Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Quinn Priester Struggles in 2023 Debut

The poor start to 2023 for Triple-A Indianapolis continued on Tuesday night as the top farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates suffered a 7-2 loss, falling to 0-4 on the season

While the Pittsburgh Pirates are off to a strong start through the first week of the 2023 season, it is the complete opposite for their top farm club. Following a 7-2 loss on Tuesday night, the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians are now 0-4 on the season.

Poor pitching and defensive miscues have plagued the Indians through the first four games of the season. These woes continued on Tuesday night. In addition to allowing 7 runs, Cal Mitchell committed a throwing error, Colin Selby had a fielding error, and Endy Rodriguez was charged with a passed ball. Also, Selby hit a batter and uncorked a wild pitch.

Quinn Priester struggles in 2023 debut

Making his season debut, 2019 first-round pick Quinn Priester started for the Indians. Priester is hoping that the 2023 season marks his MLB debut. However, things did not get off to a strong start for the righty.

After pitching a pair of scoreless innings to start the game, Priester allowed 4 runs in the 3rd inning. He allowed 2 more in the 4th inning on his way to allowing 6 earned runs in 3.2 innings pitched. Priester allowed nine hits, walked a pair, surrendered a home run, and struck out four.

Priester's best pitches are his curveball and slider. Unfortunately, neither of these pitches were not working for him during the start. His curveball, especially, was an issue. The pitches struggles to break and move the way Priester wanted them to and he struggled with command of the pitches.

There are plenty of questions about Priester's fastball and those questions were on full display Tuesday night. Priester threw 15 fastballs, and generated just one whiff. Priester's fastball just simply is not good enough for him to find success on a night where his breaking pitches are not working or his command of them are shaky.

Indy offense struggles as well

In addition to Priester struggling and their sloppiness in the field, it was also a poor night for the Indy offense. Indianapolis batters collected just three hits, while walking just once and striking out nine times.

Tucupita Marcano started at second base, collecting two of the team's three hits. Marcano was 2-for-3 with his 1st home run of the season. Chris Owings started at shortstop and was 1-for-3 with a solo home run of his own.

Rodriguez was behind the dish, and went 0-for-3 while drawing the team's lone walk. Travis Swaggerty, Nick Gonzales, Mark Mathias, and Miguel Andújar were all 0-for-4.