Pittsburgh Pirates: Minor League Free Agents Who Could Help With Depth

Seth Corry

Seth Corry was a prospect in the Giant farm system. After a strong 2019 season, Corry appeared on some top 100 prospect lists. But a lack of command development, as well as injuries have hurt his prospect stock. Still, on a non-guaranteed deal, it would be worth looking into the left-hander.

Corry’s 2023 season was limited to 34 innings because he was used in an atypical role. Despite making 16 starts, he never pitched more than four innings. We’ll start with the positives. Corry struck out a third of opponents he faced. He had an immense 62.7% ground ball rate, and only allowed three home runs for an 0.79 HR/9. Now here’s the bad news. Corry had an 11.5% walk rate and 5.03 ERA.

But you could chalk up a lot of Corry’s struggles to bad luck. The lefty had a .456 batting average on balls in play. That is not sustainable, whatsoever. Even though he had an above average home run rate, he also had a 17.9% HR/FB ratio. That’s not to say that Corry is the next big thing if he has a .300 BABIP and 12% HR/FB ratio, but he definitely pitched better than his 5.03 ERA suggests.

Corry has stalled out in the Giants’ system, having never made it to Double-A. Some of that is because of injuries. Corry hasn’t pitched more than 70 innings in a year since 2019. Another reason is that his command has not improved. He still dishes out a decent amount of walks. Corry’s stuff still looks good, however. 

It would be interesting to see Corry take up a bullpen role full time. He definitely seems like a potential reliever, with his solid stuff but poor command. I definitely would not mind the Pirates taking a no-risk flier on Corry and slotting him into the Altoona bullpen.