The Pittsburgh Pirates signed shortstop Shawn Ross to a minor league deal on Thursday. The 23-year-old is currently playing winter ball in Puerto Rico.
Ross was born in Puerto Rico and attended Faulkner University, where he played during the 2020-22 seasons. He had a 1.102 OPS in 51 games last year, collecting 16 homers while going 12-for-12 in stolen bases. He hit .317/.454/.639 this year in 56 games, with 18 homers and 17 stolen bases. He then signed to play independent ball with Grand Junction of the Pioneer League. He had a .280/.408/.614 slash line in 81 games this summer, adding another 24 homers and 14 steals. Between college/indy, he had 104 walks in 137 games.
So far this winter, he is hitting .118/.224/.216 in 17 games. Keep in mind that there is a huge difference in competition between the Pioneer League and winter ball in Puerto Rico. He’s facing some pitchers with big league experience, as well as many who have reached Triple-A.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
No sound and fury here, kids.
ANOTHER DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH.
great last name, solid pickup Ben.
So now we know what the R in NMR stands for!
35+ FV
How is he defensively?
He was listed as an INF as a Junior at Faulkner in 2021 – 60 Chances, .902 Fldg percentage. The small number of chances should be an indication he did not see the field very much. In 2022 as a Senior at Faulkner he had around 220 Chances, but only a .910 Fldg percentage. And 23 already???????????
There’s a reason he wasn’t drafted!!!!!
I found a prep report that said he has a big-time arm. Not much out there, as he was never drafted.
The Pirates seem fascinated by the playstation hitting stats in the Pioneer League. They signed Jakob Goldfarb from there a year ago and he lasted only six months into the season. This year it’s both Ross and Josh Broughton. Hopefully someone’s numbers will hold up a little.
Yeah but was Goldfarb pirate rican?
No wonder he didn’t last longer.
The team of Roberto Clemente has tragically few Puerto Rican on the roster/farm. Hope that changes but I doubt it.
Just going to post this hear OT for lack of a better place to:
Before we all buy into Reynolds CF defense is toast so we gotta give him away for 2 45fvs:
This suggests that—of the trickier balls in play Reynolds saw—the majority of them were 4 and 5 star chances ranging from 25-50% catch probability for 4-stars to 0-25% for 5s. Reynolds had 10 4 star balls hit to him and 20 5 star balls hit his way with only 4 3 stars! I think this truly suggests a guy ranging further than his norm given newb outfielders flanking him.
So is this a positioning problem?
I think mostly bad luck plus trying to do too much with newbie RF/LFs
Mind posting the link?
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/who-got-lucky-in-the-outfield
Thanks!
Thank you for this, having Reynolds in CF makes acquiring outfield help so much easier.
I mentioned the other day, the Statcast data doesn’t support the notion that Reynolds is suddenly Dave Kingman. He’s not Willie Mays, either, but toast? I’m not nearly there yet.
Do we know who scouted him?
No, but I’m sure he has been seen by multiple scouts this year being in three different areas. I know more than one scout covered the Pioneer League this year. He also played in a college summer league last year, so they probably had multiple reports on him
We got ourselves a Pirate Rican!
Dude! That was the line I was gonna use……give it back!
But can you play SS AND hit?
Yes, very, very badly but yes!
Well, I used to be a decent fielding CFer (we won’t talk about my hitting), so maybe we can play for the Buccos?
I’m in my 50s, couple of years back there was this kid at work who was a runner and kept talking crap to the older guys, one day I asked him to put his money where his mouth is and challenged him to a race around the building for $50, he agree, I barely finish, but then I proceeded to collect the $50, he looked confused, until I told him that the deal was I will race him for $50, never said that I’ll win. I’m know it wasn’t original, but I pulled it off!
I’ve literally been called a ‘spry old guy’ . Which is both a compliment and an insult, lol. I LOVE to exercise. Now if I could just see where I’m biking I may be able to keep doing THAT for a few more years?
I’m with you on the old guy part, not so much the spry part lol.
If you don’t use it, you lose it! I am very thankful that I both love to exercise and married a lady who also loves it.
Lol but I made it with you in mind!!!
Ok. Ok. You can have it.
I appreciated, and thank you!
WE GOT OURSELVES A PIRATE RICAN!