15 prospects by FanGraphs. However, now he ranks as the 49th best prospect by their measurement.