Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: 2023 Minor League Season Statistical Leaders

Let's take a look at the minor league statistical leaders in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system from this past minor league season

The minor leagues has been a focus for the Pittsburgh Pirates for a few years now. With them being in a rebuild, how prospects and other minor leaguers are performing will be important to the Pirates' future. So let's take a look at the best-performing minor league players from this past season.

There are many statistical ways to evaluate players, but we will only look at rate statistics today. For batters, this includes batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, isolated slugging, OPS, wOBA, strikeout rate, walk rate, and wRC+. For the pitchers, we will be using ERA, FIP, WHIP, strikeout rate, walk rate, and xFIP, as well as opponent batting average and most innings pitched.

I am also trying to keep this to players who played most, if not all, of their season at a full-season level. The minimum plate appearances I am looking for is 300. For the starting pitchers, I am requiring at least a dozen starts. So, with that established, let's get into our first player.

(For those interested, you can go back and look at the statical leaders in both the 2021 and 2022 seasons with those two links)

Batting average, Slugging Percentage, OPS, Strikeout Rate (Batter) - Miguel Andújar

Miguel Andujar was acquired from the New York Yankees late into the 2022 season. A former Rookie of the Year finalist, Andujar has battled countless injuries over the past five years. The corner outfielder spent most of his season at Triple-A Indianapolis, where he ranked as one of the Pirates' best minor league hitters.

Through 465 plate appearances, Andujar batted .338/.404/.536. Of the three triple-slash numbers, Andujar led Pirates minor league hitters in two of the three, that being batting average and slugging percentage. He also had the best OPS (on-base plus slugging). Andujar struck out at an 11.8% rate, which was another best among Pirates minor league players. Overall, he had a strong .411 wOBA and 135 wRC+.

Andujar's outstanding season at Triple-A Indy earned him another look in the Majors for the Bucs in September. He only appeared in 54 plate appearances but had 16 hits, including eight extra-base hits (six doubles, two homers), walked four times, and only struck out in eight trips to the plate. He also posted a hard-hit rate above 50% at 51.1%.

Andujar's outstanding season at Triple-A, as well as his strong end to the 2023 campaign, puts him in contention for a bench spot next year. He'll likely compete with Connor Joe for the 1B/LF/RF role. While Andujar has yet to play any first base in the Majors, the Pirates put him at the corner infield position for 257.1 innings at Triple-A this year. Andujar has no options left like Joe, which gives him a potential edge if it comes down to these two.

wRC+, wOBA, Isolated Slugging Percentage - Jack Brannigan

Jack Brannigan was the Pirates' third-round draft pick in 2022. He won't be the last '22 draft pick we will mention today, and you couldn't have asked for a better first extended look against pro pitching than what Brannigan turned in. The infielder hit and hit very well between Bradenton and Greensboro this past season.

Brannigan finished the year with a .275/.390/.524 triple-slash, a .415 wOBA, and 146 wRC+ through 309 plate appearances. Weighted runs created plus, or wRC+ for short, is a stat based on wOBA (weighted on-base average) and adjusted for park factors and league run environment. 100 is always average, 101 is 1% above average, 99 is 1% below average, and so on. It's one of the best new-age statistics, and Jack Brannigan led all Pirates minor leaguers in both wOBA and wRC+.

The other statistic that Brannigan led Pirates' minor leaguers in was isolated slugging percentage, which is simply just slugging percentage minus batting average. Brannigan also walked at an elite 14.4% rate but struck out in 29.9% of his plate appearances. Along with providing plus power, Brannigan was a threat on the base paths, swiping 23 in 27 attempts.

Brannigan is an outstanding defensive third baseman. He was so good with the glove the Pirates got him playing time at both second base and shortstop. He played short more often than the hot corner once he got to Greensboro. Brannigan has one of the best arms among the Pirates' position players. He was drafted as a two-way player and threw upper-90s fastballs in college, so making the deepest throws from third and short will likely be easy for him.

Brannigan will likely get his season kicked off at Altoona next year. We will see if the Pirates continue to stick him at shortstop more often than third base. He can play the position, but with so many other shortstops in the system, they might try him elsewhere. His arm would play exceptionally well in the outfield if they also decided to go that route. But Brannigan showed off he has one of the highest offensive ceilings in the Pirates' system by leading all of the franchise's current minor leagues in some of the most important stats.

ERA, FIP, WHIP, K:BB ratio, Strikeout Rate, Walk Rate, xFIP - Braxton Ashcraft

There were just two noteworthy statistics that Ashcraft didn't lead all Pittsburgh Pirates minor league starting pitchers in. We'll get into that in a minute, but let's appreciate Braxton Ashcraft's outstanding rebound season after barely playing at all in any of the last three years.

Ashcraft finished off his 2023 season with a 2.39 ERA, 2.85 FIP, and 1.08 WHIP. The former second-round pick led all Pirates in these three stats. Ashcraft had an outstanding 29.6% strikeout rate, as well as a 5.2% walk rate, marking two more stats Ashcraft led Pirates' minor leaguers in. Leading Pirates minor leaguers in K% and BB% also means he led them in K:BB ratio at 5.73. xFIP (expected fielding independent pitching) estimates how good a pitcher was if they had a league average HR/FB ratio. At 3.28, Ashcraft led all Pirates once again.

Ashcraft's season wasn't just great in terms of the Pirates' organization. It was a great season throughout all of minor league baseball. Among pitchers with at least 12 starts, Ashcraft had the 5th-best FIP, the 9th-best ERA, and the 7th-highest K:BB ratio. Ashcraft also ranked top 30 in WHIP (29th), walk rate (20th), and xFIP (16th).

There were only two stats that Ashcraft did not lead the Pirates' minor league starters in. That was home runs per nine innings and batting average against. Even though he did not lead the Pirates' minor leaguers in these two categories, he was still very good with a 0.68 HR/9 rate and an opponent batting average of .229.

But there was one thing worth mentioning, and something that almost made me leave him off of today's list. That was his innings count. Ashcraft only pitched 52.2 innings despite starting 19 games. Ashcraft pitched at most four innings in any outing. The Pirates used Ashcraft in an untraditional way because he barely pitched from 2021-2022. However, he did reach the minimum requirements despite his atypical usage.

I, for one, hope Ashcraft is used in a more regular starting pitching role moving forward. If he can maintain the upper-90s fastball he displayed last year for Altoona across five, six, maybe even seven innings, Ashcraft may end up being one of the Pirates' most under-the-radar pitching prospects.

Batting Average Against - J.P. Massey

Here is the one of the only pitchers who led Pirate minor league starters in another rate statistic whose name isn't Braxton Ashcraft. That's fellow 2022 draft class member J.P. Massey. Massey had a lot of ups and downs during the 2023 season but overall was a promising year after coming off a rough final season in college.

Massey's season started at Bradenton, where he pitched to a 3.28 ERA, 4.31 FIP, and 1.32 WHIP. Massey had a 27.1% strikeout rate and 0.73 HR/9 but a walk rate clocking in at 11.4%. The Pirates used Massey out of the bullpen twice, and in both times, he struggled. Despite these two appearances making up just 4.2 of his 49.1 innings pitched, they made up six of the 18 earned runs he allowed. If you only look at his starts, Massey had an even better 2.42.

After making the Futures Game, the right-hander was promoted to Greensboro, where he struggled to a 4.65 ERA, 5.54 FIP, and 1.35 WHIP. His strikeout rate dipped to 19.4% while his walk rate ballooned to 17.4%, though his home run rate was still solid at 0.87. Granted, of his nine games at Greensboro, only two resulted in more than two earned runs allowed. These two games made up over 50% of his earned runs allowed, even though they made up less than a quarter of the innings he pitched.

Massey's season was cut short, as the Pirates placed him on the developmental list late into August. This was also his second stint on the developmental list. This doesn't necessarily mean that he was injured, but the Pirates opted to let him rest a few times in the second half of the season. But even though his season was cut short, Massey still held opposing batters to just a .207 batting average against him, which was the best among Pirates minor league pitchers.

He also had a hefty 59.1% ground ball rate, which was another statistic that Massey led Pirates' minor league starting pitchers. That undoubtedly helped Massey hold opponents to a batting average right around the Mendoza line. It also helped that he had an above-average strikeout rate at Bradenton.

HR/9 Rate - Wilber Dotel

We finally reach the end of today's article with the second pitcher statistical leader. That is Wilber Dotel. The best way to describe Dotel was he played with fire all season but never got burnt. But one of the positives of his year was his HR/9 rate, in which he led all Pirates' starting pitching prospects.

In 78.2 innings, Dotel owned a 3.09 ERA and a minuscule 0.34 HR/9 rate. Batters also only had a .219 average against him. But that's about where the positives end for Dotel's season. The right-hander only had a 16.8% strikeout rate. But walks were also a massive issue with a 12.8% walk rate. Even though Dotel did not allow many home runs, he only had a 40.3% ground ball rate and a 34.4% fly ball rate.

At the end of the season, Dotel had a 4.85 FIP and 5.56 xFIP. Nothing about this was sustainable. Sure, it's not impossible for flyball pitchers to have an above-average home run rate. But a 3.4% HR/FB ratio is unsustainable. Plus, with the amount of walks he allows, he would almost have to keep up an 0.5 HR/9 rate or better to sustain any success.

Dotel's season was weird. There are lots of walks and, a few strikeouts and home runs. We shall see how he pitches moving forward. However, I would be concerned about how he will approach the 2024 after such a worrisome 2023 campaign.