Pittsburgh Pirates: Which Affiliate These Prospects Start The 2024 Season At?

What minor league affiliate will these three Pittsburgh Pirates open the 2024 season at?

It’s relatively easy to guess where some of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ prospects will start their 2024 seasons at. Bubba Chandler will probably open the year at Altoona. Thomas Harrington is another fairly safe bet to be at Double-A. But some are more difficult to predict.

That could be for multiple reasons. Maybe they performed well at one level for a stretch of time but are still young. They could have missed a good portion of the season but are still a year older. Whatever the case may be, these prospects don’t have a clear-cut answer to where they will be in 2024.

Hunter Barco

Hunter Barco was selected in the second round of the 2022 draft by the Bucs. The Pirates knew that his development wouldn’t be typical because the University of Florida left-hander had undergone Tommy John surgery that year. Barco missed all of the first half of 2023, still recovering from surgery, but came back strong in the second half of the year.

Barco pitched 18.1 of his innings after the All-Star break. It was a small sample size, but he pitched extremely well, allowing just seven earned runs, walking six, and striking out 28 batters. Barco didn’t allow a home run, posting a ground ball rate well over 50% at 53.5% and a fly ball rate of just 27.9%.

The southpaw mainly utilized a sinker at Bradenton. Barco was never a hard thrower in college and sat around 90 MPH as a pro. His slider and changeup also looked like solid pitches in 2023. He throws with a low arm slot, which helps add some deception to his motion. He has consistently shown good control as well.

I don’t see Barco repeating any time at Bradenton next year. He’s 23 and didn’t pitch poorly last year, small sample size withstanding. But even though he’s 23, is he ready for Double-A competition? What I think will happen is that he’ll start the year at High-A Greensboro but will get a quick promotion to Altoona, similar to how Thomas Harrington opened the year at Bradenton but was up to Greensboro by June.

Lonnie White Jr.

Lonnie White Jr. was one of the team’s many high school picks from the 2021 draft. White barely played in 2022 because of injuries. He only appeared in two games and stepped to the plate a total of seven times. Although he would once again open the 2023 season on the injured list, he returned in the first week of June and didn’t look back.

White Jr. collected 276 plate appearances between the Florida Complex League and Low-A Bradenton, batting a combined .276/.406/.476. White may have struck out 27.2% of the time, but he offset that with a 15.6% walk rate. He went yard nine times with 16 doubles but also went 18/21 in stolen base attempts, showing a combination of power and speed. All told White Jr.’s contributions with the bat came to a .417 wOBA and 139 wRC+.

Most of White’s playing time came at Bradenton, where he had 200 plate appearances. He posted a .883 OPS, .413 wOBA along with a 140 wRC+ throughout his time at Low-A. While he may have struck out 56 times, leading to a 28% K-rate, he also walked 32 times and hit eight home runs with a .228 isolated slugging percentage.

White Jr. may have only had 200 plate appearances at Bradenton, but he did exceptionally well. There were 95 players in the Florida State League with 200+ plate appearances, and White Jr. had the third-best wRC+. It is reasonable to be concerned about the strikeouts, but you can’t keep someone at one level forever, especially someone as talented as White Jr. Let’s see what he can do at Greensboro next season.