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Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Tale of Two Seasons for J.C. Flowers
From struggling at Triple-A to pitching well in the Arizona Fall League, 2023 was a tale of two seasons for Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitching prospect J.C. Flowers
The Pittsburgh Pirates selected right-handed pitcher J.C. Flowers out of Florida State University in the 4th round of the 2109 MLB Draft. Flowers came to the Pirate organization following a successful collegiate career in Tallahassee where he was a two-way star for the Seminoles.
Early in his professional career, it was unclear if his long-term role would be as a starting pitcher or as a relief pitcher. He made 13 starts in 21 outings between Low-A and High-A in 2021, posting a 3.78 ERA with 92 strikeouts in 78.2 innings pitched.
Then in 2022, Flowers made just a pair of starts in 33 appearances at Double-A Altoona. In his first action at the Double-A level, Flowers had a strong 2.88 ERA while issuing 24 walks and striking out 62 batters in 68.1 innings pitched.
These results led to Flowers starting the 2023 season with Triple-A Indianapolis. Flowers would spend his entire 2023 season with the Indians and struggle mightily. However, it would prove to be a tale of two seasons for Flowers.
Struggles with Triple-A Indianapolis
Flowers spent the entire regular season pitching for Triple-A Indianapolis. The 25-year-old Flowers pitched in 30 games for the Indians this past regular season, with 3 of those 30 outings being starts. Once again, he mostly worked as a reliever.
In his 30 outings, Flowers posted a a woeful 9.39 ERA and 6.77 FIP in 46.0 innings pitched. He struggled with his control walking 16.5% of opposing batters faced, and had a career low 19.1% strikeout rate. His 1.76 HR/9 rate was also the worst of his career.
Flowers was burnt by batting average on balls in play, however. His BAbip of .410 was around 100 points higher than league average. This indicates that Flowers was burnt by some poor luck and/or defense this past season.
The BAbip indicated that there was reason to believe there were much better results to be had for Flowers. The tools are also there for Flowers. FanGraphs rates both his slider (60) and changeup (50) as above-average pitches.
Those aforementioned improved results started to show when his season began its second tale. This tale came in the Arizona Fall League.
Pitching well in the Arizona Fall League
Flowers made a start while pitching in 7 games with the Salt River Rafters in the AFL. In these 7 appearances Flowers pitched 11.0 innings, and had much better results than he did during the regular season.
In his first taste of AFL action, Flowers posted a 3.27 ERA. He once again struggled with base runners allowing 6 hits and walking 11 batters, however, he was much better with run prevention. A big part of that was allowing just a single home run, while he struck out 9 batters.
Flowers performance in the AFL flashed his potential as a relief pitching prospect. This sets up Flowers to potentially pitch his way to the majors in 2024. At the same time, if he struggles at Triple-A again in 2024 the way he did in 2023 he may quickly find himself out of the Pirate organiztion.
The 2024 season will be a big one for Flower.
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