This underrated Pirates prospect could be an important piece of the 2025 roster

Every Pittsburgh Pirates fan is likely looking forward to what sort of impact the lines of Thomas Harrington, Braxton Ashcraft, and especially Bubba Chandler can make in 2025. Not only are they three of the Pirates’ best prospects, but three of the best across all of baseball.

The Pirates have a lot of young pitchers fans should be excited to see, but one underrated pitching prospect who could make an impact in 2025 is Po-Yu Chen.

Chen was signed in the 2020-2021 off-season as one of the top high schoolers out of Taiwan. The right-hander didn’t get off to a good start to the 2024 campaign at Altoona, owning a 5.72 ERA, 5.74 FIP, and 1.53 WHIP at the end of May. He was rarely striking out opponents with 10.5% K rate. Chen also had an unimpressive 8.9% walk rate and 1.14 HR/9 throughout his first 39 1/3 innings of the season.

Although it took a while, Chen was back on track from the start of June through the end of the year. His last 94 2/3 innings saw him put up a 3.33 ERA, 3.76 FIP, and 1.19 WHIP. Chen saw his K rate rise to 19.6% while his walk rate fell to 6.9%. The Taiwanese right-hander also became much less homer prone with a HR/9 of just 0.67.

Chen has a four-pitch mix, which includes a four-seamer, curveball, slider, and splitter. Among his four offerings, his splitter is the best and projects as a plus pitch. Chen does have good command over his offerings, which helps his other pitches play up some more. But he only appears as a top prospect on FanGraphs’ Pirates list, and only ranks 32nd. So why could he make a noteworthy impact?

Chen has pitched relatively well at each level of the minor leagues. He’s prone to slow starts to the season, but he ends each year on a high note. He’s now shown promise at Double-A and should open 2025 at Triple-A Indianapolis, given how he did during the summer months of the season and considering he is going into his age-23 campaign next year.

That puts him just a step below the Major Leagues. This adds yet another young arm to what looks to be a very talented Triple-A pitching staff, which should also house Bubba Chandler, Thomas Harrington, and potentially both Mike Burrows and Braxton Ashcraft. Chen may not project to be as good as those four, especially Chandler or Harrington, but the Pirates now won’t have to worry about having to call upon a pitcher like Domingo German or Jake Woodford.

Chen could slot into the back of the rotation in the event of an injury, or he could serve as a long reliever, the latter of which is something the Pirates lack unless they view Joey Wentz as their multi-inning bullpen arm next season or move Bailey Falter to that role. Regardless of Chen’s long-term outlook, he adds yet another pitcher with potential and nearing MLB-readiness to a loaded pitching system.