Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Best Unranked Players in the Farm System

The Pittsburgh Pirates system is extremely deep with some of baseball’s best prospects. But let’s give some recognition to the best unranked names in the minors.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a deep, expansive farm system. Since entering a rebuild in the 2019-2020 offseason, they’ve stockpiled a boatload of prospects. However, not every prospect they’ve acquired is ranked among sites like FanGraphs or MLB Pipeline.

That doesn’t mean they’re not good, as for a site like Pipeline, which only ranks 30 players per team, many are simpily just left off. There are plenty of highly talented unranked prospects in the system, but who are the best among them?

The easy answer for most is Braylon Bishop. Bishop was a 14th round selection by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2021 draft, but he isn’t your typical 14th rounder. MLB Pipeline ranked him as the 94th best player in the draft. He was a guy who could have gone within rounds 3-5. However, many teams steered away from the talented outfielder because of his commitment to Arkansas.

Bishop’s best tool is his insane bat speed. It’s enough to generate plus power in the future. He’s also highly athletic with a plus glove/arm. With 60-grade speed, he’s easily a potential long-term center field option. There are some questions about his ability to make contact consistently, but nothing out of the ordinary for an 18-year-old.

On the pitching side of things, the easy answer for most would likely be Logan Hofmann. The right-hander was the 5th round pick by the Pirates in 2020. Hofmann had a quality debut season with Bradenton, pitching to the tune of a 3.59 ERA, 4.68 FIP, and 1.11 WHIP. He struck out 29.9% of batters faced while having a usable 9.6% walk rate. Don’t be entirely fooled by his FIP. He still had a solid 4.05 xFIP and 44.3% ground ball rate despite a 1.31 HR/9 rate.

Despite the gaudy swing-and-miss numbers, Hofmann isn’t a hard thrower. He only hits around 90-92 MPH and tops out at 94 MPH. However, he puts a ton of spin on his fastball, and he pairs that with a power 12-6 curve, slider, and changeup. Consistent command has always been a bit of a question mark for the 5’10”, 190-pound right-hander, as is his future role. But he’s a solid right-handed pitcher who has often gone overlooked in rankings.

Bishop and Hofmann might stand out the most among the unranked crowd, but they’re far from the only quality prospects in this group. Another name many will think of is Adrian Florencio.

Florencio won his league’s pitcher of the year award after firing off 95 innings of 2.46 ERA, 3.25 FIP, and 1.05 WHIP ball. This came with a phenomenal 29.8% strikeout rate and a 7.6% walk rate. Even better was his 0.47 HR/9. The only downside of his season was a so-so batted ball profile. Even then, it resulted in a still-quality 3.72 xFIP, which is based on HR/FB and fly ball rates.

Although Florencio gives the appearance of a flamethrower, standing at 6’6″, 205 pounds, and getting his fair share of strikeouts, he only sits around 90-93 MPH and tops out around 94-95. He’s shown noticeable improvement to his slider and change-up since signing with the Pirates. Given that he is going into his age-23 season, Florencio has a real chance of skipping Greensboro entirely and jumping straight into action at Altoona. At the very most, he’d start the year at High-A, then receive an early-season promotion to Double-A, similar to left-hander Omar Cruz. He is easily a potential 2023 rotation candidate if he keeps pitching anything like he did at Bradenton.

If you want the team’s best-unranked catching prospect, look no further than Geovanny Planchart. In 219 plate appearances since signing, Planchart has batted .347/.417/.432 with a .410 wOBA and 136 wRC+. Planchart has been a walk machine with an 11% walk rate but also just a 14.6% strikeout rate. He hasn’t been much of a power hitter, though. Planchart had just two extra-base hits in 2019 but increased his ISO to .143 in 2021. It’s easy to overlook Planchart given the amout of catching talent that the Pirates have added over the past year.

There are a few other notable names that fall into the top unranked names in the system. Solomon Maguire, like Bishop, is an outfielder with plus bat speed and athleticism to be a potential long-term option in center field. Mike Jarvis was the team’s 6th round pick in 2021. He brings speed, multi-position utility, and a good contact/on-base hitter to the franchise. He is a similar prospect to Adam Frazier. Then there are the young, recent international signees like Hung-Leng Chang and Pitterson Rosa.

We will likely see many of these names, especially the high school picks and international signees, on more prospect radars by the end of the year. Many prospects will be graduating rookie status like Oneil Cruz, Travis Swaggerty, Roansy Contreras, Matt Fraizer, and many more. Their departure from prospect lists should lead some talented players to make their way onto ranked prospect boards.