Pittsburgh Pirates: Prospects Who Need Promoted This Month

Starting pitcher Mike Burrows

Entering the season right-handed pitcher Mike Burrows was on the cusp of becoming a big time prospect. He already two plus pitches with some of the best spin rate of any pitcher in minor league baseball, however, he was in need of a third pitch.

Well, Burrows has developed said third pitch this season. Not only has he developed that third pitch, but his changeup has become a quality pitch for him. This has helped Burrows reach the Triple-A level and be on the doorstep of the major leagues.

Between Double-A and Triple-A, Burrows has posted a 3.46 ERA and FIP this season. Burrows has pitched 93.2 innings across the two levels, dropping his walk rate to 7.8% while posting a very healthy 28.8% strikeout rate.

Burrows should be viewed as a pitcher that is a long-term building block of the Pittsburgh Pirates starting rotation. While he likely will not have a permanent rotation spot until early next summer due to the service time manipulation that the Pirates will undoubtedly do with Burrows, he should still get an opportunity to pitch in the majors this month.

Last September, the Pirates rewarded Roansy Contreras for a strong minor league season by giving him a MLB start in the final series of the season. The team should do the same with Burrows, and maybe even look to give him two MLB starts down the stretch.

Starting pitcher Quinn Priester

If Burrows isn’t the top pitching prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system, then it’s 2019 first-round pick Quinn Priester. Like Burrows, Priester entered the season with questions to answer and, also like Burrows, he’s done so with flying colors.

There were questions about Priester’s fastball movement entering the season. His fastball has improved this season, he’s added a sinker, and his curveball has made a jump, becoming a potential elite pitch.

Priester started the season on the injured list, which has limited him to just 12 starts for the Double-A Altoona Curve. In these 12 starts Priester has been terrific. He’s pitched 58.2 innings, posting a 2.45 ERA, 3.19 FIP, 6.9% walk rate, 24.8% strikeout rate, and he’s allowed just three home runs.

Priester has worked hard this season to improve his pitches and make the jump from the low minors to the upper minors successfully. If the Pittsburgh Pirates truly want to build a player centric culture, a good way to do that is to reward players such as Priester with MLB time in September.

In theory, a starting rotation that has Burrows and Priester joining Roansy Contreras at the top should be a very strong one. By early next summer this could be the top three in the Pirate starting rotation, and a good way to help get both Burrows and Priester some early MLB experience in preparation for that would be to give them each at least one start in the majors this month.

Relief pitcher Tahnaj Thomas

At one point it appeared that Tahnaj Thomas may join Priester and Burrows as big parts of the Pirate starting rotation. While things did not work out for the former top 100 prospect as a starting pitcher, he has developed into a great relief pitching prospect.

Thomas throws a power fastball and has a plus slider. This combination can lead to a lot of success for a relief pitcher, which is what the Pittsburgh Pirates have seen from Thomas out of the Altoona bullpen this season.

Coming out of the Curve bullpen the righty has pitched 48.1 innings in 35 outings this season. Thomas has posted a 2.98 ERA and a 3.36 FIP, while walking 9.3% of batters faced and striking out opposing batters at a 25.0% clip.

The Pirate bullpen is far from good, especially with David Bednar on the injured list and Wil Crowe looking like a pitcher who is battling dead arm and may be out of gas for the season. Why not give Thomas a look out of the MLB bullpen to see how he handles himself against big league hitters?

As is the case with Burrows, a 40-man roster move would have to be made to promote Thomas. But with Thomas likely to become a key bullpen cog next season, getting him onto the 40-man roster is something that is likely to happen at some point early next season anyway. Plus, there are plenty of pitchers on the 40-man roster that the Pittsburgh Pirates could easily designate for assignment to make room for Thomas.

Outfielder Travis Swaggerty

Not to continue to beat this dead horse, but 2018 first-round pick Travis Swaggerty has absolutely nothing left to prove in the minor leagues. If not for a shoulder injury last season he may have become a mainstay in the Pirate outfield last summer. Over the course of the final month of the season, Swaggerty should be in the majors and playing every day.

Swaggerty made his MLB debut earlier this season but was never given a fair shake. The left-handed hitter only got nine MLB plate appearances, six of which came against left-handed pitching, before he was optioned back to the minors. He has been at Triple-A Indianapolis ever since.

After landing on the concussion injured list early in the season, Swaggerty has been swinging a hot bat for Indianapolis. In his last 323 PAs, which dates back to May 12th, Swaggerty has hit for a .272/.368/.448 slash line with a 119 wRC+ for the Indians. He’s drawn walks at a well above average 13.3% rate and has collected extra base hits at an 8.5% clip.

Again, Swaggerty has nothing left to prove in the minors. He is 25-years-old and was considered possibly the most advanced college bat in the 2018 MLB Draft. The Pittsburgh Pirates need to find out what they have in Swaggerty and that needs to start with him playing in the majors every day for the rest of the season.

Catcher Endy Rodriguez

Endy Rodriguez is the hottest prospect in the Pirate farm system right now. He has 85 PAs in 19 games played since being promoted to Double-A, and has hit for a .361/.459/.806 slash line to go with a 232 wRC+ and 16 extra base hits. He’s also already thrown out seven attempted base stealers.

Since the end of the All-Star Break, so dating back to July 22nd, Rodriguez has 143 PAs between Double-A and High-A. In these 143 PAs Rodriguez has hit for a .398/.497/.864 slash line, posting a 15.4% walk rate, just an 11.9% walk rate and a 252 wRC+.

The Pittsburgh Pirates should reward Rodriguez’s tremendous play with a promotion to the majors. The current catching situation for the Pirates being a mess should be a factor in the equation as well.

A catcher by trait, Rodriguez is a plus athlete who can also play the corner outfield positions, second base, and first base. With Henry Davis also in Altoona, Rodriguez’s future in the majors could be as a super utility man who has the ability to catch once or twice a week as well. Most of his prospect value comes from his bat, regardless of position, and the Pirates should look to get his bat a chance against MLB pitching this month.