Three Pirates international prospects to remember

The Pittsburgh Pirates have some underrated international talent to keep an eye on.

The Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t had very much luck with international signings in their recent history. Their last international signing to produce a significant amount of WAR for them was Starling Marte. Hopefully, the Pirates can change the tide of things in the coming future. Some of their best prospects, like Jun Seok Shim, Tony Blanco Jr., Yordany De Los Santos, and Shalin Polanco, are some of the international players signed under Ben Cherington, all of whom have shown some promise since they were signed.

But they aren’t the only international prospects in the Pirates worth remembering. They have a handful of former international signees in the system that will be interesting to watch in 2024 and beyond. Most are very young and won’t even see the upper levels of the minor leagues (Double-A and above) for another two years if they develop as planned. But there are definitely ones beyond the Pirates’ best prospects that should be in fans’ minds.

David Matoma

The Pirates are known for finding baseball talent from unique parts of the world. In 2017, they debuted the first Lithuanian-born MLB player, Dovydas Neverauskas, and the first South African-born MLB player, Gift Ngoepe. They could once again make history in the near future, as they signed David Matoma last off-season. Matoma is just the third Ugandan-born baseball player to play in affiliated baseball.

Matoma has already pitched professionally, logging 16.2 innings for the Pirates’ Dominican Summer League affiliates. He did not allow a single earned run but walked seven batters with 14 K’s. He also allowed a dozen hits in the small sample size. Matoma was used as a multi-inning arm, pitching that many innings in only nine games and one start. Of course, at that low of a level, pitching roles are not nearly as defined and specialized as they are in MLB.

The 18-year-old is a lanky six-foot, 155-lb. However, despite the thin frame and young age, Matoma is already topping out at 100 MPH. Matoma also throws a slider and a change-up. Baseball America describes his arm motion as quick, although there are some moving parts in his delivery that could hinder his command later on down the line.

Matoma is already an interesting guy to watch simply because he is one of the few Ugandan-born baseball players in the United States. Add on to the fact he’s already topping out at 100 MPH and he becomes an extremely intriguing prospect to keep tabs on in 2024 and beyond. You have to imagine with that thin of a frame at his age, he’ll add a few pounds of muscle over the next few years. If he can do that, it might help him maintain a higher velocity. We shall see how he develops, but he’ll be an interesting prospect to keep an eye on.

Omar Alfonzo

Last year, the Pirates saw two of the best catching prospects in baseball reach the Major Leagues in Endy Rodriguez and Henry Davis. But once they graduated prospect lists, there was a major void in the system left by the two. Their next best catching prospect arguably becomes Omar Alfonzo, an international signing in the 2019-2020 off-season.

Alfonzo spent his 2023 season with both the Bucs’ Florida Complex League affiliate and A-ball Bradenton, batting .275/.408/.427 with a .402 wOBA and 132 wRC+. Alfonso did not hit for very much pop, only having an ISO of .153, but he reached base at a very high rate. Along with his solid batting average, he drew a walk 18.3 percent of the time, which helped offset his unimpressive strikeout rate of 23.9 percent.

Although Alfonzo did not hit for much power last year, there’s definitely some potential for more. He is a six-foot-one, 180-lb backstop. He’s a hit-over-power batter, but he could reach at least 40-grade game power when everything is said and done. That will play because of his ability to draw walks. 2023 isn’t an outlier as his career walk rate is 18.8 percent, the 23rd-best among any minor leaguer since 2021 with at least 450 plate appearances. He has good pitch recognition and is an extremely patient batter.

Defensively, he’s been a bit shaky. While he has a 30 percent caught stealing rate, he has also allowed 32 passed balls in just 720.1 innings behind the plate, although the amount of passed balls so far in his career doesn’t tell the whole story. Alonzo is considered an average defender with a solid arm. He’s also logged some games at first base throughout his career, giving him some defensive versatility.

Alonzo doesn’t turn 21 until early August, so he is a very young backstop. He’ll likely spend most, if not all, of his 2024 season at A-Ball Bradenton, where his skills will be tested for the first time over the course of a full season. MLB Pipeline has some optimism for him as he ranked as the Pirates’ 29th-best prospect on their top 30 Pirates prospect list.