Pittsburgh Pirates: Best Performing Unranked Prospects

Tres Gonzalez

Tres Gonzalez was recently rewarded for his outstanding performance at Bradenton with an early-season promotion to Greensboro. Even though power is not Gonzalez's specialty, he's done nothing but rack up hits, draw walks, and get on base since the Pirates drafted him out of Georgia Tech in the fifth round of the 2022 draft.

Before his bump to High-A, Gonzalez was batting .299/.427/.403 through 82 plate appearances for the Marauders. Gonzalez is an on-base machine. Not only did he have 20 total hits and had the 44th-highest qualified batting average at Low-A, he drew a walk in 18.3% of his plate appearances. That was the 30th highest walk rate. Overall, he was one of 38 total qualified batters who had an OBP over .420 at his level. In his first game at Greensboro, he hit a second home run.

Avoiding strikeouts is another one of Gonzalez's specialties. He's only gone down on strike three in 11 of his trips to the dish. That's good for a strikeout rate of just 13.4%. Like his OBP, batting average, and walk rate, this was another statistic in which Gonzalez was among the best. He ranked 21st among all Low-A hitters who had enough plate appearances to qualify. 

Gonzalez has used that ability to get on base to its fullest advantage. He swiped six bags without getting caught. He's only gotten caught once in 14 attempts in his pro career. He was one of five total players who attempted at least six steals without getting caught once. It's a little surprising to see how aggressive Gonzalez has been on the base paths. Sure, he was never considered slow and actually quite fast, but he was not this prolific of a base stealer in college. He only took 11 bases in 14 attempts during 129 college games. He's attempted the same amount of stolen bases but in 85 fewer contests.

The one knock on him is he has no power. He probably has 30-grade raw power, and he's hit just two home runs this year (none last year). But he does have four doubles and sprays line drives all over the field. He has a 29.6% line drive rate, which helps make up for the lack of power he brings to the plate. Gonzalez is probably my favorite unranked position player prospect.

Sean Sullivan

If Gonzalez is my favorite unranked position player prospect, then Sean Sullivan is my favorite unranked pitching prospect. Promoting Sullivan to Altoona may have looked like an unwise move to start the season. The Pirates' 8th-round pick in 2021 had a 4.68 ERA, 5.47 FIP, and 1.36 WHIP at Greensboro in 2022. But he produced an above-average strikeout rate (25.8%) and walk rate (8.3%) and was hampered by a 1.92 HR/9. But that did come with an unsustainable 26.7% home run to fly ball ratio.

Now in his age-22 season, Sullivan has been nothing but dominant through his first three outings for the Curve. He's only pitched 11.2 innings, but he's yet to allow an earned run. His strikeout rate comes in at 25.5%, and (more promisingly) he has yet to give up a home run. This is a tad surprising given that his fly ball rate is currently 52.3%, compared to just 29.9% last season. Because of that, his xFIP (expected FIP) comes in at 4.01. 

While 4.01 isn't a major uptick from 3.88, his major increase in fly balls could be caused by a small sample size. His ground ball rate, for comparison, is 40%, just a 1.3% decrease from 2022. The only statistic of his that got worse was his walk rate, which went from 8.3% to 10.6%. But again, let's give him a little more time to see if he can improve his control.

Sullivan is certainly flying under the radar when you talk about the Pirates' pitching prospects. He's on track to eventually making it to Triple-A Indy later this year, and if he keeps performing anything like he has for the first month of the season, you might even see him in the big leagues. That may depend on other prospects, but still a promising development nonetheless.

Dominic Perachi

Dominic Perachi was the Pirates' 11th round pick. The southpaw was selected out of Salve Regina University, which is a division three NCAA program. While you typically don't see D3 prospects receive much recognition, Perachi had some major gains in his last season, which helped him get drafted by the Bucs.

Perachi made his professional debut this year, and he's done admirably well. It's only been 15.2 innings, but he has a 2.87 ERA, has yet to allow a home run, and has a quality 25.3% strikeout rate. Perachi has run into some bad luck, which his mediocre walk rate has only compounded to start the season.

Perachi has an 11.3% walk rate at the time of writing this, and batters have a .404 batting average on balls in play. It's been a mix of bloop hits and walks that have brought Perachi down. Also, it's worth adding context to his walk rate. While he has given up eight walks, half of those came in his third start of the year. 

Keep in mind that Perachi is the same age as Sullivan. That doesn't mean I think that Perachi should outright skip Greensboro and be thrown straight into action at Altoona, but a decent month of May could earn him a promotion to High-A. 

Mike Jarvis

At the time when the Pirates drafted Mike Jarvis, I made the comparison to Adam Frazier. There were many similarities between the two, between college numbers, hitting profile, build, and round drafted in. Although Jarvis struggled in 2022, his first extended look against pro pitchers, he's certainly gotten off to a good start this year.

Jarvis is currently slashing .243/.361/.586 with a .415 wOBA and 142 wRC+ for Greensboro. The utility man has shown both power and speed, swatting six home runs and posting a .343 isolated slugging percentage while also swiping eight bases in eight attempts. He's also walked at a 12% rate with a strikeout rate just north of 20% at 19.3%.

One could make the case that Jarvis hasn't had the best of luck. He has a .229 batting average on balls in play. While he only had a career BABIP of .266 in 2021-2022, there is some bad batted-ball luck so far on Jarvis' end, especially considering he's had a 24.1% line drive rate.

Jarvis is an interesting minor leaguer, given his versatility. He's seen playing time at second base, third base, and shortstop, as well as right field so far this year. The only positions he has yet to play as a professional baseball player are catcher, first base, and pitcher. Again, that harkens back to the Adam Frazier comparison.

It wouldn't surprise me if Jarvis was promoted next week. He'll turn 25 in about a week, and Double-A is where you start to see a separation between the men and the boys. The Pirates need to see if they have anything in Jarvis, and he's definitely earned his promotion to Altoona. If he is the real deal, then they might have a decent super-utility man on their hands.