Five Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects People Have Forgotten About

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a ton of highly-rated prospects, but these five have become somewhat forgotten.

The Pittsburgh Pirates farm system has plenty of popular names. Henry Davis was the first overall selection in the 2021 draft. Termarr Johnson was considered arguably the best hitter in the 2022 draft. Endy Rodriguez has skyrocketed up prospect boards since the Bucs acquired him, and both Nick Gonzales and Quinn Priester are two more former first-rounders. 

But this just scratches the surface of the prospects in the Pirate system. The Pirate farm is very deep, and they are set up for potentially a long-term, bright future. It's easy to forget about some pretty decent prospects when there are so many of them, and today, I want to talk about a few guys that may have slipped fans' minds.

RHP Hung-Leng Chang

Hung-Leng Chang was one of Pittsburgh's higher-paid international signees last offseason. He was overshadowed by the likes of Yordany De Los Santos and Tony Blanco Jr., both of whom were considered top 15 international prospects. The Pirates were the only team to land two top international prospects of De Los Santos' and Blanco Jr.'s caliber, so Chang slipped under the radar.

Despite that, Chang made a nice first impression. In 22.2 innings with the Pirate Florida Complex League affiliate, Chang struck out 27.8% of the batters he faced while only allowing 8.2% to reach via free pass. He had a 48.3% ground ball rate and didn't allow a single home run. Chang had a mediocre 4.76 ERA but was a victim of bad luck as he had a .355 batting average on balls in play.

Chang is a lanky teenager. He has a 6'3", 160-pound frame. But that also means he has some projectability. He only just turned 21 back in October. Chang isn't a very hard thrower, as he only averages out in the low-90s, but given his physical projectability, there's room for some added velocity. He could end up working close to the 92-95 MPH range by the time he approaches major league readiness. 

Chang is an advanced arm, and it will be interesting to see how he performs in a full season. As of right now, he's one of, if not the Pirates best-unranked pitching prospect. There's a lot to like about Chang, despite getting less attention than many of his fellow prospects and teammates.

Outfielder Hudson Head

Hudson Head was acquired in the Joe Musgrove trade. He was considered a better prospect than Endy Rodriguez at the time of the deal. Head was a top high school outfielder who could have gone in the mid-second round rather than in the third round. But scouts were not able to get an accurate reading on the outfielder because his time was split between football and baseball at the time. 

His first season was the definition of a three-true-outcomes campaign. While he hit .213 and struck out 31.6% of the time, he drew walks nearly 16% of the time with an isolated slugging percentage of .181, leading to an above-average year with the bat. 2022 was yet another interesting season.

Head posted slightly above average numbers, batting .234/.343/.387 with a .339 wOBA and 104 wRC+. Head drew walks at an 11.2% pace, but once again struck out a ton, this time with a 33.6% strikeout rate. His power also trended in the wrong direction as his ISO fell to .153. Overall, while he had playable numbers, they were still far from quality. But of the few positives, he did have a strong second half.

From the outset of the All-Star Break, Head batted .266/.364/.484 with a .380 wOBA and 130 wRC+. During that time, he walked more often with a 13.3% BB% and struck out less with a 30.1% strikeout rate. Plus, he hit for good power as his isolated slugging percentage rose to over .200 at .218. The strikeouts are still highly worrying, but at the very least, he had a robust later half of the season. Plus he whittled his strikeout rate down during each month of the season.

Head is a plus runner who also can play a decent center field. If Head can continue his second half and keep cutting down on the strikeouts, he could start making significant progress. Double-A will be the real test for Head next season. But if the progress continues and he carries over his strong second half, Head could get some real prospect notoriety.

RHP Ricky DeVito

The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Ricky DeVito in the Richard Rodríguez trade. DeVito was an eighth-round pick by the Atlanta Braves in the 2019 draft. After a solid debut in 2019, DeVito made his way to High-A where he got off to a good start. However, he was injured for most of the season and was limited to just 20.1 innings. DeVito was somewhat of an unknown quantity given his little professional playing time, and while there were some positives, there certainly were some negatives.

Let's first look at the good news. DeVito struck out 27.7% of the batters he faced. He also had a solid 0.77 HR/9 rate. DeVito was a ground ball machine, inducing grounders at a 54.7% rate. Among minor leaguers with 70+ IP, he had the 43rd-highest ground ball rate. DeVito displayed an elite splitter along with a quality slider. His velocity also sat in the low-to-mid-90s. 

Now here's the bad news. While DeVito displayed quality stuff, he also walked 13.5% of the batters he faced. With a .333 batting average on balls in play, good batted ball luck also wasn't on DeVito's side. Overall, he owned a 5.40 ERA, 4.69 FIP, and 1.53 WHIP. Command has never been one of DeVito's strong suits.

DeVito has quick arm action but has changed up his motion a decent bit since college. It's a much cleaner movement that leads to more consistency with his front foot and delivery. Just watch a video of his time at Seton Hall and last year with Greensboro, and you'll notice a fair difference.

Next year will be DeVito's age-24 campaign. There's definitely some promise here. He has two plus-plus offerings between his splitter and slider and an above-average fastball. But there's a laundry list of players whose stuff has far exceeded their ability to command the ball and paid dearly for it. 

RHP Jared Jones

Going into the season, Jared Jones was considered one of the organization's higher-end pitching prospects. With an extremely high ceiling and a solid season at Bradenton, Jones was trending upward at the end of 2021. Of course, there was Quinn Priester and Roansy Contreras, but Jones was arguably their third or fourth-best hurler. But with Luis Ortiz's emergence and Bubba Chandler and Anthony Solometo flashing a ton of potential at Bradenton last season, Jones has not been given the same amount of love this past year.

But the 2022 season was not kind to Jones. In 122.2 innings at Greensboro, Jones owned a 4.62 ERA, 4.85 FIP, and 1.35 WHIP. There were some positives as Jones cut his walk rate down below 10% to 9.6% while having a solid 26.7% strikeout rate. However, his HR/9 sat at 1.39, and his ground ball rate had decreased from 43.5% to just 38.7%.

There's no way to put that Jones had a good season, but in the context of Greensboro and the rest of the league, Jones didn't pitch terribly. The league average ERA was 4.48, and the league average WHIP was 1.38. In most settings, a mid-4.00 ERA and 1.35+ WHIP is bad, but in the context of the South Atlantic League, it would be average. 

There is still a lot to like about Jared Jones. He still runs it up into the high-90s, and he still has a great slider, above-average curveball, and solid changeup. He is still only 21 years old with an improving walk rate, and he still has one of the highest ceilings among Pirate pitching prospects. I'd keep an eye on Jones next season, as he's arguably the Pirates' biggest breakout prospect candidate that's already played a decent amount.