Pittsburgh Pirates: Team Announcers Prospects of the Year

The Pittsburgh Pirates have named their minor league pitcher and hitter of the year. The pitcher is an underrated name and the hitter was a 2021 breakout prospect.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have named their 2021 pitcher and player of the year for the minor awards for two prospects. The Bob Friend pitcher of the year is Adrian Florencio, a right-handed starter who signed in February 2019. The Honus Wagner hitter of the year was Matt Fraizer, a 2019 third rounder. The Pirates announced these awards a few days ago on their twitter:

Adrian Florencio had a solid year for Class-A Bradenton, tossing 95 innings over 20 games. In those 95 inning he had a 2.46 ERA, 3.25 FIP, and 29.8 percent strikeout rate. Staff writer Noah Wright recently wrote about him on the site, noting that Florencio wasn’t ranked on FanGraphs nor MLB Pipeline’s list. His fastball sits in the 93-95 mph range with two breaking balls in the slider and curveball that he uses to miss bats. He has a good frame at 6’6″ and 205 pounds which gives him the prototypical frame for a starter.

Matt Fraizer was a raw player coming out out of the University of Arizona. The Pirates still took him anyway and he hit just .221/.287/.266 in his first action of pro ball in 2019. However, he underwent swing changes with the lost minor league season that have appeared to help his game. After a .314/.401/.578 slash with a 158 wRC+ in High A Greensboro, Fraizer kept hitting to a .288/.356/.492 slash with a 120 wRC+ in Double-A Altoona. The outfielder really performed well this season and should see his name rising up on prospect lists this offseason.

While not the biggest names in the organization, Florencio and Fraizer had really strong years that put them on the prospect map. As a result of their performances, they won Pirates Minor League pitcher and player of the year respectively. It is a good sign for the system that players who are not the top names have been recognized.