Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Examining Newcomers to FanGraphs List

INF Tsung-Che Cheng

Infielder Tsung-Che Cheng was an international addition from Taiwan in 2019. Although on the weaker side, Cheng makes a ton of contact and gets on-base. He’s also fast and provides quality defense at shortstop, second base, and third base.

Cheng got his first look at pro-ball last season. He only had 157 plate appearances but posted a quality .311/.449/.492 with a .442 wOBA and 154 wRC+. The infielder swiped 16 bags but in 24 total attempts. The most impressive part of his first sample size was the outstanding eye he displayed. He walked just over twice as often as he struck out with 30 walks and just 14 strikeouts.

Cheng has seen time at shortstop, second base, and third base. He’s shown the instincts to play the high-premium positions. During the Caribbean Series, Cheng made some slick, highlight-reel plays that made him look like a Gold Glove candidate. He has more than enough arm to man the left side of the infield.

The issue is that Cheng is on the lowest end on the power scale. His 5’7″, 155-pound frame only generates 20-grade raw power. Cheng puts a lot of balls in play and has an extremely compact swing. It’s honestly a bit surprising he had a .180 isolated slugging percentage. Cheng had a 55.9% ground ball rate. Given his low-power, high-contact rate approach, he’s going to need to massively increase his line-drive rate, which sat at just 16.7% in 2021.

There are two possible outcomes for Cheng. The first, and the floor, for Cheng is Kevin Newman. The ceiling is Adam Frazier. If Cheng can make the adjustments to become a line-drive centric hitter rather than a ground ball hitter, he could become a quality infielder who bats .280 with a high OBP and good defense.