Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Three Super Sleepers to Watch in 2024

Let's look at three super sleeper prospects in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system who could be worth watching in 2024

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a handful of high-profile prospects. Paul Skenes and Termarr Johnson are two of the best prospects in baseball. But Jared Jones and Anthony Solometo have become top 100 prospects, and both Bubba Chandler and Thomas Harrington are trending in the right direction. They also have a handful of under-20 prospects who deserve recognition.

But there are plenty of under-the-radar prospects that the Pirates have. But the guys we’re about to talk about are not going to show up on most Pirates prospect lists, even on the back end. Most fans may not even recognize them, and only the ones who follow the Pirates’ system religiously may know who they are.

Mike Walsh

The Pirates drafted Mike Walsh in the 9th round of the 2022 draft. He was an Ivy League pick out of Yale. Walsh didn’t pitch all that well in college, but he looked good in the Cape Cod League. 2023 was supposed to be his first full season, and he got off to a good start, but an injury in early May caused him to miss the rest of the season.

Walsh pitched 9.1 innings before his injury, serving as Low-A Bradenton’s closer as he saved four games. Walsh only allowed two earned runs with 11 strikeouts. He also only walked three batters (one intentional) and didn’t allow a single home run. Walsh’s ground ball rate was over 60% in the small sample size.

Walsh doesn’t rely on big velocity to overpower hitters. Instead, he is a spin-rate darling. All of his offerings, including his fastball, sinker, slider, and cutter, averaged out above 2500 RPM. Of his four pitches, his cutter hits the most RPM, around 2700-2800. Walsh struggled with command throughout college but looked decent in his brief time spent at Bradenton.

Walsh is entering his age-23 season next year. The relief prospect should open the year at Greensboro, but if he pitches anything like he did at Bradenton, he will quickly get moved to Altoona. It will be interesting to see how Walsh handles an entire season above Low-A, given he showed off some talent last year.

Joe Perez

Joe Perez is probably the most highly touted of any player we will talk about today, but that isn’t saying much. He only appears on one top Pirates prospect list, that being FanGraphs’ as the Pirates’ 39th-best prospect. A former second-round pick by the Houston Astros in 2017, Perez was released by the Stros in early August and signed on with the Pirates.

Perez came to the dish 145 times with Altoona and Indianapolis down the stretch but was an extremely productive batter. The slugger batted .317/.434/.592 with a .451 wOBA, and 174 wRC+. Perez’s 24.8% strikeout rate wasn’t anything too impressive, but it was an improvement from the 27.2% rate he posted for the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate. However, he also had a strong 15.9% walk rate.

Perez’s best tool is his power potential. Last year, he slugged ten home runs down the stretch with the Pirates’ minor league affiliates. Perez started to lift the ball a lot more frequently after signing with the Pirates. He had just a 30.1% fly ball rate with the Astros before getting let go. Then, once the Pirates scooped him up, he saw that shot up to 48.2%.

Perez is a power utility man. He can play all four infield and outfield corners and can even play some second base. He’s not a particularly good defender at any position. But he is useful, given he can play pretty much wherever needed.

Perez could make his Major League debut next year. He reached Triple-A and is now entering his age-24 campaign. Is that to say that Perez will hit 30 home runs in the bigs next year and solidify himself as the Pirates’ long-term first baseman? No, but there’s a chance he could be a solid platoon utility man who hits for power against left-handed pitching.