Pittsburgh Pirates: Two Unique Relief Prospects in 2022 Draft

HOUSTON, TEXAS - MARCH 05: Ben Joyce #44 of the Tennessee Volunteers pitches in the back eighth inning against the Baylor Bears during the Shriners Children's College Classic at Minute Maid Park on March 05, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TEXAS - MARCH 05: Ben Joyce #44 of the Tennessee Volunteers pitches in the back eighth inning against the Baylor Bears during the Shriners Children's College Classic at Minute Maid Park on March 05, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
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(Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images) /

The Pittsburgh Pirates could enter the draft with these two unique relief prospects on their radar.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will enter the 2022 draft with the 4th overall selection. While most teams don’t usually select a relief prospect early in drafts, it has been done before. Most of the time, it’s an under slot pick, or they bring a unique skill set to the table that makes them stand out among other relief prospects.

This draft has a few of those unique names. In this year’s draft, two very intriguing prospects are relievers but bring more to the table than your typical arm. Their skillset has a higher floor than what you usually see with arms that end up in the bullpen. The Pirates have consistently built strong bullpens, so maybe we see them pick a future bullpen arm in the draft.

LHP/1B Reggie Crawford

Reggie Crawford is a two-way relief prospect. He’s a power lefty who is also a power-hitting first baseman. Crawford is a guy who could go within the first three rounds. MLB Pipeline currently ranks him as the 32nd best player but could fall a bit further because of Tommy John surgery. He’s also a reasonably local product, hailing from Landsdale.

Crawford has hit .309/.362/.546 with 14 homers in 290 plate appearances as a batter. That puts him on pace for about 28 home runs in 600 trips to the plate. The downside is his patience at the plate isn’t a strong suit. He’s struck out 24.8% of the time while only having an 8.2% walk rate. Neither are awful, but neither are great either.

Although Crawford has only tossed eight innings, he’s looked great as a pitcher. He’s struck out 17 of the 36 total batters he’s faced while only allowing 4 to reach via free pass. Crawford can run it up into the high-90’s and has touched 100 MPH before. His slider sits in the low-to-mid-80’s range with movement. His command isn’t a strong suit, but it’s average.

The University of Connecticut product stands at 6’3, 235 pounds. His limited experience on the mound, combined with his arm surgery, could let him fall to the third or fourth round. But that kind of power fastball from a lefty doesn’t come around that often. Whether or not his long-term future as a two-way player is set in stone, he’s got the stuff to be an elite left-handed closer and possibly make a few starts here and there at first base and DH.

HOUSTON, TEXAS – MARCH 05: Ben Joyce #44 of the Tennessee Volunteers pitches in the back eighth inning against the Baylor Bears during the Shriners Children’s College Classic at Minute Maid Park on March 05, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TEXAS – MARCH 05: Ben Joyce #44 of the Tennessee Volunteers pitches in the back eighth inning against the Baylor Bears during the Shriners Children’s College Classic at Minute Maid Park on March 05, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images) /

RHP Ben Joyce

Ben Joyce has become one of college baseball’s most popular players. Everyone has been talking about Joyce. He’s a right-hander from the University of Tennessee. As we talked about at the start of this article, not many relief-only prospects go early in drafts, but Joyce isn’t your typical relief prospect.

Joyce, who has earned the nickname the Volunteer Firefighter, has consistently been making appearances on Pitching Njnja for his 100+ MPH fastball. He’s hitting 104 MPH on the radar, but he isn’t just a fastball-only guy. He also throws a nasty slider that sits around 90 MPH, well over 10 MPH slower than his four-seamer.

Joyce has tossed six innings with the University of Tennessee and hasn’t allowed a run yet. He’s also struck out 9 of the first 25 batters he has faced. Although many young flamethrowers struggle with command, he’s only allowed 2 walks. For a guy who throws 100 MPH consistently, he can hit the strike zone fairly often, according to FanGraphs.

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I know what many of you might be thinking. This is Tommy John written all over it. Well, in Joyce’s defense, he’s already had Tommy John surgery. Of course, there have been two-timers when it comes to the surgery, but you still can’t ignore a 100-103 MPH fastball. Even in an age where the average fastball MPH is reaching 94 MPH, touching triple digits is still an impressive feat and will always get attention from Major League teams.

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