Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Prospects Pushing for Ratings Bump

BRADENTON, FLORIDA - MARCH 16: Endy Rodriguez #80 of the Pittsburgh Pirates poses for a picture during the 2022 Photo Day at LECOM Park on March 16, 2022 in Bradenton, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
BRADENTON, FLORIDA - MARCH 16: Endy Rodriguez #80 of the Pittsburgh Pirates poses for a picture during the 2022 Photo Day at LECOM Park on March 16, 2022 in Bradenton, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
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BRADENTON, FLORIDA – MARCH 16: Ji-Hwan Bae #81 of the Pittsburgh Pirates poses for a picture during the 2022 Photo Day at LECOM Park on March 16, 2022 in Bradenton, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
BRADENTON, FLORIDA – MARCH 16: Ji-Hwan Bae #81 of the Pittsburgh Pirates poses for a picture during the 2022 Photo Day at LECOM Park on March 16, 2022 in Bradenton, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)

INF/OF Ji-Hwan Bae

Ji-Hwan Bae has nothing left to prove in the minors. However, he is still a prospect and one who is having arguably the best season of his professional career. Bae has steadily risen through prospect rankings and should make the jump to top 100 status sometime during the second half of this season.

Bae is currently hitting .304/.370/.468 at Triple-A Indianapolis. The speedy Korean prospect’s 16.5% strikeout rate is by far a career-best (unless you want to count the 152 plate appearances he took in 2018). Plus, his 9.5% walk rate aligns with career norms. Overall, Bae has a .370 wOBA and 124 wRC+.

Bae’s power has slowly but steadily been increasing since 2019. He went from a .107 isolated slugging percentage in 2019 to .134 last season with Altoona and now sits at .164. He already has one more home run and four more total extra-base hits than last year despite having 44 fewer plate appearances.

He’s only gotten more versatile. After playing shortstop and second base solely for the first few years of his career, Bae has seen an increasing amount of time in the outfield. This year, he has 166 total innings played between center field and left field. Between last season, his playing time in the Arizona Fall League, and this year, Bae has a grand total of 331.2 innings in the outfield.

Bae might not be a big power hitter, but he isn’t Kevin Newman. Newman posted just a .099 isolated slugging percentage in the minors and never hit .110. Bae now has a career minor league ISO of .129 and is currently above .150. His lowest ISO would be Newman’s highest. Even if a dozen home runs is a challenge for him, Bae is a guy who could hit .280 regularly with an on-base percentage above .350. With his elite speed, he’s the perfect leadoff hitter. He gets hits, draws walks, and creates runs with his speed.

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