Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Underrated Relief Pitcher to Watch

Anyone who follows the Pittsburgh Pirates or reads our site already knows this, but the youth movement is underway in Pittsburgh. In the coming months and into next season this is only going to continue.

This youth movement will include the bullpen. Yerry De Los Santos has already been promoted to the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen. Cam Alldred, Tahnaj Thomas, Nick Dombrowski, and Tyler Samaniego are all relief pitching prospects that could find themselves entrenched in the Pirate bullpen by next summer. Another overlooked and underrated relief pitching prospect to keep an eye on, however, is righty Noe Toribio.

In his second season at the Double-A level the 22-year-old Toribio is putting together a tremendous season. This could lead to Toribio finding himself at Triple-A Indianapolis sooner rather than later.

Toribio has pitched 32 innings for the Curve this season, posting a 1.97 ERA and a 2.66 FIP while allowing just 2 home runs.. Toribio has walked just 6.3% of batters faced while striking out a healthy 32.8%.

The swing-and-miss is a huge driving force behind Toribio’s success, and there is a strong argument to be made that having swing-and-miss stuff and the ability to generate whiffs is the most important asset for a relief pitcher to have. Toribio has also generated a healthy 60.0% ground ball rate this season. Keeping the ball on the ground limits the ability for opposing batters to hurt a pitcher and the odds of them being burnt by the home run ball.

Toribio’s four-seamed fastball sits in the low-90s, but his sinker is his best pitch. Toribio’s sinker is a pitch that has a lot of movement and turbo sink, playing a major role in his strong 60.0% ground ball rate. He has also worked to add a splitter to his repertoire this season, which is something you can read about in more detail over at Pirates Prospects.

At one point Toribio appeared to be a starting pitching prospect. While that is no longer the case, he has pitched 2+ innings in 11 of his 12 outings this season. So turning into a strong multi-inning reliever wit piggybacking ability still appears to be very much in play for Toribio.

Fans should be keeping their eyes on how Toribio performs in Altoona. Before much longer he could find himself in Indianapolis and on the doorstep of the majors. While it’s more likely that Toribio does not debut until next season, an August or September debut this season should not be ruled out. Regardless of when Toribio arrives in the majors, the next time the Pittsburgh Pirates are a contending team competing for a postseason berth, odds are, he will be a key cog in their bullpen.