Following the journey of a top prospect is one of the most exciting and well-documented parts of the Minor League season, but if you really want to get a feel for a farm system, you need to look beyond the top 10 prospects. There are plenty of players in the Majors who were either late bloomers or just weren’t as highly rated as other young players at the time but still went on to have great careers and contribute to their team. Today, we’re taking a look at a prospect at each of the Pirates’ affiliates who isn’t in the top half of MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 prospect list, but is still worth watching: Triple-A Indianapolis: RHP Chase Shugart (not ranked in Top 30) Most of the heavy hitters in Indianapolis are going to spend time in Pittsburgh this season (Bubba Chandler, Nick Yorke, Thomas Harrington, Braxton Ashcraft), so let’s take a look at Shugart, who has already done some bouncing between the Majors and Minors. His sweeper and cutter get a ton of spin and horizontal movement (4.6 inches and 2.3 inches more than their respective league averages), and both pitches can miss bats. |
Double-A Altoona: RHP Wilber Dotel (not ranked) Dotel is coming off a rough season with High-A Greensboro last year when he walked a ton of batters (4.6 walks per nine innings), gave up a ton of home runs (1.8 HRs per nine) and allowed a lot of runs (5.33 ERA). Maybe not the best elevator pitch of a prospect, but he is just 22 years old and Greensboro is a hitter-friendly park. And don’t let the statline scare you -- Dotel has some serious stuff. His fastball is coming in at 95-97 mph with some sink, which pairs well with his slider, cutter and changeup. It’s a remarkably similar pitch mix to Luis Ortiz, who followed a similar career trajectory. There’s a chance Dotel could be moved to the bullpen if he can’t figure out the command issue, but if you want to buy in on raw stuff, Dotel is a solid pick. |
High-A Greensboro: C Omar Alfonzo (No. 19 prospect) At the affiliates with Baseball Savant data (Indianapolis and Low-A Bradenton), Alfonzo had the highest average exit velocity (92.8 mph) of any Pirates Minor Leaguer last year. After doing some work with the team this winter, he’s elevating that hard contact more, homering three times in his first nine games. Mix in a great batting eye and an ability to draw a walk (13.5% walk rate in 2024), and he could emerge as one of the team’s top hitting prospects this year. |
Single-A Bradenton: LHP Connor Wietgrefe (not ranked) A seventh-round pick in last year’s MLB Draft, Wietgrefe has a high-spin slider (2,600 RPM) that can move and miss bats, but his fastball is what’s fascinating. He was a sinker-baller with the University of Minnesota, but he started to mix in a four-seamer with the Pirates (all his fastballs this season have been qualified as sinkers, but some have four-seam traits and locations). I’ve had several league sources opine the four-seamer would suit him better -- and he could be a draft steal if he made the change. |
Rookie-level Florida Complex League: OF/1B Edward Florentino (No. 23) Florentino signed for $395,000 in January 2024, and the left-handed hitter was arguably the top Pirates player in the Dominican Summer League, slashing .260/.432/.459. He’s aggressive at the dish, has a 6-foot-4 frame that could fill out and he walked more than he struck out last year. It’ll be years until the 18-year-old outfielder is on a Major League radar, but he has Top 100 potential. |
MLB MORNING LINEUP PODCAST |
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Andrew McCutchen has appeared in 1,591 games as a Pirate, the ninth-most in franchise history. Who holds the franchise record for most games played with the club? A. Roberto Clemente B. Honus Wagner C. Willie Stargell D. Paul Waner |
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The Pirates’ bats heated up Monday, and as the runs started to roll in, cameras captured the same celebration: Players pulling on their Phiten necklaces. Remember Phitens? The fashion trend from, well, a decade ago? They were a gift from McCutchen to his teammates, and as he said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame broadcast: “I used to ball out with ‘em back in the day, so might as well give it to the whole team.” “I’m not saying Phitens is the new Zoltan, but it gives us something to cheer about, something to laugh about,” McCutchen said, referencing the 2012-13 Pirates rally symbol. “You just have to do that in this game. I guess that was my way of doing it.” |
Time will tell if the necklaces stick, but the team needed a boost -- and it got one. “When it comes to baseball, you’ll do whatever it takes to turn things around,” McCutchen said. “... It’s just kind of cool that we were able to do something as a team, then it translated into the game and we had the game that we did. You could say coincidence, I guess. “But I think it’s more just these are the things that you need to do as a team sometimes to win ballgames. Sometimes it takes buying in just to do something. We just all bought in on it and ran with it. It worked out for us.” |
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GRAB YOUR SKENES BOBBLEHEAD |
Saturday is the first bobblehead night of the season at PNC Park, where the first 20,000 fans will take home a Paul Skenes bobblehead based off of a baseball card. The full list of Pirates promotions this season can be found here. |
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