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

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.