Pittsburgh Pirates: Rum Bunter's Top 10 Prospects

Number 10 - Infielder Yordany De Los Santos

Yordany De Los Santos was signed during the 2021-2022 international signing period. One of the best infielders of the class, De Los Santos has a fairly high offensive ceiling. Although he’s struggled some at Bradenton, he is still an extremely young prospect. In fact, he is the youngest prospect on our top ten list.

De Los Santos kicked his season off with a bang, hitting .328/.397/.463 at the Pirates’ Florida Complex League affiliate. He struck out in just 14.1% of his plate appearances while drawing a walk 9% of the time. Although he only hit one home run, he swiped 13 bags in 14 attempts. With a 126 wRC+ in less than 100 plate appearances (78), the Pirates quickly promoted him to Bradenton, though the numbers haven’t carried over, at least not yet.

De Los Santos is hitting .184/.322/.256. His wOBA clocks in below .300 at .298 while he has a wRC+ of a mere 72 (28% below league average run production). He’s improved his walk rate significantly, now up to 14.4%, but is striking out nearly 40% of the time (39.2%). Now granted, he is only 18 still and turns 19 next February. Even for Low-A, this is young. He is one of only 15 players with at least 100 plate appearances at his level and is in his age-18 or younger season.

De Los Santos has the potential to hit a lot of home runs in the future. FanGraphs loves his power, grading it out at a 60, both for his in-game and raw power potential. His defense at shortstop, as well as his speed are about average as well. Some fear that he’ll have to move to a less demanding position in the long run, but his athleticism could keep him at shortstop for the foreseeable future. The hit tool, though, is where some questions arise. Yordany has a leg kick and a bit of a long follow-through on his swing. Maybe shortening that up some could help in the long run.

Still, the fact that he only has one tool that currently projects as fringy as an 18-year-old is promising, at the very least. There’s plenty of time for him to get that to at least an average level. Even if he only hits .240 in the future, he draws plenty of walks and has 25+ long ball potential. However, it will be interesting to see if he sticks at shortstop, or outgrows the position.