3 biggest Pittsburgh Pirates prospect breakouts of 2024

Hunter Barco

Hunter Barco was the Pirates’ 2022 second-round pick. The lefty had undergone Tommy John surgery in his final college season, which kept him out for the rest of ‘22 and the first half of 2023. While Barco returned in the second half, he was kept to a very limited workload, but pitched well throughout the small sample size.

But now in 2024, Barco has gotten the chance to get an extended look, and he’s fully taken advantage of it. Barco opened the year at Greensboro, where he pitched 62 innings with a 3.34 ERA, 3.48 FIP, and 1.10 WHIP. Barco struck out a ton with a 30.4% K%, and coupled that with a quality 8.7% walk rate. He also kept home runs to a minimum with an 0.73 HR/9 rate. Barco only pitched four innings at Altoona prior to his injury, but struck out six, didn’t allow a walk, and only allowed one earned run to score before landing on the IL. 

Barco has been showing a ton of promise with his overall stuff. He’s throwing harder than he was last year, sitting 92-95 MPH. With his above-average command and low arm slot, that velocity will play. Barco also tosses a slider, changeup, and splitter. 

Barco could start the 2025 season at Triple-A Indy. He is already 23 and will be 24 by mid-December. That puts him on pace to make his MLB debut sometime next year. Barco’s breakout makes the already large amount of young and talented pitching in the system even deeper.