5 former top prospects the Pirates should take chances on to improve depth

Good MLB teams have good depth. Conversely, the Pittsburgh Pirates last season certainly had no such thing. It’s not ideal when your only non-top prospect depth options to toe the rubber midseason are Domingo Germán and Jake Woodford. While neither pitched all that much in 2024, you’d like to see the Pirates have better options to turn to in the event of a short-term injury or roster emergency.

With over 500 players being declared minor league free agents on Nov. 4, the Pirates could easily find some decent depth pieces to stash at Triple-A. There are a handful of former top prospects they could do this with.

The worst-case scenario in adding any of these players is that they don’t appear in the big leagues or appear for just a few games. The best-case scenario is that they show some of the talent that made them top prospects years ago. Either way, it’s better to have players with some upside rather than players like Woodford, Germán, or Jake Lamb.

5 former top prospects who would be great bounce back bets for Pirates at Triple-A

Dominic Smith

Before Pete Alonso and Mark Vientos, the New York Mets’ top first base prospect was Dominic Smith. At one point, he showed a lot of promise, batting .299/.366/.571 with a .390 wOBA and 150 wRC+ in 396 plate appearances between 2019 and 2020. But since then, he has only managed to hit .241/.311/.360 with a .296 wOBA and 87 wRC+ across multiple stops.

2024 was more of the same. Although he briefly became a Boston folk hero, Smith slashed .233/.313/.378 while striking out nearly a quarter of the time (24.5%). Of the few positives, he managed to put up his best walk rate (9.1%) and isolated slugging percentage (.145) since 2019, but it still amounted to an unimpressive .306 wOBA and 93 wRC+ in 307 PAs with the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds.

Smith did have his moments in 2024. He had an .819 OPS, .355 wOBA, and 128 wRC+ between June and July. He also made good contact at an above-average rate with an 89.3 MPH exit velocity and 10.6% barrel rate. Smith can hold his own at first base and has graded out as a positive defender in the eyes of outs above average the last three seasons, combining for +4 OAA.

Smith would serve a similar function as Jake Lamb did this year, providing some extra first base depth at Triple-A. Hopefully, his role would not expand past that, but at worst, he’s a mediocre bench bat, which is fine to have stored away at Triple-A in the event of an injury or an extra roster spot opening up.

James Karinchak

James Karinchack was ranked as the 101st-best prospect by Baseball Prospectus in 2020. The reliever delivered on his promise throughout his first few seasons in the major leagues. From 2020 through 2023, Karinchak had a 3.14 ERA, 3.51 FIP, and 1.20 WHIP in 160.1 innings of work for Cleveland.

Karinchak’s peripherals included some mixed numbers. He had a healthy 36.3% strikeout rate, the sixth-highest among any reliever with 150+ IP between these four seasons. Stuff+ had Karinchak at an elite 127. He also had a respectable 1.01 HR/9, but he was prone to hard contact with a 90.1 MPH exit velo and 8.3% barrel rate. The worst number among his peripherals was his horrid 14.4% walk rate, the third-highest among fellow relievers with 150+ IP.

The 2024 season, however, did not go well for the hard-throwing right-hander. Karinchak only pitched 6.2 innings at Triple-A and did not appear in a major league uniform for the Guardians. He spent most of the season on the 60-day IL with back issues. More worryingly, his lack of velocity was evident. Karinchak averaged 92.1 MPH and topped out at 94 with his four-seamer. For reference, he averaged 95.6 MPH from 2020-2023.

Karinchak has the most major league success of any of the five names on today’s list. That would make him a decent reliever to store at Triple-A. He’d definitely be a better option than any of Brady Feigl, Ben Heller, or Ryder Ryan, given his much better track record.

Francisco Mejia

Francisco Mejia was one of the best prospects in baseball in the late 2010s. He was seen as the catcher of the future for Cleveland, San Diego, and Tampa Bay. Mejia was part of two very high-profile trades: from Cleveland to the Padres in the Brad Hand trade, and then from San Diego to Tampa in the Blake Snell deal.

Mejia had shown some potential in the bigs at the time. In 2019, he had a .754 OPS, .317 wOBA, and 97 wRC+ in 244 plate appearances. Then, in 2021, he put up a .738 OPS, .320 wOBA, and 107 wRC+ in 250 trips to the dish. Unfortunately, that’s been the extent of his success in the major leagues thus far, and he has a sub-90 wRC+ for his career at 86. Considering he was a bat-first catching prospect with -20 framing runs in his career to begin with, that’s not good.

Mejia did not appear in the major leagues in 2024. He spent the entire season with the Milwaukee Brewers’ Triple-A team, where he had some decent numbers, highlighted by a .273/.348/.428 triple-slash, .348 wOBA, and 103 wRC+. Mejia rarely struck out, with a 17.3% K% and 21% whiff rate. He also walked 10.1% of the time. The downside is Mejia did not hit for much power, with just a .154 ISO, 85.3 MPH exit velocity, and 3.3% barrel rate.

Now, the Pirates already have a ton of catching depth. They have four backstops on the 40-man roster. Still, catching is definitely a position where you can never have too much depth, and with Henry Davis likely on the trade block, there may be a need here. Besides, Mejia would be an upgrade over Grant Koch as the team’s Triple-A backstop. It would be a higher upside play as well, given Koch was never considered a top prospect like Mejia.

Brendan McKay

Before Shohei Ohtani, many thought that Brendan McKay would take the baseball world by storm and become the first two-way star the sport has seen in quite some time. Unfortunately, that never came to pass. Injuries have consistently sidelined McKay, but he returned to the mound this past season and had some decent numbers, albeit in a very small sample size.

McKay made his MLB debut in 2019, where he pitched 49 innings and worked to the tune of a 5.14 ERA and 1.41 WHIP, but a much prettier 4.08 FIP. He struck out 25.9% of batters faced with a strong 7.4% walk rate. The southpaw was prone to home runs, however, with a 1.47 HR/9 rate. In his defense, though, every pitcher was prone to allowing home runs in 2019. McKay also had a .773 OPS in 11 plate appearances.

McKay was obviously seen as a long-term cog in the Rays’ rotation and lineup after that brief but strong 2019 performance, but injuries would quickly set in. McKay has barely pitched since his promising debut. From 2020-2023, McKay tossed just 28 innings and did not throw a single pitch in 2020 or 2023. He also gave up his two-way prowess after 2021.

McKay pitched 18 innings at Double-A this year, which is the most he’s tossed since 2019. It’s a microscopic sample size, but he pitched well, for what it’s worth. McKay only allowed two earned runs and struck out 17 opponents. Free passes were essentially a non-issue, as he handed out just a single walk.

Like Sixto Sanchez, McKay is far removed from being the promising young pitcher he was in 2019-2020, but he’s a better option to stick at Triple-A than guys like Germán and Woodford. Plus, it gives the Bucs a lefty depth arm to mix things up.