Pittsburgh Pirates 2022 Outlook: Reliever Nick Mears

After getting a longer MLB look in 2021 than he did in 2020, what does 2022 hold for reliever Nick Mears with the Pittsburgh Pirates?

Throughout their farm system the Pittsburgh Pirates are loaded with talent. Right-handed pitcher Nick Mears is arguably the top pitching prospect in the system. The hard-throwing Mears has pitched out of the bullpen in the Majors for the Pirates each of the last two seasons.

FanGraphs currently ranks Mears as the 40th best prospect that the Pittsburgh Pirate have. Mears has a two-pitch mix rotation between a curveball and his four-seamed fastball. FanGrapghs gives his fastball a future value (FV) of 70, while they give his curveball ad FV of 50.

Last season Mears’s fastball ranked in the 83rd percentile of baseball in velocity. However, the pitch was just in the 36th percentile in fastball spin rate. His curveball also lacked ideal spin rates ranking in the 27th percentile of baseball in curveball spin rates.

Mears pitched 23.1 innings in 30 relief outings in 2021. He walked 12.1% of batters faced and struck out batters at a 21.5% rate. Mears posted a 5.01 ERA, 5.66 FIP and allowed home runs at a rate of 1.93 HR/9.

These stats alone show that Mears struggled with control and the long ball in 2021. If he can work on these two issues it could lead to a turn around and better success in 2022, but all of that could be a heck of a lot easier said than done.

Despite his struggles in 2021 it is easy to envision Mears cracking the Opening Day roster for the Pirates in 2022. The Pirates have serious bullpen question marks which will create a potential spot for Mears. Combine this with the potential that Mears has, and he could easily crack the team’s Opening Day roster.

In addition to improving his control and limiting the home run ball, if Mears is going to find success in 2022 he will need to improve his quality of contact allowed. In his career Mears has 7.2% barrel rate against which is worse than league average. His career hard-hit rate is also worse than league average,. This is always something that Mears must improve upon in 2022.