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

RHP Santiago Florez

The Pittsburgh Pirates signed Santiago Florez back during the summer of 2016. The Columbian-born right-hander seemingly was on his way to a big breakout campaign in 2021, but things took a dramatic left turn. Where that leaves Florez’s role in future plans is still undecided, but 2022 could play a significant factor in his potential.

It was a tale of two seasons for the right-hander. He started the year at Bradenton, where he had a 1.37 ERA, 2.07 FIP, and .85 WHIP through 52.2 innings of work. But once he got promoted to Greensboro, he saw those numbers inflate to a 7.53 ERA, 6.49 FIP, and 1.81 WHIP. Florez gave up zero home runs at Bradenton but proceeded to surrender 9 in just 43 innings at Greensboro. His strikeout rate plummeted from nearly 35% (34.6%) to just 18%, and his walk rate skyrocketed from 6.8% to 10.5%.

Not to say that Florez does have talent isn’t true. He has two excellent offerings. His four-seam fastball sits around 93-95 MPH, but the spin he can put on it is where he excels. Florez’s fastball averages out around 2400 RPM. He also has a nice curveball that averages out around 2800 RPM. But the issue is that his fastball and curveball are his only two offerings.

Like with Thomas, Florez has more of a relief pitcher outlook than anything else. Even though his two offerings project to be plus-plus, he’s still only a two-pitch pitcher. Florez does have age on his side, as this will only be his age-22 campaign. But if the Pirates start him at Altoona this year, he should be in the bullpen. He’s yet to have a quality campaign as a starting pitcher, but has the stuff you’d like to see out of the bullpen.