Pittsburgh Pirates: Five Forgotten Position Player Prospects

Within the deep farm system of the Pittsburgh Pirates players can get lost in the shuffle. Here are five position player prospects who do not get enough attention.

Last week, I took a look at five pitching prospects that may have slipped your mind. With the amount of high-end pitching talent that has entered the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system over the course of the last two years, with the likes of Quinn Priester, Roansy Contreras, Miguel Yajure, Carmen Mlodzinski, and some of their draft picks getting most of the attention, it’s easy to forget that those four pitchers are still decent prospects and within the organization.

Now just as the team has added a ton of pitching talent, the Pirates have also added plenty of high-end position player talents and even more breaking out. Matthew Fraizer had a big breakout season and got a ton of attention around the Pirate fanbase.

Endy Rodriguez and Liover Peguero had quality seasons. First-round draft picks Nick Gonzales and Henry Davis are the Pirates’ 1A and 1B prospects. Let’s not forget Oneil Cruz going from a strong Double-A season to his first few games in the major leagues. Mason Martin and Lolo Sanchez had good seasons, and the Pirates even added more talent with Diego Castillo, Tucupita Marcano, and Abrahan Gutierrez arriving via trade.

Not every player got extensive and consistent overviews throughout the season like some of the more popular players, so let’s take a look at some of the prospects that seemed to get ignored, and possibly forgotten from the 2021 season.

Infielder Maikol Escotto

Maikol Escotto was part of the Jameson Taillon trade. Most of the time, we’re going in-depth with Roansy Contreras or Miguel Yajure. Even Canaan Smith-Njigba gets a fair amount of attention. But Escotto, despite being considered a very high-ceiling power prospect, doesn’t seem to get the same kind of love.

Now, granted, Escotto didn’t necessarily light the league on fire during 2021. In 381 plate appearances at Bradenton, the infielder batted just .234/.354/.347 with a .344 wOBA, and 100 wRC+. He didn’t hit for much power, having just 7 home runs and a .113 isolated slugging percentage, and he struck out a lot, going down on strike three 30.4% of the time. The only big upside of his season was he walked at a strong 14.2% clip.

Escotto’s lack of power was a big surprise to many. In 2019, his first professional season, Escotto had a .238 ISO, .552 slugging, and 8 home runs in only 218 plate appearances, which is about 22 over the course of 600 trips to the plate. He also has a 60-projected raw power and 55-projected game power grade.

Escotto showed some swing-and-miss back in 2019, but the potential is there. FanGraphs ranks him as the 15th best prospect in the organization. They stated he is the equivalent of a 2nd round high school pick. Escotto has the glove and hands to remain at shortstop, but once he fills out and reaches his power potential, he may be a little too slow to remain there. Though he does have the arm and skill to play either third base or second base.

Outfielder Sammy Siani

Sammy Siani was a first-round pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2019. They selected him with the 37th overall pick in the draft. The outfielder hasn’t done all that great throughout his minor league career yet, but he’s still very young as 2021 was just his age-20 campaign.

Siani stepped to the plate 258 times with Low-A Bradenton posting a solid .215/.376/.390 line, .370 wOBA, and 116 wRC+. When it came to getting on base, Siani was very good at it. Despite only having a .215 batting average, he had an OBP that was approaching .400. He drew walks at an insane 20.2% rate. For reference, only two batters had a 20%+ walk rate in at least 250 plate appearances in the major leagues this year. That was Juan Soto and Yasmani Grandal.

The outfielder also showed some pop. He blasted 9 home runs while having a .175 isolated slugging percentage. By no means was he putting up phenomenal power numbers, but nothing to scoff at either. That comes out to about 18 home run pace over 600 plate appearances.

Siani is considered a plus runner, but there’s nothing he does overly well, nor noticeably poorly. According to FanGraphs, he’s just a well-rounded player with good athleticism. Siani may not be up there with Travis Swaggerty, Hudson Head, or Lonnie White, but he’s displayed fantastic patience at the plate. If he can continue to show that, as well as average pop, he’d be a pretty good table-setter at the top of the lineup.

Outfielder Matt Gorski

The Pirates drafted Matt Gorski in the second-round of the 2019 draft. Gorski was selected out of Indiana University of Bloomington. He saw a little bit of time all around the field, starting out his college career behind the dish, then first base, and finally the outfield, along with 2 more games at second base. He showed some solid power potential, but also some concerns in his swing.

Gorski showed off the power-speed combo teams love to see. He had a .193 isolated slugging percentage, blasted 17 home runs, and swiped 18 bases in 18 attempts. But things didn’t go all that smoothly. He had just a .223 batting average, struck out 31.2% of the time, had just an 8.5% walk rate, and .294 OBP. Gorski ended up with just a .309 wOBA and 89 wRC+.

Gorski has always been praised for his solid power and speed. He has 50-grade projected game and raw power. Plus he’s a 55-grade runner. He’s also a decent fielder. He’s a 55-projected glove with a 55-grade arm. Though his hit tool is only a 40-projected.

Gorski has some solid power, good speed, and is a good fielder. But he has issues making contact consistently, something that was brought up during FanGraphs’ write-up on the outfielder. If Gorski can continue to show good power, speed, and fielding, he may become a very good 4th outfielder. He’s still very projectable even though he’s a bit older (turns 24 on December 22nd).

Catcher Carter Bins

Carter Bins was acquired as one of the two players in the Tyler Anderson trade. Bins was drafted in the 11th round of the 2019 draft but despite being drafted pretty late into the draft, he’s considered a solid catching prospect.

Bins is an on-base machine. Through 294 plate appearances, Bins had a strong .384 on-base percentage. The backstop drew walks at a strong 17.7% pace. Though he only had a .234 batting average and a .387 slugging percentage. He got off to a good start to the 2021 season, batting .284/.422/.493 with a .410 wOBA, and 147 wRC+ with the M’s High-A team.

Though once he got promoted to Double-A, he struggled with both the M’s and Pittsburgh Pirates affiliates. He put up a sub-80 wRC+ with both teams, albeit in a small sample size of 109 plate appearances. Bins has swing-and-miss in his game, striking out 29.3%, but has shown some solid pop throughout his career.

According to FanGraphs, Bins has a 55-raw power grade. He is a solid defender behind the dish with a powerful, 60-grade arm. He’s also really athletic for a catcher as he’s not a terrible runner either. There’s a fair amount of raw strength in Bins.

Obviously, Bins isn’t going to be giving someone like Henry Davis, or Endy Rodriguez a run for their money for the team’s best catching prospect. But Bins has some solid power potential and isn’t a terrible defender either. If all he turns into is an all-or-nothing power hitter with solid on-base skills, that wouldn’t be the worst 2nd catcher, especially if his defense can play well behind the dish.