Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Prospects Who Could Start in the Majors

Nick Dombkowski

While Selby might provide the Pittsburgh Pirates with a significant boost in the bullpen, he’s still only one player and a right-handed pitcher at that. The Pirates have almost nothing in the way of left-handed pitching. With that, the team could start left-handed relief prospect Nick Dombkowski, in the major leagues at the start of next year.

Dombkowski pitched at three different minor league levels in 2022, starting at Low-A Bradenton and finishing out the year with Double-A Altoona. In total, he tossed 67.2 innings in 36 appearances. Dombkowski had a quality 3.07 ERA, 3.26 FIP, and 1.10 WHIP in his first professional season. His 0.94 HR/9 was his weakest peripheral stat, as he struck out 30.7% of the batters he faced with a 6.8% walk rate. Dombkowski led Pirates minor league relief pitchers in many stats, including K:BB ratio at 4.53, FIP, xFIP at 3.76, and strikeout rate.

While Dombkowski struck out his fair share of batters, he is not a hard-throwing southpaw. He averages out at 88-91 MPH, but his arm speed and delivery help hide it to add deception. It’s still not a great offering, but it plays up some. His change-up and slider are considered plus offerings, though. His slider is a bit more consistent, but his secondary offerings are better than his primary fastball.

The Pirates do not have any lefties in the bullpen as of writing this. They don’t have a single left-hander on the 40-man roster. With 2023 marking Dombkowski’s age-24 campaign, he has a fair shot of making the Pirate Opening Day roster. It’s still unknown what kind of role Dombkowski would play. He might see a slight uptick in velocity if he only works 1-2 innings at a time. But even in a long-relief role, Dombkowski looks like he could be part of the roster for a while.

Jared Triolo

Last year, the Pittsburgh Pirates broke Spring Training camp with Diego Castillo as part of the major league roster. Now, after adding another utility prospect to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft, they could go through with something similar again. After a solid season at Double-A Altoona, Jared Triolo has a chance of making it to the major leagues on Opening Day.

But unlike Castillo, Triolo isn’t just coming off a good season, but multiple good seasons. Since making his debut in 2019, Triolo has a wRC+ of 110 or greater. He’s also struck out less than 20% of the time in all three seasons and 10% or greater walk rate in two of the three years. His last season at Altoona was arguably the best of his career, and he had a fantastic summer.

In 495 plate appearances, Triolo batted .282/.376/.419 with a .356 wOBA and 121 wRC+. Triolo struck out at a 17.6% rate with a healthy 12.7% walk rate. However, after having a quality .176 isolated slugging percentage in 2021, he fell to just .136 this past season. On the plus side, he stole 24 bases in 29 attempts.

However, after the start of June, Triolo caught fire and didn’t look back. The utility prospect had a .878 OPS, .385 wOBA, and 140 wRC+. Triolo hit for almost zero power at the start of the year, but by the time the weather started to heat up, he had a .194 isolated slugging percentage. On top of that, he had a much better 14.1% walk rate and 15.7% strikeout rate.

Triolo is versatile enough to play wherever the Pirates need him to. He played a handful of games at shortstop as a professional and started to see time in the outfield grass. Triolo isn’t wholly foreign to the outfield as he played a decent amount in college, and he started to re-familiarize himself at the position this year. He could also see time at second base and first base if the need arises.