Latest breakout just earned Pirates another Top 100 prospect (and he's not a pitcher)

The Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t had many things go right for them this season, but one thing that is a massive positive is the progress of the position player prospects in their farm system. Konnor Griffin has risen to be the number one prospect in all of baseball, and the Pirates just saw another position player join MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospect list, as Edward Florentino became the Pirates’ second top 100 offensive representative this week.

Florentino showed some early signs of promise at the Dominican Summer League in 2024, when he put up a .890 OPS, .445 wOBA, and 149 wRC+ over 190 plate appearances. He went yard five times with an isolated slugging percentage of .199. The young outfielder drew walks at a higher rate than how often he went down on strikes, with a 20% BB% and an 18.9% K%.

That strong start to his career earned him a promotion to the Florida Complex League to kick off 2025. Florentino decimated pitching at the next level, turning in a .347/.442/.642 triple-slash in 113 plate appearances. He went yard a half-dozen times, leading to an isolated slugging percentage just under .300 at .295. Florentino continued to walk at a high rate, with a 14.2% K%, and put up a sub-20% K% at 19.5%. His wOBA came in at .502, while his wRC+ sat at an impressive 193 clip.

Edward Florentino is making himself one of the Pirates' best prospects.

It was evident that he deserved a promotion to A-Ball at this point. Florentino played his first game for Bradenton on June 21 and has continued to be a force to be reckoned with at the dish. He is hitting .265/.384/.513 with a .420 wOBA and 147 wRC+ through his first 230 plate appearances at A-Ball. He is striking out at a 22.2% rate, but drawing plenty of free passes, with a 14% BB%. Florentino has continued to hit for a ton of power, with 10 home runs and a .249 isolated slugging percentage. His baserunning has also been excellent, as he's gone 29-for-33 in stolen base attempts.

When you look at some of the numbers under the hood, you’ll be shocked by what you see. Florentino is whiffing at a minuscule rate of 16.3%. He is combining that with outstanding raw power, with an 89.3 MPH exit velocity and 8.8% barrel rate. Among all A-Ball hitters with at least 200 trips to the dish, only 10 have a whiff rate under 20%. Of those ten, only two have an exit velocity over 88 MPH and a barrel rate of at least 8%: Florentino and Toronto Blue Jays prospect Sam Shaw.

The most impressive thing about all of this is that Florentino is still very young. He is somehow just 18, and won’t turn 19 until November. He is the eighth-youngest player at A-Ball who has at least 200 plate appearances. There are only 71 players who had 200+ PA’s at A-Ball this year while being younger than 20. Florentino has the fifth-best OPS, wOBA, and the sixth-best wRC+ among them.

All of that makes it obvious why Florentino is on MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospect list. They are very bullish on his abilities, as he received average or better projections on all five of his tools. Pipeline sees him as a potential power/speed threat, with a 55-grade for both his power and run abilities. With how little he is whiffing at A-Ball, we could very well see his hit tool also get bumped up to an above-average level (it currently projects as a 55-grade tool on the 20-to-80 scale).

It only seemed like a matter of time until we saw Edward Florentino join top 100 prospect lists. The Pirates have been very bold with Konnor Griffin’s movement through their system. With how good Florentino has been, they could do something similar and move him up through the organization quickly. He’s definitely shown the talent to be one of the Pirates’ best prospects.