3 Pittsburgh Pirates prospects who turned their season around with a big second half

Plenty of well-established baseball players get off to ice-cold starts to the year. For example, the Pittsburgh Pirates saw Bryan Reynolds enter the All-Star break with a sub-90 wRC+. Since then, he's put up a mark over 120.

It can be tougher to believe that struggling prospects will work their way out of prolonged slumps, without Reynolds' extended track record to fall back on.

This season, though, the Pirates watched plenty of prospects turn up the heat after the break, and end the minor league season strong, avoiding squandering a crucial year of development.

3 Pittsburgh Pirates prospects who turned things around in the second half

Connor Wietgrefe

Wietgrefe did not head into 2025 with exceptionally high expectations. The Pirates drafted the left-hander in the seventh round of the 2024 draft, and he was not found on any top draft prospect lists from either MLB Pipeline or Baseball America. While he made a great first impression late last season at Bradenton, tossing ten scoreless frames, expectations were not exceptionally high at the start of this season.

His numbers in the first half were not exemplary either; instead, he was playing like many assumed he would. His 4.15 ERA, 4.06 FIP, and 1.05 WHIP were nothing to write home about. His 22.6% K% and 1.11 HR/9 were respectable, but did not stand out. Weitgrefe's 6.9% walk rate was one of the only things about him that was significantly above average.

But Wietgrefe turned on the jets during the second half of the season. His final 51 innings of the year saw him put up a 1.74 ERA, 3.48 FIP, and 0.94 WHIP. The left-hander lowered his already strong walk rate to just 3.6%, while maintaining a similar 21.6% strikeout percentage. That led to an impressive 18% K%-BB%. Wietgrefe also lowered his home run rate below 1.00 to 0.88-per-9 innings. Wietgrefe ended the year on a high note, tossing five innings, allowing just one earned run, no walks, and four Ks in his Altoona debut.

Wietgrefe fits the Ben Cherington archetype for young left-handed pitchers. He is a soft-tossing pitcher who sits in the low-90s with a low arm slot. He also has above-average control, and uses his ability to locate and his deceptive arm slot to get batters out. 

Khristian Curtis

Khristian Curtis was drafted in 2023 by the Pirates in the 12th round. After putting up solid numbers at Bradenton, including having a strong second half last year, the right-hander entered 2025 as a top 20 prospect in the Pirates' farm system per Baseball America. However, his poor first half, along with additions made at the draft and trade deadline, led to Curtis getting bumped from the top 30.

Curtis had logged 64.1 innings going into the All-Star break, putting up a 4.90 ERA, 4.45 FIP, and 1.46 WHIP. He got just over a quarter of opponents to strike out, with a 25.8% K%, and put up a solid 1.12 HR/9 ratio. But control issues plagued the right-hander. He had an 11.3% BB%, which led to an unimpressive 14.4% K%-BB%. 

But Curtis seemed to get things under control (quite literally) during the second half of the season. His final 46.1 frames saw him pitch to the tune of a 2.53 ERA, 3.58 FIP, and 0.93 WHIP. Curtis continued to get strikeouts at a solid 24% rate, but cut his walk rate well below 10%, coming in at just 7.1%. That upped his K%-BB% to 16.9%. Curtis also became much less home run prone, with an 0.78 HR/9 ratio. Like Wietgrefe, he also made his Double-A debut, pitching two perfect innings out of the bullpen with three Ks.

By the end of the season, Curtis cut his ERA, which once was approaching 5.00, to just under 4.00 at 3.90, while also getting his walk rate below 10% at 9.7%. Curtis sits in the mid-to-upper 90s with a cutter, slider, changeup, and curveball. With how well he pitched this year during the second half, a hot start to the 2026 campaign may elevate him towards a potential Major League debut sometime during the second half of next year.

Nick Cimillo

Nick Cimillo was a 2022 draft pick by the Pirates. He was taken the latest of any prospect on today's list, as he was selected in the 16th round. Cimillo definitely flashed potential in the past, like in 2024 when he had a 182 wRC+ in his first 223 plate appearances of the season at Greensboro, but he only put up about league-average numbers at Double-A Altoona once he was promoted, and he only got worse in the first half of this season.

His first 260 trips to the plate saw him slash .212/.286/.355, with a .297 wOBA and a wRC+ of 85. Cimillo had six home runs with a .143 isolated slugging percentage, which was slightly better than league-average power production. He drew a free pass at a subpar 8.1% rate while only having a roughly league-average 22.3% strikeout percentage.

Cimillo's second half has been nothing short of impressive. Since the All-Star break, the first baseman logged 195 more plate appearances, with a .276/.364/.635 line, .440 wOBA, and 179 wRC+. Cimillo cut down his already solid K% to just 20%, but upped his walk rate to an above-average 11.8% rate. Cimillo left the yard 14 more times, while putting up an isolated slugging percentage of .359. 

Cimillo's second half is going to give the Pirates something to think about this offseason. He is Rule 5 draft eligible, and the Pirates could add him to the 40-man roster to protect him from getting selected. Given how well he did down the home stretch of the season, the Pirates could see him as a candidate to be Spencer Horwitz's right-handed hitting platoon partner for 2026. Either way, while Cimillo may be a first base/designated hitter only prospect, he definitely showed potential with the stick after the break.