Pittsburgh Pirates: Best Performing Unrated Prospects

The Pittsburgh Pirates farm system has it’s fair share of unranked prospects who are off to a good start to the 2022 campaign.

The Pittsburgh Pirates enter 2022 with one of, if not the best, farm system among all thirty MLB teams. They have at least a half dozen consensus top 100 prospects with more on the rise. Overall, they have a robust farm that should provide them with good players for the foreseeable future.

But what about the guys who don’t rank among the team’s best? The unranked guys making an impact with the Pirate minor league affiliates despite not being among the team’s top 30 or even top 50 prospects? The season is still young, and the playing time is nothing more than a small sample size, but it’s nice to see these guys doing well.

Infielder Jacob Gonzalez

Jacob Gonzalez was added by the Pittsburgh Pirates via the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft from the San Francisco Giants during December 2021. In the three seasons before being claimed, the infielder had an OPS above .700 just one time. Jacob is also the son of Luis Gonzalez, a five-time all-star and a franchise icon to the Arizona Diamondbacks. But so far, Jacob is off to a phenomenal start with Low-A Bradenton.

Through 67 plate appearances, Gonzalez has racked up 26 total hits. Among these hits are seven doubles and four home runs. Although he’s only drawn five walks, he’s also only struck out seven times. The infielder has consistently shown above-average raw power but has never translated that across an entire season.

When the Giants drafted Gonzalez in the second round of the 2017 draft, he was lauded for his outstanding power potential. MLB Pipeline named him the best prep power hitter. Gonzalez, who primarily played third base with some first base and left field intertwined during his tenure in the Giants’ organization, has only taken the field as a first baseman. His lack of range and average arm gave him a first baseman’s outlook when he was drafted.

Now, sure, it’s a small sample size from a 23-year-old at Low-A, but there are some late bloomers out there. While that’s not to say that Jacob will become what his father was, he has done well for a waiver claim. He could jump to High-A within the next few weeks if he keeps it up.

RHP Beau Sulser

Beau Sulser was the big story of Tuesday evening. The right-hander was seen as mostly organizational depth going into this year. A 10th-round pick in 2017, Sulser mainly had served as a relief pitcher for the first three years of his career from 2017 through 2019. Then in 2021, the Pirates had Sulser make the full-time move to the starting rotation.

Things could have gone better for the right-hander, to say the least. In 122.2 innings, Sulser struggled to the tune of a 5.65 ERA, 5.32 FIP, and 1.65 WHIP at Triple-A Indy. The right-hander only had an 18.4% walk rate while giving up free passes to 9.4% of batters faced. But the biggest culprit to his struggles was home runs, which he gave up at a 1.54-per-9 rate.

Sulser re-opened the season with the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians. He has pitched just 12.1 innings but has 14 Kstreikouts and just two walks. He also has just one home run surrendered, and three earned runs. FanGraphs noted that Sulser was getting a whole lot more swinging strikes, something he struggled to do in 2021.

This week, Sulser made his major league debut, tossing 2.2 innings, allowing three hits, but striking out four. The one walk was an intentional walk, and the two runs that scored were unearned after a throwing error by Michael Chavis.

Sulser throws a low-90s sinker that topped out at 93.7 MPH in his major league debut. He also throws a four-seamer around the same speed, but his sinker is used more often. His main breaking pitch is an upper-80s cutter, but his best offering is a low-80s change-up. His change was quite effective in his debut, getting five swinging strikes with it on Tuesday.

Sulser might be a soon-to-be-28-year-old non-prospect, but he looked terrific in his major league debut. The starting rotation could use some serious help, and he could end up getting a few starts in the majors if he can prove himself again in a multi-inning role.