Pittsburgh Pirates: One Underrated Prospect At Each Position

Shortstop - Jhonny Severino

Jhonny Severino is one of the newest additions to the farm system. Acquired in the one-for-one Carlos Santana swap with the Milwaukee Brewers, Severino is one of the Pirates' more underrated teenage prospects in the system. He's still a raw talent project, but one with an extremely high offensive ceiling.

Severino had only appeared 52 times at the dish for the Brewers' DSL affiliate, and while he had four home runs and just ten strikeouts, he only drew a single walk. After getting traded, Severino would step to the plate 11 more times, collect three hits (two singles and a homer), only strike out once, and draw another walk.

FanGraphs states that for a hitter Severino's age, his measurable raw power was in elite territory. Severino stands at 6'2", 185 pounds. His swing is built to get under the baseball and hit it a long way. The sample size was small, but he had nearly a 50% fly ball rate for the Brewers' affiliate before the trade. One thing that Severino will need to improve upon is his swing decisions. He tries to expand the strike zone and often chases at pitches. This led to him drawing two walks all season. Of course, it is a small sample size for a kid in just his age-18 season, so there are still some things he'll need to work on.

Defensively, Severino looks like a solid shortstop, and could even be an above average glove at the position. He has a strong arm that will easily play on the left side of the infield. However, Severino is already considered an average-ish runner. Once he fills out, his speed may impede his range at shortstop. Severino already has experience at both second base and third base. Moving Severino to the keystone is a bit of a waste of his powerful arm, however the long term of third base is already solved with Ke'Bryan Hayes and Jared Triolo. That may mean he moves to an outfield corner.

Of course, the Pirates will give Severino every chance to stick at shortstop, and only move him off there if and or when he proves he isn't able to handle it. Severino is only going into his age-19 season and will likely start the year out at the Florida Complex League. Hopefully, we could start to see him improve his hit tool by making better decisions in the box. But the ceiling here is one of the higher ones in the Pirate system.