Tuesday night potential future Pittsburgh Pirates ace Roansy Contreras has his best performance of the Arizona Fall League thus far by turning in a strong start for the Peoria Javelinas
At this point Roansy Contreras is a name fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates know well. Since being acquired from the New York Yankees in the Jameson Taillon trade all Contreras has done is shoot up Pirate prospect rankings.
After dominating in the minor leagues, at both Double-A and Triple-A, in 2021, Contreras earned a late season call up tp the Majors. In his lone start with the Pittsburgh Pirates the 21-year-old righty struck out 4 batters in 3 scoreless innings pitched.
In large part due to time missed in 2021 due to injury, Contreras is pitching in the Arizona Fall League this season. On Tuesday night, he had his best outing yet with the Peoria Javelinas. Making his 2nd start of the AFL season Contreras was perfect.
How good was @Pirates prospect Roansy Contreras on Tuesday? His catcher explained.
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) November 2, 2021
"I've faced Contreras over the years, and I'm much happier having a glove in my hand than a bat."
Contreras was perfect through three innings in the AFL: https://t.co/Tiibrc10rC pic.twitter.com/f75fGEV1yw
Contreras pitched 3 perfect innings for the Javelinas on Tuesday night. Not only did he retire all 6 batters he faced he struck out 5 of them. Following the game Contreras’s catcher was signing his praise. “I’ve faced Contreras over the years, and I’m much happier having a glove in my hand than a bat,” said Logan O’Hoppe who is a prospect in the Philadelphia farm system.
Contreras has now allowed 3 runs and struck out 7 in 6 innings pitched in the AFL.
Fellow Pirate prospect Mike Burrows followed Contreras. Burrows allowed 1 run on 2 hits, a walk and a strikeout in 4 innings pitched. Burrows has posted a 3.91 ERA with just 2 walks and 6 strikeouts in 9.2 innings pitched thus far in the AFL.
It was also a big night at the plate for Pirate prospects Ji-Hwan Bae, Nick Gonzales and Canaan Smith-Njigba. Bae was 1-for-4 with a RBI and now has an .872 OPS in the AFL. Gonzales went 2-for-4 with a walk and his first AFL home run, raising his OPS to .946. Smith-Njigba pulled out of a recent slump by surging 3 doubles, giving him 5 in the AFL to go with an OPS of .811.