Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects Who Could Push For Promotions Early in the Season

Although the season just started, the Pittsburgh Pirates already have some prospects pushing for a promotion to the next level

It’s early in the season, but some of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ prospects have shown a ton of talent. It’s also early to start moving players up, but there certainly could be some players who could get bumped up to the next level of the minor leagues before summer. The Pirates did it last season when they gave Henry Davis the push to Double-A Altoona after just 22 games at High-A Greensboro.

The prospects we are looking at today definitely could be looking to get promoted to the next minor league level within the very near future. Today’s list won’t include guys looking to get bumped to the big leagues. So while Endy Rodriguez would be fun to see in the big leagues, most of today’s prospects are in the lower minor leagues. So without further ado, let’s get into our first prospect of the day.

Thomas Harrington

It’s a little bit of a surprise that the Pittsburgh Pirates started Thomas Harrington at Low-A Bradenton. Harrington is in his age-21 campaign, making him older than some of the pitchers at High-A Greensboro. Both Bubba Chandler and Anthony Solometo are younger than Harrington. While Solometo and Chandler were both much more highly touted in their draft class compared to Harrington, that doesn’t mean that Harrington had no talent.

Harrington put together a phenomenal final season at Campbell University, working to a 2.53 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, and 6.17 K:BB ratio through 92.2 innings. Harrington allowed just a single home run, and while his home run prevention skills were his strongest suit, it wasn’t his only strength. He also struck out 30% of the batters he faced with a walk rate of just under 5% at 4.9%. In his first professional game at Bradenton this season, Harrington pitched five scoreless innings, striking out seven, not allowing a single free pass, and allowing five hits.

The 36th overall pick in the draft averages out around 92 MPH but tops out at 96. Despite lacking velocity, his fastball plays to an above-average level because of its ability to carry through the zone. He throws two breaking balls: a slider and a curveball. The former offering is the better of the two, and his curveball is more of a get-me-over type offering. Out of all his pitches, his tumbling change-up is the best. However, all of his stuff plays up because of his excellent command.

Harrington’s stuff was on full display in his debut, and both looked and played the part of a top pitching prospect. If there was a pitching prospect that was deserving of a promotion to the next level of the minor leagues right now, it would be Harrington. He could easily play at the next level given his age and talent. He may not stay at Bradenton too long if he continues to perform and stays healthy.

Kyle Nicolas

Kyle Nicolas is sort of like this year’s Jack Suwinski. Despite performing great at Double-A the year prior, he is still stationed at Altoona at the start of next year. Nicolas, who was acquired for Jacob Stallings, was a 2020 second-round pick. Armed with a big fastball his stuff played in the upper minor leagues, and you may see him in the majors sometime this year.

In 90.2 innings, Nicolas had a 3.97 ERA, 4.30 FIP, and 1.30 WHIP. While Nicolas had a healthy 25.9% strikeout rate and 0.89 HR/9, he walked 12.1% of the opponents he faced. These numbers are a tad inflated. In his third start of the year, he allowed eight earned runs in just two innings. Of the nine hits he allowed, four were home runs. Aside from this one outing, he had a 3.25 ERA and 0.51.

Nicolas typically sits in the mid-90s and pairs that with an outstanding slider. His curveball has also come a long way and has developed into a decent pitch. He occasionally throws a changeup, though it’s a well below-average off-speed pitch. But with three above-average to well-above-average offerings, Nicolas looks much more like a starting pitcher. That was one thing that was in question when the Pirates acquired Nicolas.

Now granted, in some cases, Double-A can be more competitive than Triple-A. Triple-A usually houses roster depth. For example, the Pirates currently have Caleb Smith, Chris Owings, and Ryan Vilade at Indy. That doesn’t mean that Double-A is free of organizational depth, but there’s more at Triple-A than Double-A. Plus, Double-A is where you start seeing the separation between good and bad prospects.

But Nicolas’ 2022 performance definitely should have earned him the promotion to Triple-A at the start of this year. He may not have had a great 2023 debut, but there’s no doubt that after his 2022 campaign and now that he’s in his age-24 campaign, he would be the first noteworthy prospect moved to Triple-A.