Pittsburgh Pirates: Injured Prospects Who Can Still Make an Impact in the Future

Hunter Barco

Hunter Barco was the Pirates’ second-round pick in the 2022 draft. The Pirates knew it wouldn’t be until late into the 2023 season that he would make his pro debut. When the Bucs took him, he had just undergone Tommy John surgery in May. He’s technically no longer injured, however, he is on a rehab assignment at the Pirates’ Florida Complex League.

Barco was picked out of the University of Florida. During his final season, Barco was only limited to 50.1 innings but was highly effective. The lefty pitched to the tune of a 2.50 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, and a K:BB ratio clocking in at 6.27. Barco induced a lot of strikeouts while limiting walks. He struck out over a third of opponents with a 34.3% rate but also limited them to a free pass just 5.5% of the time. The only knock on Barco’s game was his HR/9 of 1.07, which was still slightly above the SEC average at the time of 1.15.

Barco wasn’t an insanely hard thrower in college. He typically sits around 90-93 MPH while topping out at 95. Barco’s best pitch is his slider, which has cross-fire action. He also throws a changeup, which projects as a second above-average or better pitch. Barco has above-average command and can hit his spots frequently, but his low arm-slot delivery adds some deception to his stuff.

Barco made his return to baseball on Thursday and excelled in his pro debut. He only pitched two innings and faced seven batters, but he struck out four, didn’t allow a hit, and walked just one. The Pirates’ FCL facility doesn’t have Statcast, so there isn’t any publicly available accurate data about his stuff.

Either way, Barco’s return was promising, to say the least. He’s already 22, so it’s likely the Pirates will try to get him back into games at Low-A or High-A soon. It’s possible he joins his fellow 2022 draftee Thomas Harrington with the Greensboro Grasshoppers once the Pirates feel he’s fully healed.

It’s possible that he makes his debut sometime in 2024 if he stays healthy and pitches well. 2024 will mark his age-23 season, which even with missing most of a year because of Tommy John surgery, is still a reasonable age to debut at.

Malcom Nuñez

Like Barco, Malcom Nuñez technically isn’t injured. However, Nuñez just returned to action and is still in rehab at the time of writing this. Nuñez made his way over from the St. Louis Cardinals in the José Quintana deal. Nunez had a strong finale in 2022 and started to look like he was recapturing his bat in the weeks leading up to his IL placement in late May.

2022 summer treated Nunez well, as he hit .294/.380/.533 with a .396 wOBA, and 136 wRC+ between the Pirate and Cardinal minor league affiliates. Nuñez had a respectable 22% strikeout rate but walked at a 12% pace. Power is Nuñez’s calling card, and he showed that off as he swatted 20 home runs and posted a .239 isolated slugging percentage during his summer stretch. 

In the month of May 2023, prior to landing on the IL, Nuñez was batting .357/.478/.536 with a .456 wOBA, and 163 wRC+. Nunez upped his walk rate to 14.7% while cutting his strikeout down slightly to 21.7%. This was only a 69 plate appearance sample, but Nunez looked like he found his groove after a rough April that saw him end the month with a .490 OPS, .225 wOBA, and 16 wRC+. He’s returned to action at the Pirates’ FCL affiliate, where he’s played two games with eight plate appearances in total. He has racked up two hits and has drawn three walks without striking out yet.

Nuñez came up in the Cardinal system as a third baseman. However, he transitioned over to the other side of the diamond last year. The Pirates haven’t fully given up on Nuñez as a third baseman, however. He has the arm and looked to make some improvements with his glove throughout the off-season. But with Jared Triolo and Ke’Bryan Hayes, getting Nuñez regular reps at third base in the majors will be difficult. 

There’s always risk in guys who need to hit to become successful major leaguers. But so far, Nuñez has hit for the Pirates. The Bucs do have a potential long-term opening at first base, so Nuñez has a path to Major League playing time. He’s only 22, but if he keeps hitting well, you very well could see him as the team's regular first baseman by the end of 2024. He probably already would have played in the Majors had it not been for his injury.

Mike Burrows

Losing Mike Burrows at the start of the 2023 season was a major blow for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Burrows entered the year as one of the Pirates’ top pitching prospects who had made significant gains over the course of the 2022 season. Had it not been for Tommy John surgery, he probably would have made his debut already. But now, Pirates fans and Burrows will have to wait until sometime in 2024 for that.

Burrows pitched to a 4.01 ERA, but a strong 3.29 FIP and 1.21 WHIP in 2022. He carried a strong 28.2% strikeout rate along with a 7.9% walk rate. Burrows has always been great at limiting home runs, and 2022 was no different. The right-hander had a quality 0.76 HR/9 rate. These numbers are a tad inflated though. In his last start of the year, Burrows allowed six earned runs in just 0.2 innings. If this one start doesn’t happen, his ERA goes from 4.01 to 3.46.

The former 11th-round pick has a great fastball and curveball. His fastball sits in the 93-96 MPH range with elite spin, consistently hitting 2500+ RPM. His curveball is one of the best in the Pirate system, as it hits 3000+ RPM. There was no question Burrows had a strong two-pitch selection, but the development of his change-up would always be the sticking point. To his credit, he significantly improved his third pitch and even made it a plus offering. He even started to work on a slider, though his season was cut so short he never got a chance to use it.

Burrows only pitched 6.2 innings before eventually having to undergo surgery in mid-April. Losing him for the 2023 season, and a good portion of 2024 was a large blow, but Burrows will eventually make it back into action. At this point next year, he could be finishing up his rehab with a good chance of making his debut in August.

Max Kranick

Unlike the other names talked about on today’s list, Max Kranick isn’t an obvious prospect who could make a future impact. But Kranick had some real promise at the start of 2022, showing some good velocity. But a Tommy John surgery wiped out the rest of 2022, and most likely all of this year. But that doesn’t mean that Kranick will forever be forgotten.

Kranick’s debut was one to remember as he fired off five perfect innings against the St. Louis Cardinals before a rain delay interrupted what could have been history. The rest of his 2021 season did not go well, as he allowed 27 earned runs, 19 walks, and four home runs over the course of his next 33.2 innings.

Kranick then came out of the gates swinging in 2022. The right-hander added a whole tick of velocity to his four-seam fastball to open the year. But he was only able to pitch five innings in two games before he landed on the injured list and eventually underwent the dreaded surgery. He went from 93-95 to 94-96 MPH, which could be big for his long-term outlook.

While Kranick may never be the ace of the staff, he could become a solid long-relief/swingman if he can maintain the velocity gains he made in 2022. There’s value in a guy who can pitch 2-3 innings out of the bullpen, and make the occasional spot start. Kranick had some promise going into 2022, and it would have been nice to see what he could have done given an extended look, especially after his added velocity. We’ll just have to wait for 2024 to see his return.