The inadequacies of the Pirates’ farm system have probably been discussed here . . . oh, maybe once or twice. That includes the poor results from their international scouting, which even Bob Nutting has noticed. The truth is, demographically speaking, the single biggest failure of the Pirates’ system under Neal Huntington has been in the area of international pitchers.
It’s not just that, in a dozen years, the major league success of pitchers signed and developed by the Pirates’ on the international front has amounted, in its entirety, to one year of Edgar Santana and a brief stretch for Dario Agrazal before the hitters figured him out. The Pirates have struggled to get international pitchers anywhere close to the majors. I find this significant because, for all the trouble that the Pirates’ system has had producing good major leaguers, they’re very good at developing AAA players. That’s obvious from the fact that, in recent years, they’ve typically employed a small fraction of the number of minor league free agents they had to sign in the years immediately before and after Huntington took over. So if they’re not getting a certain demographic to AAA, in my judgment it’s because they’re not bringing in players in that demographic with any talent.
I’m going to confine my discussion here to the Pirates’ ability to get international pitchers to AAA. We’re all aware of the Pirates’ problems developing major league pitchers up until now. What we don’t know is whether things will improve under the new management team, once they’re in place. For instance, will they change their pitching strategy in ways that help their prospects miss more bats, which is a significant shortcoming throughout the system now? We have no idea, but I think I can make some reasonable guesses about whether they at least have pitchers who can get to AAA.
To begin with, there’s the question of just how bad they’ve been at getting international pitchers that far. Well, they’ve been really bad. Here’s the full list of international pitchers, signed and developed under Huntington, who reached AAA up through 2018, by the year in which they first reached the level.
2008-14: None
2015: Yhonathan Barrios (originally signed as an infielder)
2016: Edgar Santana and Dovydas Neverauskas
2017-18: None
That’s it. Things did pick up a bit this year, with four international pitchers reaching AAA. (Remember that I’m not counting pitchers acquired from elsewhere, like Pedro Vasquez.) The four were Agrazal, Luis Escobar, Elvis Escobar and Eduardo Vera. It’s not an overwhelming group, of course. Vera was released late in the year. Elvis Escobar is a converted outfielder who made just one appearance for Indianapolis, and who’ll be a free agent unless the Pirates sign him to another minor league deal. Agrazal had one good stretch this year in the majors, but looks more like AAA depth at this point. Luis Escobar has very good stuff, but has never gotten far with his command issues and got rocked in his brief stint in the majors. But at least they had four guys get that far after having only three do so in the previous 11 years.
Things should start improving pretty quickly (again, leaving aside the question whether this will turn into useful major league help). There are a half dozen pitchers I think have good likelihoods of reaching AAA in the next couple years:
Domingo Robles: Barring something bad, Robles should certainly get to AAA in 2020. He spent the last three months this year at Altoona and finished very strongly. He also won’t turn 22 until a month into next season. He’s a finesse lefty and doesn’t miss many bats, so the ceiling isn’t high, but he could potentially be a middle reliever.
Joel Cesar: I’m not sure how much of a ceiling Cesar has, but he spent the bulk of this season at Altoona and pitched decently. He’s 5’11” and limited to relief, and mainly gets by on a mid-90s fastball. He should at least reach Indianapolis.
Samuel Reyes: Pablo’s brother is another 5’11” reliever; he spent most of this year at Bradenton and pitched well. His big pitch is a curve. I’m hoping he’ll open next year at Altoona.
Osvaldo Bido: A late bloomer, Bido made it to Bradenton this year, just two years removed from a rough debut in the DSL. He hasn’t missed very many bats so far, but I’m hoping a new management team can change that with some of the pitchers in the system, particularly with somebody who has Bido’s stuff. He throws 93-96 now and, despite him turning 24 a couple weeks ago, it’s easy to imagine him adding velocity. (The photo above is Bido, from earlier this year.) He should at least get to Altoona this year.
Noe Toribio: John Dreker covered Toribio as a breakout candidate recently, so I won’t repeat everything. Toribio made it to Greensboro this year before he turned 20. It’s not unlikely he could reach Altoona next year.
Yerry De Los Santos: After missing most of three seasons due to Tommy John surgery, De Los Santos made a big jump to Greensboro this year and dominated as a closer, fanning over 13 per nine innings. Relievers often move fast, so he could easily reach Altoona in 2020 if he keeps pitching well. After that long layoff, he’s already eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Hopefully he’ll still be around.
Apart from the pitchers above, there are others in the system who could take sudden leaps forward; pitchers develop much more erratically than hitters. John already covered Santiago Florez. Adrian Florencio and Luis Ortiz are other pitchers from this year’s Bristol rotation who could surprise. There are also relievers in the system, basically wild cards with great velocity who could suddenly find the plate, like Xavier Concepcion and Oliver Mateo. They could move up quickly if they . . . well, learn to pitch. The point is, in contrast to the previous decade, there are pitchers with actual talent who could conceivably develop into something. If they can get a few of these guys each year up to AAA, hopefully the new management team can get something out of them at the major league level. It’d be a whole new source of talent for the Pirates.
SONG OF THE DAY
A special for Bob Nutting.
DAILY QUIZ
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
By John Dreker
Five former Pirates born on this date and the most recent one happened in 1917. Starting with the youngest player first…
Len Gilmore, pitcher for the 1944 Pirates. The first of two pitchers on this list who had a one game big league career. Gilmore’s game came on October 1, 1944 and he threw a complete game, giving up seven runs in eight innings, while taking the loss. He didn’t issue a walk or record a strikeout. No pitcher in team history has more innings pitched without a walk and a strikeout, yet he did both in the same game. All 36 batters he faced put the ball in play.
Homer Summa, outfielder for the 1920 Pirates. He was destined to play baseball with the given name “Homer”. It didn’t translate to power though. After hitting .318 with no homers in ten games with the 1920 Pirates, he hit 18 homers total over nine seasons split between Cleveland and the Philadelphia A’s. Homer never homered more than four times in a season.
Fred Hayner, pitcher for the 1890 Alleghenys. His big league career lasted one day. Hayner pitched in relief on August 19th and gave up nine runs (six earned) over the final four innings of the game. He was just 18 years old at the time.
Harry Staley, pitcher for the 1888-89 Alleghenys, who returned to the club in 1891 when the Player’s League folded. Staley had a 12-12 record as a 21-year-old rookie in 1888, posting a 2.69 ERA in 207.1 innings. He led the NL in losses in 1889, then went 21-25 for Pittsburgh in the lone season of the PL in 1890. He returned to the Pirates in 1891 and went 4-5 over the first month before he was released. That turned out to be a poor decision, as he won 20 games for Boston that year. Staley won 136 games over an eight-year career.
Jim McCormick, pitcher for the 1887 Alleghenys. He went 13-23 in his only season in Pittsburgh, then turned down a rare (for the time) three-year deal to retire to go into his own business in town. He ended up regretting that decision, but never got back into baseball. It was a decision that cost him (so far) a spot in the Hall of Fame. McCormick won 265 games in ten seasons. Though obviously not a statistical category when he played, he led all pitchers in WAR three times between 1880 and 1884.
