Pittsburgh Pirates: Roansy Contreras Turns in Strong AFL Start

Sep 29, 2021; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Roansy Contreras (59) delivers a pitch in his major league debut against the Chicago Cubs during the first inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 29, 2021; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Roansy Contreras (59) delivers a pitch in his major league debut against the Chicago Cubs during the first inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

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.

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.

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