As of late the Pittsburgh Pirates have been turning to the younger players and calling up more and more prospects, and Monday was no different.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are promoting outfield prospect Canaan Smith-Njigba, whose brother is the standout Ohio State receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Additionally, they will also re-call utility man Hoy Park.
Smith-Njigba was acquired last offseason as part of the package that the New York Yankees gave up for Jameson Taillon. Smith-Njigba is a left-handed hitting corner outfielder who has batted .277 with an on-base percentage of .387 this season at Triple-A. While he has hit just 1 home run, he has been a doubles machine and has been red hot in June.
In June, Smith-Njigba has hit .342 with 9 RBIs, which is something this Pittsburgh Pirates team can use as they rank second to only the Detroit Tigers when it comes to scoring the fewest runs as a team.
The Pirates made another call-up, but this one will not please the fanbase. The other player recalled was Hoy Park. Park has a career batting average all the way down to .197 and a WRC+ this year of 58.
With the Pittsburgh Pirates re-calling Park they continue to let one of their top prospects in Oneil Cruz light up Triple-A ball and refuse to call him up. Hopefully, for the Pirates fanbase, it will not be much longer until they let Cruz loose to tear up the majors.
Until then, it will be fun to see what Canaan Smith-Njigba can do with the chance he has been given, as he is a great man on and off of the field in the several encounters that I have had with him during his stint in Double-A Altoona.
It remains to be seen what the corresponding roster moves for Smith-Njigba and Park will be. Odds are, with Smith-Njigba, Travis Swaggerty and Cal Mitchell all being left-handed hitting outfielders, one of Swaggerty or Mitchell will return to the minors.
UPDATE:
It has since been announced the corresponding moves for Smith-Njigba and Park were optioning Travis Swaggerty and Aaron Fletcher to Triple-A.