Pittsburgh Pirates: Minor Promotions With Potential for Big Impact

The Pittsburgh Pirates could make some relatively under-the-radar promotions now that could create a large impact later on this year.

The Pittsburgh Pirates should be a massively improved team by the end of this season. There are a ton of big promotions they should make with the likes of Roansy Contreras and Oneil Cruz headlining the big-time promotions. However, there are some minor, much smaller moves they could make now that may end up paying dividends.

There are a few pitchers the Pittsburgh Pirates could promote within the next few weeks to up the pitching staff’s strength. Max Kranick would be a big help for the rotation. Although he struggled in his first small sample size in the majors last season, he’s ready to potentially improve and become a solid mid-to-back of the rotation arm. Kranick tossed three innings, two strikeouts, and one walk in his previous rehab start.

The organization’s best MLB ready relief pitching prospect is Yerry De Los Santos. De Los Santos pitched in an injury limited 23.2 innings in 2021 but is off to a phenomenal start to 2022. He has only pitched eight innings but has only allowed a single earned run while striking out 13 of the 27 batters he faced. Only three of those batters have gotten on base via hit or walk. With the Pirates optioning three pitchers stationed in the bullpen on Monday night, they may call upon De Los Santos sooner rather than later.

Another quick bullpen fix currently at Triple-A is Trey McGough. McGough had a very solid season in 2021 with a 3.19 ERA and led Pirate farmhands in walk rate at 5.5%. Plus, he only gave up six homers in 113 innings of work. McGough has four appearances this year with Triple-A Indy, one of which was a start (technically, it was an ‘open’ given he pitched just a single inning). Regardless, he has only allowed two hits and a single walk with six K’s. He’s struck out a third of batters faced, which, although it is a massive improvement from 2021 when he had a 19.7% rate, is a small sample size. But it is worth mentioning when the southpaw was used in a reliever role in 2019, and he had a 29.5% strikeout rate.

Like with De Los Santos, the Pittsburgh Pirates would have to make room on the 40-man roster to promote Mcgough. But if the Pirates wanted to promote a guy on the 40-man roster, they could recall Rodolfo Castro. Castro had five home runs in his short major league sample size but overall struggled because of a 29% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate. Castro has 14 walks in 86 plate appearances at Triple-A Indy, which is a lot more often than he has in years past. The last time he had an 8%+ walk rate was back in 2016. Granted, he only has a .406 slugging percentage, but he also has a 5.9% HR/FB ratio. Once that levels out, the power will return.

Castro might be a defensive downgrade over Cole Tucker but a massive offensive upgrade. Even if he repeats his 2021 Major League numbers, he’d still be about 20% better at hitting than Tucker’s career norms, per wRC+. Tucker has a negative wRC+ with zero walks and 18 strikeouts in 45 plate appearances, so almost anything would be an improvement over him. If Castro put up a 75 wRC+ this year and Tucker keeps producing at the rate he is, it would be the same difference in wRC+ from Bryan Reynolds and Raimel Tapia in 2021.

Although these seem like minor prospect promotions, they could greatly impact the season, especially given some of the players they’d replace. Replacing Tucker with Castro would be a massive upgrade. The Pirates can’t keep trotting out a negative wRC+ player, and Castro has 20+ home run upside.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have only one starting pitcher with an ERA+ greater than 90. Having Kranick pitch the first three or four innings, then passing it onto Bryse Wilson or Zach Thompson for the next three or four innings would massively improve the rotation, especially if Thompson and Wilson pitch better out of the bullpen. Chris Stratton has struggled in the ninth inning, and having De Los Santos as an option for a late-inning arm would greatly improve the Pirate high-leverage corps. Finally, McGough would be a nice compliment to Dillon Peters and Anthony Banda as another left-handed bullpen pitcher who could pitch more than one inning at a time.