Pittsburgh Pirates: Minor Leaguers Who Could Get Promoted Next

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been more aggressive with moving prospects up the system recently, so who could be the next prospect to get moved up?

It’s that time of the year when the Pittsburgh Pirates start making promotions. So far this month, Henry Davis and Carmen Mlodzinski have made their big league debuts. Anthony Solometo, Thomas Harrington, Kyle Nicolas, and Jared Jones have all gotten moved to the next level of the minor leagues.

However, the Pirates still have a handful of other minor leaguers who are pushing for a bump to the next level. They’re likely far from done moving players up the pipeline. Many prospects you see in the lower levels of the minor leagues could end the season at an upper level. Short-season prospects may soon get that call to Bradenton.

Note that I am only looking at minor league promotions, not major league promotions. While Triple-A has some players who deserve a major league promotion, I am just focusing on prospects moving to the next level of the minor leagues.

Tsung-Che Cheng

There’s no player more deserving of a promotion to the next level of the minors than Tsung-Che Cheng. Cheng produced quality results in both 2021 and 2022. While Cheng had above-average expectations going into the 2023 season, he’s blown all expectations out of the water and then some.

Cheng is batting .314/.411/.589 through 246 plate appearances. Cheng has always been able to reach base at a high rate, and 2023 has been no different. But a .411 OBP is a 35-point uptick from 2022. His 17.5% strikeout rate, and 13.8% walk rate are both strong (especially his walk rate). He has a .444 wOBA and 169 wRC+ on the season. But the real interesting part of Cheng’s season has been his power.

Cheng isn’t known to be a power hitter. He only had a .148 isolated slugging percentage last season but now sits at .275. Cheng has nine home runs, three more than in 2022, and in 212 fewer plate appearances. He also has a dozen doubles and a shocking nine triples. Cheng currently leads all minor league players in triples.

Speed is a major part of Cheng’s game, and he’s swiped 13 bags so far this year. He’s been ultra-aggressive on the base paths this year, attempting 22 total stolen bases. He’s gotten caught a decent amount of times this year, which is abnormal considering his 84.6% success rate last season.

But keep in mind that Cheng is playing in a hitter-friendly environment. The league average slugging percentage in the South Atlantic League is .381, while the league average slugging percentage in the Florida State League in 2022 was .361, twenty points lower. Plus, Greensboro is known as an extremely hitter-friendly park, which has also helped him out.

But Cheng is hitting far fewer ground balls, is still keeping his strikeouts under wraps, and is walking at an elite rate. Sure, he might not continue to have an isolated slugging percentage over .275, but he gets on base, racks up hits, and gets himself into scoring position. He could end up being a better Ji Hwan Bae.

Braxton Ashcraft

Braxton Ashcraft’s promotion to Altoona seems overdue now. Ashcraft was a former second-round pick in 2018. However, he pitched sparsely from 2020 through 2022. COVID knocked out his 2020 season, and he only managed to fit 38.2 innings into 2021 before undergoing Tommy John surgery, which also knocked him out for 2022. Now that he’s back in action, he looks back to full strength and has already to taken on the next level of the minor leagues.

Ashcraft owns a 3.03 ERA, 3.46 FIP, and 1.16 WHIP through 36.2 innings. He’s demonstrated a strong ability to strike out batters without letting them reach via free pass. Ashcraft’s strikeout rate sits just under 30% at 29.9% while also having a phenomenal 4.5% walk rate. Among all minor leaguers with at least 30 frames, Ashcraft has the 17th-best K:BB ratio at 6.67.

However, home runs have come back to bite Ashcraft on more than one occasion. He has a 1.10 HR/9 rate. But that’s mainly because of his 13.8% HR/FB ratio at Greensboro. Despite having a FIP over 4.00 at High-A, his xFIP, which I think is best used to adjust for extreme conditions (such as a very hitter-friendly park), pins him at 3.64.

Ashcraft throws a four-seamer that could be one of the better fastballs in the system. He was dialing it up into the upper-90s early in the year with a lot of spin (Bradenton has publicly available pitch tracking data, but Greensboro does not). But his fastball isn’t his only offering. He also throws a curveball, slider, and changeup. His slider is his second-best offering, and his curveball also averages out with high-end spin. His change-up is a rarely used pitch, however.

Ashcraft’s strong start to the season has been a fun comeback story to watch. But he is now 23 and pitching well. This is not only a comeback season for him but also a breakout season. Ashcraft deserves to join the starting rotation in Altoona.

Hung-Leng Chang

Hung-Leng Chang is the only short-season player we’ll examine today. The Pirates signed Chang out of Taiwan in the 2021-2022 offseason. Chang was one of their more expensive signings, inking a signing bonus of $750,000.

It’s a surprise he didn’t start 2023 at Bradenton, given his age and how well he performed last season at the Florida Complex League, but now he’s making it hard for the Pirates to keep him there any longer.

Last season, Chang had a 4.76 ERA and 1.32 WHIP but an outstanding 2.50 FIP. Chang was burned by bad batted ball luck, with a .355 batting average on balls in play. Chang struck out 27.8% of his opponents while managing a solid 8.2% walk rate. His 48.3% ground ball rate helped him allow zero home runs in 22.2 innings.

Chang has pitched eight innings, allowing three earned runs. But he’s struck out nine more batters while only allowing one free pass. It’s now been 32.2 straight innings of not allowing a home run for Chang. He’s carrying roughly the same ground ball rate at 47.6%, but once again, bad batted ball luck has hurt him with a .381 BAbip (keep in mind this is less than ten innings).

Chang is 21 and only throws around 90-92 MPH and topping out at 94. However, the Pirates loved his advanced feel for pitching. He also has some room for growth and added velocity. Chang checks in at 6’3”, 160 pounds. Some added muscle could help him gain an extra tick or two of velocity.