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Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Pitching Breakout Candidates for 2023
These three pitchers could be in line for a big breakout season as members of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitching staff in 2023
A big part of every Major League Baseball season is teams having breakout players. Even for as much as the team struggles, these breakout players each season will always include the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Last season, the Pirates, even with their struggles, saw some players breakout. All long last Mitch Keller finally put it all together and emerged as a very good MLB starting pitcher. Oneil Cruz burst onto the scene as one of the best power hitting infielders in baseball, and Jack Suwinski was among all MLB rookie leaders in home runs.
Looking ahead to 2023, there are some potential pitching breakout candidates for the Pittsburgh Pirates that quickly come to mind. Today, we will take a look at three potential Pirate breakout candidates for next season.
Starting pitcher Luis Ortiz
During the month of September, Luis Ortiz made his MLB debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The hard throwing righty made four starts while pitching 16 innings during the 2022 season’s final month.
Through his first three MLB starts Ortiz pitched 15.1 innings, allowing 2 earned runs on five hits, seven walks and 17 strikeouts. In his final start of the season he recorded just two outs while allowing 6 earned runs. When the dust settled, Ortiz owned a 4.50 ERA, 3.68 FIP, 14.5% walk rate and a 24.6% strikeout rate.
The season Ortiz put tougher led to him shooting up prospect boards. This includes FanGraphs now ranking Ortiz as the 4th best prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system, and the 50th best prospect in all of baseball.
Looking ahead to 2023, Ortiz should enter spring training with a legitimate chance of cracking the team’s starting rotation. Even if Ortiz starts the season with Triple-A Indianapolis, he should join the Pirate starting rotation early in the 2023 season as he appears to be a budding building block for the team’s rotation long-term.
Ortiz possesses a power fastball that sits in the high-90s and regularly touches 100 MPH. He also throws a wipeout slider. While developing a third pitch would be huge for his long-term success, the two pitches that Ortiz does have are so good that he may not need a third pitch to find success.
Right-handed relief pitcher Robert Stephenson
In late August the Pittsburgh Pirates claimed right-handed reliever Robert Stephenson off waivers from the Colorado Rockies. A former first-round pick of the Cincinnati Reds, Stephenson arrived in Pittsburgh looking to right the ship in what had become choppy waters in his career.
With the Pirates, Stephenson appeared to be doing just that. Stephenson made 13 relief appearances for the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing a 3.38 ERA and a 2.81 FIP in 13.1 innings pitched. He walked just 2.0% of batters faced, while striking batters out at a 36.0% clip. Stephenson hit a batter and allowed two home runs as a Pirate.
Last season, Stephenson’s fastball velocity ranked in the 91st percentile of baseball, to go with a fastball spin rate in the 85th percentile and a chase rate in the 93rd percentile. He also threw a plus slider that limited opposing batters to a .170 batting average, .357 slugging, and generated a 44.4% whiff rate.
Stephenson remains under team control through the 2024 season. If he can continue to pitch anywhere near as well as he did down the stretch in 2022 throughout the 2023 season, then he could breakout and emerge as a key cog in the Pirate bullpen across the next two seasons.
Starting pitcher Quinn Priester
This one is a bit different than the others two as Quinn Priester has not yet made his MLB debut. However, after reaching the Triple-A level late in the 2022 season Priester should be in line to make his MLB debut in 2023.
The 2020 season was the best season of the 2019 first-round pick’s professional career. Pitching at the Double-A level for the first time, Priester made 15 starts. In this 15 starts he posted a 2.87 ERA and a 3.23 FIP in 75.1 innings pitched.
Priester then made two starts at Triple-A in September. With the Indianapolis Indians, Priester posted a 3.86 ERA.
Entering the season Priester was in need of refining some of his pitches. Not only did he do this, he also added a sinker to his repertoire. Priester will be viewed as a potential future anchor of the Pirate rotation, and an anchor for a long time, and that could start in 2023.
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If everything goes according to plan then it will not take Priester long to solidify himself as a key member of the Pirate starting rotation. By the early summer, if not sooner, Priester should find himself taking the ball every five days for the Pittsburgh Pirates.