5 Pittsburgh Pirates prospects who are turning their seasons around

Po-Yu Chen

Po-Yu Chen entered the year as an underrated pitching prospect. He was overshadowed by the likes of Bubba Chandler, Anthony Solometo, and Thomas Harrington, all of whom were in the same starting five. Chen looked completely lost on the mound as he headed into the second half of May, but he’s seemingly put things back on track.

Chen’s first 35.1 innings yielded a 6.11 ERA, 5.87 FIP, and 1.47 WHIP. While he had a solid 8% walk rate, he was almost never striking out batters with a 10.5% K%. That was a massive drop from his 24.5% K% at the end of last year at Greensboro. Along with that, he was somewhat susceptible to home runs; Chen had a 1.27 HR/9.

But since his outing on May 21, it’s been smooth sailing for the Taiwanese right-hander. His last 40.2 innings have seen him work to the tune of a 2.88 ERA, 4.30 FIP, and 1.20 WHIP. Chen is still not striking out a ton of batters, but his 18.7% K% is a massive improvement from what he had been putting up at the start of the year. He still has a solid 8.4% walk rate, but he’s been much better at limiting home runs. He’s cut his HR/9 down by nearly half to 0.66.

Chen is still getting overshadowed, as both Chandler and Harrington have had extremely good seasons, but Altoona has many good pitchers to watch, and Chen is one of them. He’s on the younger side, as he’s only 22, but he’s someone to keep an eye on as the season progresses. He’s put up an ERA under 3.00 over the last month and could be yet another future rotation option for the Bucs.