Pittsburgh Pirates: Cal Mitchell Hits First Career Homer

The Pittsburgh Pirates need as much help in the power department as they can get.  Maybe this rookie can help out after hitting his first home run.

When Neal Huntington Drafted Cal Mitchell I had mixed feelings about it.  I understood that he was a toolsy player with upside, but he also was coming out of the prep ranks.  Furthermore, in the 2017 Draft, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected another prep outfielder in Conner Uselton whom I had higher hopes for than Mitchell.  I was wrong on Uselton, but Mitchell quickly started to show why the Bucs selected him 50th overall.

Mitchell has put together an impressive minor league resume and quickly gained attention when he hit 15 home runs in 2019 with the Marauders.  Unfortunately, like many prospects, the cancellation of the 2020 season stopped all momentum he was gaining as a prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates Organization.

Well, he got back to it last year powering 12 home runs and hitting .279 between Double-A and Triple-A (109 Games).  He came out hot this year as well, being one of the best hitting prospects in the system during the early going batting over .300 with 5 home runs in just 34 games.  This earned him a promotion to the Pittsburgh Pirates big league roster.  Mitchell has shown flashes of his potential at the Big League level including hitting his first career home run on Sunday against the Diamondbacks.  Here is the video, with Zac Gallen on the mound for Arizona:

This is something you love to see as a fan.  For years we have heard about getting left-handed power to take advantage of the Clemente Wall.  Mitchell shows easy power with a bullet off the bat that was 100 miles per hour and would have been a home run in 28 other stadiums.  Hopefully, now that Mitchell got his first home run out of the way he will begin to tap into his power even more.