Pittsburgh Pirates: 3 Internal Moves That Need to Be Made to Help in NL Central Race

3. Promote Quinn Priester

Quinn Priester is one of the top pitching prospects that the Pittsburgh Pirates have in their system and he has been proving it these past 2 months in Triple-A. After a very rough month of April where he posted a 7.78 ERA in 5 starts, Priester has completely turned it around.

In May, he made 5 starts and had a combined 2.81 ERA in 25.2 innings pitched. He struck out 22 batters which is not a lot, but Priester is considered more of a ground ball pitcher, so this makes sense. He has produced a ground ball 52.5% of the time this season. So far in June, Priester has made 3 starts where is had a combined 2.55 ERA in 17.2 innings pitched. He has 15 strikouts this month and has held opponent batting averages to just .239. His next start needs to be against the Chicago Cubs at Home in PNC Park.

By promoting Priester, I think it could help in more than just one way. If Osvaldo Bido continues to pitch well, the Pirates could either leave him in the rotation and move Luis Ortiz to the bullpen or vise versa and move Bido to the pen and keep Ortiz in the rotation. Either way, this will give more options to Derek Shelton when calling on arms in late game situations.

Bido made his first major league start for the Pirates on Wednesday and showed he could get guys out in crucial moments. He pitched 4 innings only allowing 1 run with 6 strike outs. That kind of arm is welcome even if moved to the bullpen. With these 3 moves and possibly even adding another piece during the deadline, it would greatly increase the Pittsburgh Pirates chances on winning this weak division. They have never won the NL Central, why not go for it now?