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?

Alika Williams

Alika Williams has been nothing short of an outstanding pick-up for the Pirates. A former first-round pick by the Tampa Bay Rays, the Bucs acquired Williams in early June in exchange for relief pitcher Robert Stephenson. Williams has been better than the Pirates could have ever imagined.

In 124 plate appearances for Triple-A Indy, Williams is currently slashing .311/.398/.538 with a .408 wOBA and 133 wRC+. Williams has six home runs already. Williams only hit 20 during the 938 plate appearances across just the two seasons he took in the Rays' system. His .226 isolated slugging percentage is higher than anything he ever put up with the Rays or even in college. We are still talking about a small sample size in a hitter-friendly environment. The average ISO in the International League is .180. Williams is still comfortably above average, being 46 points above the average, however.

But Williams' power isn't his most impressive number for the Pirates. That would be the few times he's gone down on strike three while holding his own with walks. Williams has an 11.3% walk rate, which is only slightly below the average of 11.7%. However, he's struck out less than 15% of the time, 12.1% to be specific, and 10.3% better than average.

The Pirates acquired Williams, knowing he is a slick defensive infielder. That's still his strongest trait, and he has more than enough arm strength to play the right side of the infield. He's also a plus runner, so range isn't an issue for Williams, either. Admittedly, this looked like another Cole Tucker situation; a former first-rounder who may have been a good defender in his natural position but never could hit enough to or consistently be a bench player, let alone a regular. But Tucker never had a stretch like Williams is having.

At 24 and just how well Williams has been doing this year for the Bucs, it's a little surprising that he wasn't promoted over Liover Peguero, who just got to Triple-A. I understand that Peguero was already on the 40-man, so it was easier, but at some point, the Pirates have to give Williams his just dues. Williams has a wRC+ approaching 200 over his last month of play, at 179. It might be time to see what he can do, especially with Tucupita Marcano struggling.

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.