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5 Pittsburgh Pirates prospects who are Statcast standouts to start 2025 season

Statcast gives fans a way to closely examine how players are performing down to a pinpoint level. The Pirates have seen these 5 minor leaguers stand out in Statcast tracking.
ByNoah Wright|
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OF Braylon Bishop

Braylon Bishop was one of the Pirates’ many over-slot high school draft picks in 2021. He was one of the youngest players in the draft and was taken in the 14th round. Despite being selected so late, Bishop was a top 100 draft prospect, with MLB Pipeline ranking him at No. 94 and Baseball America ranking him at No. 86. Bishop was praised for his athleticism, given he was a multi-sport athlete in high school, but ended up signing a deal worth just under $270K to pry him away from his commitment to Arkansas.

The first few seasons of Bishop’s career have been hindered by injury, or he has struggled at the plate. 2024 represented his most playing time in one season yet. He appeared in 61 games with 219 plate appearances for the Pirates’ Florida Complex League affiliate, but mostly for A-Ball Bradenton. The performance wasn’t outstanding; he hit just .210/.329/.349 with a .334 wOBA and 101 wRC+. He drew plenty of walks with an 11.9% BB% and used that ability to get on base at a respectable rate to go 17/20 in stolen base attempts. However, he only had a .140 ISO and struck out 30.6% of the time.

Thankfully, Bishop is off to a fine start to the 2025 season. He already has seven hits in his first 33 plate appearances. Of those seven knocks, one is a home run, and another is a double. He has only gone down on strikes six times, but has combated that with seven walks. Bishop has made two stolen base attempts and was successful both times. Overall, he is slashing .286/.455/.440 with a 152 wRC+.

Bishop’s exit velocity is sitting at an impressive 92.9 MPH. He’s also hitting the ball in the air far more often with an 18-degree launch angle. However, the young outfielder is still struggling with swing and miss. His whiff rate is still sitting at 31.7%. But that is an improvement over last season at Bradenton. Overall, there are 77 A-Ball hitters who have seen at least 100 pitches. Bishop's .390 xwOBA is the 11th best in the league, while his exit velocity is the 10th best.

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