Pittsburgh Pirates: Ranking Each Minor League Affiliate

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a strong minor league system, but which minor league affiliate team is the best?

The Pittsburgh Pirates have one of the deepest minor league systems in professional baseball. Kiley McDaniel recently ranked the Pittsburgh Pirates with the 4th best farm system in baseball, while FanGraphs ranks them second. That’s even after very notable prospects like Roansy Contreras, Oneil Cruz, and Jack Suwinski have graduated to rookie status.

The team has four primary minor league affiliates. The lowest full-season level is the Low-A Bradenton Marauders, followed by the High-A Greensboro Grasshoppers, Double-A Altoona Curve, and Triple-A Indianapolis Indians. Each of these four teams has its strengths and weaknesses, each with at least a few worthwhile names.

Today, I want to rank the Pirate minor league affiliates. I am basing this on their current roster construction. For example, while Endy Rodriguez just made his Double-A debut, I will not consider him when looking at Greensboro’s roster construction. I am ranking these from worst to best and only the full-season teams, so you’re not going to see any of the Pirates’ FCL teams here today. So without further ado, let’s get into our first affiliate.

Greensboro Grasshoppers

The Grasshoppers did start the 2022 season with a lot more talent. At one point, Endy Rodriguez, Henry Davis, Matt Gorski, Tyler Samaniego, and Nick Dombkowski were part of the same roster, and now, all of them have gotten the bump to Altoona.

The weakest part of the Grasshopper roster is their group of position players. Among the players on their active roster, they have four regulars with a wRC+ above 100 and four more regulars with a wRC+ below 100. Granted, Dariel Lopez has been good this season, batting .294/.332/.504 with a .369 wOBA and 121 wRC+. Since the start of June, Lopez has had a 143 wRC+ (48% better than the league average). Catcher Abrahan Gutierrez has also turned the heat up recently with a 158 wRC+ in his last 231 trips to the plate.

Their best pitching prospect is Jared Jones. Jones definitely has the potential to be a big-league starter. However, he has a 10.4% walk rate and 1.49 HR/9. Jones has run into some poor batted ball luck with an 18% HR/FB ratio, but his overall command has gotten in the way more than once this season.

Jones has the greatest chance to refine his stuff. Still, many of the other pitching prospects at Greensboro are more projection/ability than on-paper performance, like Eddy Yean, Ricky DeVito, Logan Hofmann, Adrian Florencio, and Nick Garcia. Aside from Jones, there’s one pitcher in that group that could possibly figure things out, but there are a lot of high-risk/high-reward arms at Greensboro.

Indianapolis Indians

The Indianapolis Indians do have a good lineup. Both Ji-Hwan Bae and Travis Swaggerty have a wRC+ of 110 or greater, and Jack Suwinski has been crushing it since getting sent back down. He has a 126 wRC+ in his small sample size. Cal Mitchell’s recent demotion means they’ll get another hitter with a wRC+ above 110, coming in at 129.

A lineup of Bae, Swaggerty, Suwinski, and Mitchell is a lineup that consists of four batters with a wRC+ of 110 or better. That’s an outstanding offense, so why do the Indians come in at just no. 3? Well, their pitching has been pretty lackluster.

Among their starters, Cody Bolton has been the team’s best. His 2.75 ERA is pretty, and his 3.60 FIP is solid. But he’s given up walks at a 13.6% rate with a strikeout rate of 24.4%. Bolton has only given up a single home run all year, but with a fly ball rate over 40%, his HR/FB ratio comes in at 1.9%. Good chance that Bolton isn’t that good at limiting home runs, as the surface numbers show.

They did get a big name when the Pittsburgh Pirates sent Mike Burrows to Triple-A. He has a 5.34 ERA in his first 30.1 innings, albeit with a better-looking 3.70 FIP. Burrows has run into some bad luck to start his Indianapolis tenure.

But Burrows, Bolton, and Miguel Yajure are about all the Indians have in terms of pitching talent. Many of the other arms at Triple-A are depth guys the Pirates have stashed away in the event of an emergency. Plus, none of those guys are blowing away scouts and batters alike.

The Pirate Triple-A affiliate definitely has one of the better lineups among their four minor league teams. However, pitching hasn’t been their strong suit. On the plus side, more prospects are coming up from Double-A that could help their situation out next season.

Altoona Curve

The Altoona Curve has a lot of hitters. Endy Rodriguez and Henry Davis make a nasty catching combo. Liover Peguero and Jared Triolo have made a solid right side of the infield. They did have a powerful double-play combo between Peguero and Nick Gonzales, but Gonzale is currently rehabbing.

Even without Gonzales, you have some very underrated hitters like Andres Alvarez and Aaron Shackelford. Both currently have a wRC+ above 115. Blake Sabol has also provided the Curve with a solid bat this season, registering a 108 wRC+. When he was healthy, Matt Gorski provided a phenomenal bat.

The Curve has some decent pitchers as well. Quinn Priester returned and has only allowed 10 earned runs in 38.1 innings of work. He’s getting ground balls like there’s no tomorrow on top of that. Tyler Samaniego and Tahnaj Thomas have been terrific in the back of the Curve bullpen. Carmen Mlodzinski and Kyle Nicolas have been solid, albeit not great recently, though they have flashed potential throughout the season.

The Curve has a lot of big names in the prospect scene. However, where they struggle the most is the lack of depth past most of those big names. Their other starters, past Priester, Mlodzinski, and Nicolas, consist of Luis Ortiz (who should move to the bullpen), Omar Cruz, and Aaron Shortridge. Altoona also has a lot of depth hitters.