Pittsburgh Pirates: What Could 2022 Hold for Luis Oviedo

The Pittsburgh Pirates righty Luis Oviedo will enter the 2022 season at just 22-years-old. So what should they do with him?

During last year’s Rule 5 Draft the Pittsburgh Pirates made a trade with the New York Mets to acquire right-hander Luis Oviedo. Oviedo was picked with the 5th overall selection during the draft, so he retained his Rule 5 status. Now that he lost his status, what is the next step between him and the Pittsburgh Pirates?

Oviedo pitched in an injury-limited 29.2 innings, struggling to the horrid tune of an 8.80 ERA, 5.66 FIP, and 1.99 WHIP. He only struck out 21.1% of all batters faced, but could not find the strike zone. He had a 17.7% walk rate. His 1.21 HR/9 isn’t anything to boast about either.

Oviedo struggled overall but it’s not like he didn’t display the talent. His four-seam fastball came in around the mid-to-upper 90-MPH range. His slider looked great and sat in the low-80’s. Finally, he threw a curveball in the mid-70’s. He struggled with control, but his three primary offerings had velocity or movement.

It seemed to be his fastball that gave him the most trouble. Opponents batted .365 with a .651 slugging percentage and .485 wOBA against it. However, his slider registered just a .222 average, .259 slugging, and .262 wOBA. His curveball was even better, having batters posting just a .130 average against, .217 slugging, and .277 wOBA. Both breaking balls also had a whiff rate above 40%. For reference, league average whiff rate is 24.6%.

In Oviedo’s defense, he was thrown directly into the major leagues after not playing above Low-A. The right-hander was originally a Cleveland Indians/Guardians. He never pitched at High-A, Double-A, or Triple-A before making his debut at age-21 (this was his age-22 season, but debuted before he turned 22).

Given that Oviedo will open 2022 at just 22 and be 23-years-old for most of the season, he’ll likely spend a good portion of the season at Triple-A, or even potentially Double-A. The Pirates now have the option to send him to the minors without the risk of losing him back to Cleveland.

I think Oviedo has the talent to be a quality big leaguer. Clearly, his slider and curveball are major league ready. They get a ton of swings and misses and are rarely hit for quality contact. The question is if they’ll develop him as a reliever or starter.

The right-hander was a starting pitching prospect coming up with Cleveland. He even ranked as a top 100 prospect by Baseball Prospectus going into the 2019 season. His biggest struggles mainly stemmed from his fastball command. That’s nothing that can’t be solved. The talent is there, he just needs to harness it.

Oviedo will likely spend most of 2022 in the minor leagues. He needs more seasoning after jumping directly from Low-A to the Major Leagues.