Pittsburgh Pirates: Four Minor League Deals to Consider

Due to the current work stoppage players sign major league deals they can only sign minor league deals. So let’s take a look a four players the Pittsburgh Pirates could sign.

Baseball transactions are currently in a freeze. Due to the work stoppage no players are allowed to sign major league deals. However, non-guarenteed minor league deals are still being made. A handful of teams have signed players to minor league deals to add to their organizational depth. This is something the Pittsburgh Pirates could do.

The Pirates have many holes on the roster, and while they’re not going to be able to fix them all with trades or the free-agent market, the team should see a noticeable amount of improvement throughout the 2022 season. Many of those holes have potential answers awaiting in the minor leagues. But the team could sign some minor league deals to at least add some depth to the organization

Because teams can’t make major league signings right now, I want to take a look at a few minor league deals the Pittsburgh Pirates should consider. This wouldn’t guarantee them much more than an invitation to Spring Training but could end up being solid under-the-radar signings.

Matt Carpenter

Pirate fans should be more than familiar with Matt Carpenter. The infielder has long been a staple of the division rival St. Louis Cardinal  line-up. From 2012 up through 2018, Carpenter was a high-quality hitter. He posted a .275/.377/.471 slash with a .366 wOBA, and 133 wRC+.

Carp had excellent plate discipline, walking at a 13.4% rate, but also had a sub-20% strikeout rate. Plus he was a slugger, posting a .196 isolated slugging percentage and blasting 20 or more home runs for four years straight from 2015 through 2018.

However, Carpenter has fallen on some hard times lately. Since 2019, his numbers have steadily fallen. Throughout these three seasons, Carpenter is batting just .203/.325/.346 with a .298 wOBA, and 87 wRC+. He hit rock-bottom in 2021 when he hit .169/.305/.275 with a 70 wRC+. He was still walking at a strong 14.1% rate but struck out over 30% of the time.

But there is some hope that there’s more left in the tank for the three-time all-star. First, Carpenter posted the lowest batting average on balls in play of his career at just .250. His career average is .310. He still had a healthy 23.4% line drive rate, 49.2% fly ball rate, and ground ball rate of just 27.3%. He still hits the ball hard, and hard frequently. He had a 90 MPH exit velocity and a 42% hard hit rate. Both of which are well above the league average.

Carpenter’s expected stats are also well above average. He had a .341 xwOBA compared to his actual .269 mark. His expected batting line was a very solid .225/.352/.427, which would come out to a .779 OPS and .202 ISO.

Carpenter wouldn’t be the worst minor league gamble. His underlying numbers suggest a player who ran into some bad luck. Will he ever be the player that fans saw in 2012-2018? Probably not. But could he be a solid lefty-platoon power bat who can play first base, second base, and third base? Well if he can play anything like he was expected to, I don’t see why not.

Daniel Vogelbach

Daniel Vogelbach was formerly a top prospect in the Chicago Cub and then the Seattle Mariner organizations. In 2019, he finally got a regular shot at playing time and made the All-Star Game after a hot start to the season. Though he struggled down the line, he still ended up posting a solid .203/.341/.439 line, blasted 30 home runs, walked 16.5% of the time, and overall had a quality 112 wRC+. Now defense wasn’t his strong suit, but he mostly spent his time at designated hitter.

Vogelbach opened the season as the team’s DH in 2020 but struggled. His contract was eventually purchased by the Toronto Blue Jays and after just two games was selected off waivers by the Milwaukee Brewers. Vogelbach ended the 2020 season on a hot streak, collecting 19 hits with 4 home runs and 8 walks in his final 67 plate appearances of the season. This earned him a spot on the team’s 2021 roster.

Vogelbach hit for a .219/.349/.381 line in semi-regular playing time. This led to a .325 wOBA, and 101 wRC+. He was still walking a ton, posting a 16.7% walk rate. Despite looking like the prototypical big slugger, three-true-outcomes kind of guy, he only struck out 22.1% of the time. The problem is that the power he displayed in 2019 didn’t show up in 2021. He blasted 9 home runs in 258 plate appearances and his .163 ISO was solid at best, but nothing to write home about.

While it didn’t show in his power numbers, he still displayed a ton of raw power. Vogelbach ripped the cover off the ball. He had a 91.4 MPH exit velocity and a 48.7% hard-hit rate. The likeliest reason for his lack of home run power was that his FB% fell from 44.8% in 2019 to 35.4% in 2021.

The Pittsburgh Pirates could use another 1B/DH power hitter in the organization. Right now, the team doesn’t have a sure answer at one for the two spots. Yoshi Tsutsugo has first base locked down, but DH is still a bit of a question mark. While I’m not suggesting that Vogelbach be brought in as the immediate answer to DH, there would be no risk in bringing in a high-OBP bat with some pop.

Tony Watson

Tony Watson was one of the staples of the ‘Shark Tank’, the Pittsburgh Pirate bullpen, in the early-to-mid 2010s. Throughout his 7 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates the southpaw posted a quality 2.68 ERA, 3.59 FIP, and 1.088 WHIP. While he only had a 21.7% strikeout rate, he made up for it with a 6.9% walk rate and 0.85 HR/9.

The Pirates had dealt Watson back at the 2017 trade deadline to the Los Angeles Dodgers for what is now one of their best prospects in Oneil Cruz. After his short quarter-season stint with the Dodgers, he latched on with the division rival San Francisco Giants for the next 3 seasons. After three solid years in San-Fran, he signed a minor-league deal with the Los Angeles Angles for 2021.

Watson was eventually dealt back to the Giants at the 2021 deadline. Between the two teams, he posted a 3.92 ERA, 3.48 FIP, and 1.01 WHIP. Like usual, Watson’s strikeout rate wasn’t anything to brag about. He struck out 19.6% of all batters he faced. But he kept walks to an 8% rate and long balls to a 0.63-per-9 mark.

Watson was excellent down the stretch with the Giants. His last 24.1 innings of the season saw him post a phenomenal 2.96 ERA, 2.64 FIP, and .781 WHIP. He increased his K-rate to 21.1% while lowering his walk rate and HR/9 to 4.4% and 0.37 respectively.

There’s a lot to like about Watson. He was good at commanding the strike zone and is one of the best at limiting hard contact. He was in the top 93rd percentile of exit velocity and 95th percentile of hard-hit rate. That made his 45.6% ground ball rate all the better. Plus he was above average in all of Baseball Savant’s expected stats. The only red flags that come with Watson are his sub-par ERA estimators. That includes a 4.30 xFIP, 4.26 SIERA, and 5.07 DRA.

But he’s consistent and durable. Since his first full year in the bigs back in 2012, Watson has pitched at least 50 innings, has appeared in 60 or more games (outside of the shortened 2020 campaign), and his ERA+ has never dipped below 101 (meaning he has never been below average in limiting runs) in every season. Two things the Pittsburgh Pirates pitching staff could use are consistency and durability, and Watson brings both.

Aside from a few sub-par numbers under the hood, Watson wouldn’t be a bad get on a minor league deal. Currently, the only lefties in the bullpen are Anthony Banda and Sam Howard, and that’s if they make it through Spring Training. Now Watson is a bit older. Next year will be his age-37 season. But why not bring Watson in on a no-risk minor league deal to secure a solid southpaw bullpen arm?