4 Pirates prospects who possess the best position player tools in the farm system

Power: Tony Blanco Jr.

Power can be evaluated a few different ways. It can represent a player's ability to hit home runs and get extra-base hits, or it could reflect a player's raw power ability, which can be evaluated through stats like exit velocity, barrel rate, and home run distance. Either way, no prospect in the Pirates’ system exudes the power potential that Tony Blanco Jr. does. The Pirates signed the outfielder/first base prospect in the 2021-2022 offseason and he was one of the top international signees of his class. Very few prospects throughout all of the minor leagues have the potential to hit bombs like Blanco does.

That’s because, at just 19 years old, Blanco Jr. is listed at 6’7”, 245 pounds. He is nearly the same height as New York Yankees’ slugger and former MVP Giancarlo Stanton, who is the same weight but just one inch shorter. Blanco Jr. is massive, to put it lightly. He batted .305/.385/.505 with a 138 wRC+ in 109 plate appearances for the Pirates’ Florida Complex League this season.

Blanco has the potential to lead MLB in home runs someday, but he will definitely need to make enough contact to do so. Blanco Jr. struck out 28.4% of the time this year. Granted, that was an improvement over the 39.2% strikeout rate he carried throughout 176 plate appearances in the Dominican Summer League, but it's still a ghastly number. His size leads to a very large strike zone, and he has a long swing.

Jhonny Severino also deserves an honorable mention in the power category. He displayed a lot of potential this year. But, given Blanco’s insane size and raw power already, he just edges out Severino for this position on this list heading towards 2025.