3 Pirates offensive prospects putting up ridiculous video game numbers in May

Although there haven’t been many good things to say about what the Pittsburgh Pirates are doing in the major leagues this year, they at least have some success stories to tell from their minor league system, especially with pitching. However, this month has been especially good for a handful of their position player prospects.

Given how many promising hurlers the Pirates have in the minor leagues, seeing some of their position player prospects doing well is crucial to the overall health of the system. Some of these guys aren’t just playing well, but are playing out of their minds and putting up video game-like numbers in the month of May. 

3 Pirates prospects surging in the month of May

Termarr Johnson

Termarr Johnson is one of the Pirates' most promising young players, and is off to the best start of any year of his career so far. He is currently batting .262/.370/.418 with a .370 wOBA and 131 wRC+ in 166 plate appearances with Altoona. He has only struck out 16.9% of the time and has drawn plenty of walks with a 14.5% free pass percentage. Johnson is also hitting for above-average power, with a .158 isolated slugging percentage.

But May has treated Johnson extremely well. He is slashing .270/.378/.444 with a .378 wOBA, and 139 wRC+. The video game-esque numbers stem from Johnson’s ability to hit for power and inability to strikeout. Johnson has struck out in less than 10% of his plate appearances and has just a 9.3% K% in May, with an isolated slugging percentage of .175.

Hitting for this much power without striking out, even at a 10% rate, is extremely impressive. There are 42 instances since 2015 of a major league batter having a sub-10% K% in 300+ plate appearances. Of those 42, only two have an ISO just as high or higher than Johnson’s ISO throughout the month of May. Those players are 2016 Jose Altuve ... and 2019 Tommy LaStella.

Keep in mind, the Eastern League is currently being dominated by pitching. The league average strikeout rate is 25.6%, while the average OPS is a meager .680 and the average ISO is only .135. The MLB league average OPS in 1920, the last year of the Deadball Era, was only .697. The last time MLB had that low of a league-wide ISO was in 2014 when it also clocked in at .135.

This is obviously very promising for Termarr Johnson. He stumbled out of the gate when he got to make a brief cameo at Altoona late last season, but now he’s cut down on strikeouts, something that plagued him in the past, while still maintaining good power output. He's also doing it all in what is essentially a Dead Ball Era environment.