Three bold predictions for Pirate prospects who could join top 100 lists in 2024

Could these three Pirate prospects climb the rankings and become top 100 prospects in 2024?

At this point last year, some of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ top prospects weren’t a part of most top 100 lists. However, a look today and Jared Jones, Bubba Chandler, and Anthony Solometo are part of a handful of different top 100 prospect lists. Thomas Harrington also appears on Kiley McDaniel’s top 100 list for ESPN. All four made improvements in 2023, with many climbing ranks after showing what they could do in a full season’s worth of games.

The Pirates will likely see a few of their current prospects who aren’t part of top 100 lists get to that point after this season. It’s early, but the Pirates have some talented prospects who will play a full season this year. On top of that, they could build off of some of the talent they showed off in 2023 and improve upon that. That’s what Chandler, Jones, Solometo, and Harrington did last year. Right now, I want to make a few predictions on who will reach the coveted top 100 status by the end of the 2024 minor league season.

Jack Brannigan

Jack Brannigan was the Pirates’ third-round pick in 2022 and has a similar profile to Lonnie White Jr. He’s a great defender with the potential to be a plus power hitter. But he’ll need to build off his strong 2023 season and continue to improve his hit tool. But if he can achieve this, Brannigan could be a 20/20 middle infield threat with good enough defense to stick at a premium position.

In Brannigan’s first pro season, he hit .275/.390/.524 with a .415 wOBA, and 146 wRC+. He had a .249 isolated slugging percentage and 19 home runs in 374 plate appearances. On top of that, he went 24/27 in stolen base attempts. Last season, there were only nine minor league players with at least 20 stolen bases and an ISO of .240 or greater in 300+ plate appearances. Brannigan was one of them. He also walked at a 14.2% rate, but came at the cost of a 29.9% strikeout rate.

The rate at which Brannigan strikes out is a tad worrying. His strikeout rate at Low-A Bradenton was 26.9%, which while not good, was only slightly worse than the league average rate of 24.2%. But once he got promoted to Greensboro, he saw his strikeout rate jump to 33.5%. Just over a third of his plate appearances ended in a strikeout.

The league average strikeout rate in the South Atlantic League was slightly worse than in the Florida State League at 25.8%, however, Brannigan was much worse than the league average. In his defense, Brannigan upped his offensive production as his wRC+ went from 135 with Bradenton to 159 with Greensboro.

The Pirates originally drafted Brannigan as a two-way player from Notre Dame. Brannigan had shown off a big fastball in college that sat around 97 MPH and could reach triple-digits. However, the Pirates have yet to let him take the mound. He has only played the field with third base being his primary position. He has no issues making deep throws from third base, but the Pirates were so impressed by his defensive prowess at third that they gave him some reps up the middle at both second base and shortstop. He played more games at short than at third base for Greensboro, and only saw games up the middle in the Arizona Fall League.

The infielder has continued to show off some of his raw power during Spring Training. It is a small sample size of only nine batted balls, but he has four over 98 MPH and a 25% barrel rate. He’s yet to get a hit, but at least the Statcast data thus far is promising. It should be fun to see him play the rest of Spring Training.

Brannigan should open the year with Double-A Altoona. This is his age-23 campaign, and Double-A will be a real test of his skills. However, I believe he can improve his game. If he cuts his strikeout rate down below 30%, and continues to be a power/speed threat, and proves he can handle shortstop full-time across an entire season, you might see him make some significant steps forward on prospect lists.

Michael Kennedy

After the Pirates took Brannigan in the third round, they then went on to take left-handed pitcher Michael Kennedy in the fourth round of the 2022 draft. Kennedy was a high school left-hander who signed for over slot value of $1 million. Kennedy was considered one of the best high school lefties in his draft class and made his debut last season. He pitched for both the Pirates’ FCL affiliate and Bradenton and was very effective in the small sample size.

In 46.2 innings, Kennedy pitched to the tune of a 2.12 ERA, 3.51 FIP, and 1.11 WHIP. Batters had a hard time making any sort of contact against him. The southpaw held opponents to a .169 batting average while striking out nearly a third of the time with a 33% strikeout rate. He also only allowed a single home run. Kennedy’s walk rate was all over the place. He walked 13 batters in his first 18.1 innings, then only seven in his next 25.1 innings. In his last game of the year, he would issue five more walks in 2.2 frames.

Kennedy is not a hard thrower and was only averaging out around 90-91 MPH and topping out at 93 with his sinker in his two games with Bradenton. Although Kennedy does not throw hard now, he was a recent high school pick. Anthony Solometo went from sitting 88-90 MPH when he was drafted to 91-94 MPH today. He also throws a change-up and slider. Kennedy’s arm slot is also similar to Solometo, but he has different overall mechanics. He brings the ball behind him with his arm facing the ground before going into his arm slot.

Kennedy might seem like less of an obvious pick to make top 100 lists next year over Jun-Seok Shim, or possibly even Zander Mueth. But Kennedy is only entering his age-19 season and will probably spend the entire year at a full-season level. It’s possible that if he keeps pitching well, he could end up at Greensboro before the end of the year. His stuff plays up because of his velocity, and even though he was inconsistent with walks last year, definitely has a feel for good command.