Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Debating Who Should/Should Not Be Available in Trades

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Overpay Required - Termarr Johnson

Termarr Johnson was selected in the first round of the 2022 draft by the Bucs. Considered far and away the best pure hitter of the draft class, Johnson's first pro season went great. While he got off to a rocky start, he started to put things together during the summer months and had a fantastic second half of the 2023 season.

After the first week of July, Johnson was batting .229/.389/.391, which was good but not what you'd expect from a player who set the record for the highest signing bonus for a fourth-overall pick at the time. He was walking at an extreme 19.7% rate but struck out 31.6% of the time. Overall, Johnson had a .379 wOBA and 120 wRC+. But again, this is not the kind of production you'd be expecting from Johnson.

But through his final 218 plate appearances of the year, Johnson batted .261/.458/.497 with a .445 wOBA and 165 wRC+. Johnson walked in nearly a quarter of his plate appearances with a 24.3% BB%. However, he significantly cut down on strikeouts as his K% dropped to 19.7%. He was also hitting for more power as his ISO jumped to .236. Johnson's batting average was a tad low for someone who was considered the best pure hitter of his class, but he did have a .288 batting average in balls in play, indicating some poor batted-ball luck.

Johnson played some shortstop when he first arrived on the pro scene in 2022 but saw only five games and 46 innings there this season. He projects as a solid defensive second baseman with an arm that will play better on the right side of the infield. Johnson is an above-average runner who can cover some ground up the middle.

I think the Pirates would move Johnson, but for nothing less than a sizable overpay. The Pirates would need to get at least one player who has proven to be an impact player in the Major Leagues and is still in pre-arbitration. While it might be less than what it would take for the Pirates to move Skenes, I don't see it happening, either.

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