Pittsburgh Pirates: Three More Prospects Who Could Make Their Debuts This Season

These three Pittsburgh Pirates should debut sometime later this year, joining the large number of other prospects who have already debuted

The Pittsburgh Pirates have debuted a ton of players in 2023. Over this summer, Carmen Mlodzinski, Nick Gonzales, Henry Davis, Jared Triolo, and now Quinn Priester and Endy Rodriguez have all played at least one Major League game. That's a half-dozen players and not including others who debuted before June, like Jose Hernandez (Rule 5 pick), Canaan Smith-Njigba, and Cody Bolton are three more noteworthy names who have played in the big leagues for the first time in 2023.

However, despite all these prospects, the Pirates' youth movement is far from over. If anything, this is just the start. We should see many more prospects coming up through the system, especially in 2024. But the 2023 season is still far from over. The Pirates should debut at least a couple more prospects before the year ends.

So who are these names that have a good chance of making their dreams come true and being in the big leagues by the end of September?

Colin Selby

Colin Selby forced himself into the PIrates' future plans after a breakout 2022 campaign. A 16th-round pick, Selby looked nothing more than organizational depth heading into the 2022 campaign. However, a massive velo spike and a strong season at Altoona led to the Pirates making room on their 40-man roster for the reliever and potentially putting him on course to be another member of the Sharktank 2.0.

Selby's 2023 season hasn't gone as well as '22. He's been injured and not nearly as dominant, but overall it's still a solid campaign. Selby has a 3.55 ERA, 3.07 FIP, and 1.30 WHIP in 25 innings. Selby has struck out 31.5% of opponents faced, and his 63.2% ground ball rate is through the roof. This has helped him allow zero home runs, which is all the more impressive considering the league average HR/9 in the International League is 1.31.

Selby throws a fastball in the mid-to-upper-90s and has hit 99 MPH before. He also has a plus-plus slider, along with an above-average curveball. Control isn't his strong suit, though. He had a 10.1% walk rate last season and currently holds a 14.4% free pass rate. The injuries haven't helped things, however.

With how badly Colin Holderman has struggled recently, and Selby only allowing three earned runs with 15 strikeouts in the ten innings since coming off the IL, maybe we see Selby given a chance to overtake the set-up man role. At the very least, Selby will be in the major leagues within the very near future.

Jared Jones

If the Pirates debut another top pitching prospect, it will be Jared Jones. The Pirates paid big money to sign Jared Jones after taking him in the second round of the 2020 draft, taking him as a hard-throwing high schooler. Jones has shown talent in each of his minor league seasons but seems to be putting it all together this year.

Jones started the year off at Double-A Altoona in just his age-21 campaign. Despite his youth, Jones dominated, working to a 2.23 ERA, 3.36 FIP, and 1.08 WHIP. Jones struck out 26.3% of opponents while owning a quality 8.9% walk rate. However, his biggest strength was preventing the home run, only allowing three in 44.1 innings, which is a 0.61 HR/9 rate.

That earned Jones a promotion to Triple-A Indy, where he's had some ups and downs, but some bad luck also played a big role. Jones has pitched 24.1 innings, working to a 5.18 ERA but a strong 2.27 FIP and 1.27 WHIP. Jones has allowed fewer walks (7.8%) and has struck out more batters (29.1%) while nearly cutting his HR/9 in half (0.37), but a .349 batting average on balls in play has not helped Jones.

Jones's stuff has looked better than ever, throwing in the upper-90s with plus spin. He also throws a slider, change-up, and curveball. The best part about Jones is that he's not just a Luis Ortiz with a big fastball and nothing else. All of Jones' offerings are average, at the very least. Both his command and control have trended in the right direction as well.

Jones could be the most exciting pitching debut the Pirates will have until Paul Skenes makes the Majors. Jones has big stuff, and seeing what he can do in the bigs should be fun. Keep in mind we're still talking about a guy who is just 21. He'll turn 22 in the first week of August, but that's still pretty young for many to make it to MLB.