Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Young Pitchers in Make-Or-Break Seasons

The 2022 campaign could be a very big deciding factor for the future for these three young Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers

The Pittsburgh Pirates farm system is deep in pitching talent. In the last few years, they’ve accumulated plenty of talent from the draft and through trades. Overall, their farm system’s pitching depth is something they should be proud of.

But there are a few arms that are entering make-or-break seasons. They’ve either passed up depth charts or prospect rankings or have seen their prospect stock hit over the past year. The 2022 campaign could be an essential season for their future with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

RHP Tahnaj Thomas

The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Tahnaj Thomas back in the 2018-2019 offseason. He was packaged alongside Erik González and Dante Mendoza from Cleveland for Jordan Luplow and Max Moroff. Thomas and Mendoza are the only ones still on the Pirates and Guardians among the pieces swapped.

When Thomas first arrived at the organization, he put up some pretty good numbers. He yielded a 3.17 ERA, 3.67 FIP, and 1.12 WHIP through 48.1 innings. After suffering from command issues in the two seasons before being acquired, Thomas only had a 7% walk rate. This didn’t stop him from having a remarkable 29.5% strikeout rate and solid 0.93 HR/9 rate.

Thomas was sent to High-A Greensboro to kickoff the 2021 campaign, and many of the struggles that held the right-hander back with Cleveland reappeared. Thomas walked 12.5% of batters faced while only having a 22.1% strikeout rate. Not only did his lack of strikeouts and too many walks become an issue once again, but he gave up 13 home runs in just 60.2 innings of work. This all led to a poor 5.19 ERA, 6.49 FIP, and 1.58 WHIP.

Thomas brings both athleticism and a big fastball to the mound. The converted shortstop’s four-seamer hits 100 MPH and averages out in the upper-90s. He also has a slider and change-up, but both offerings are more-or-less, works in progress. The athleticism from being a former shortstop does help him repeat his delivery, though he still struggles with command. A 100 MPH fastball and athleticism found in shortstops on the mound will always bring attention to any pitching prospect.

Thomas is definitely the projected relief pitcher type, and if there were any time to start giving him regular reps out of the pen, it would be now. Altoona has more than enough pitching talent than they know what to do with. They have a multitude of starting pitching options between Quinn Priester, Michael Burrows, J.C. Flowers, Ricky DeVito, Kyle Nicolas, and potentially Adrian Florencio and Luis Ortiz (if they skip High-A and advance to Double-A).

The Pirates need to see if Thomas can figure it out as a reliever. He has the reliever profile (big fastball, below-average command, solid breaking pitch). You’d hate to pass on such a big arm altogether, but he’s going into his age-23 campaign, and the Pittsburgh Pirates have plenty of more pitching talent who has surpassed Thomas.