3 sleeper Pirates prospects nobody is talking about ahead of Opening Day

2025 will be an important season for many Pittsburgh Pirates prospects. Bubba Chandler, the Pirates’ best pitching prospect, will likely play an important role in the team’s Major League rotation. Their top position player prospect, Konnor Griffin, will get to play his first professional games in 2025. 

Fans will be closely watching both during this season, but the Pirates’ system has plenty of other names worth watching, not all of which you can find by looking at a Pirates top prospect list.

The Pirates have sleeper prospects that don’t get very much attention in the farm system, but that could be worth keeping an eye on in 2025.

3 sleeper Pirates prospects nobody is talking about entering 2025 season

3. Connor Wietgrefe

Connor Wietgrefe was one of the Pirates’ more unheralded selections from the 2024 draft. The left-hander was selected from the University of Minnesota as the team’s seventh-round pick. Wietgrefe also made a strong first impression, as he made his professional debut at Single-A late into the season. He pitched 10 innings, only allowing a pair of walks, with 13 Ks and only one earned run allowed.

Wietgrefe also had some quality numbers throughout college. He pitched a total of 122.2 frames, working to a 3.15 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, and a 2.87 K:BB ratio. The lefty walked 8.6% of opponents, but paired that with a 24.5% K%, allowing just five home runs for an 0.37 HR/9 ratio. Wietgrefe also had a strong showing in the Cape Cod League, where he pitched 11 innings, struck out a dozen opponents, and only allowed one walk, home run, and earned run each.

Wietgrefe only sits around 92-93 MPH with his primary pitch: a sinker. It does, however, have solid arm-side break at 15.6 inches (MLB average in 2024 was 14.9 inches). It also has an above-average spin with around 2350 RPM. Notable pitchers like Kevin Ginkel and Jose Berrios have comparable pitches, based on velocity and movement. 

Another pitch he uses that has above-average movement is his changeup. This offering from Wietgrefe sits in the upper 80s, with around 32-33 inches of downward movement (MLB average was 32.4) and 16.5 inches of glove-side run (average was 14.2 last year). You probably weren’t expecting this comparison, but Paul Skenes has an almost identical change in terms of velocity (87.3 MPH), downward movement (32.5 inches), and arm-side break (17.5 inches).

One last pitch Wietgrefe has good movement on is his slider. It comes in around the low-80s, but with 41.3 inches of downward movement (35.6 inches was the MLB average) and 7.4 inches of glove-side break (5.1 inches was the average last year). There isn’t one great comparison, but Luis Garcia and Freddy Peralta are the closest, when looking at sliders.

Wietgrefe is a left-hander with a ton of movement. He was primarily a starter in his final college season, but pitched solely out of the pen in 2023. While the Pirates could stretch him out as a starter as a professional, moving him to the bullpen may end up being the best move. An extra tick or two of velocity would make his pitches that already have above-average movement play up even more.