Rule 5 Draft Prospect Profile: Max Kranick
As the Pittsburgh Pirates were going through their playoff years from 2013 to 2015, 259 miles east of Pittsburgh a future member of the organization was training for professional baseball. Max Kranick was an ace at Valley View High School and was emerging as one of the best right-handed pitchers in the country. He ranked 179th on MLB.com's top prospect list and was gaining attention from bot only the Pirates, but the rest of Major League Baseball as well. He was able to touch 95 with his fastball and had two promising breaking pitches to build off of that pitch. The Pirates decided to take a chance on the young right-hander drafting him in the 11th round of the 2016 MLB draft.
Since being drafted, injuries have hampered Kranick's ability to move up the Minor League ladder but, since he has been healthy, he has started to show flashes of success in the lower levels of the Minor Leagues. The big question with Kranick is whether he can take his mid-90s fastball to the higher levels of the Minor Leagues, while still being an effective pitcher. He made the Pirates alternate training site during the 2020 season and pitched well in-game situations and impressed many of the Pirates coaches. Now, in his first year of eligibility in the Rule 5 Draft, the Pirates must decide if they want to protect the 23-year-old or risk losing him in the Rule 5 Draft.
The Young and the Injured
When Kranick was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team was excited to get him into the Minor League system. Due to his inexperience at the college level, the Pirates decided to start Kranick in rookie ball with the former Bristol Pirates for the 2016 season. It was a good first showing for the young right-hander, who went 1-2 with a 2.43 ERA in 33.1 innings of work. He bounced between the bullpen and starting rotation, appearing in nine games and making six starts. He had pinpoint accuracy with a walk percentage of 3%, but he wasn't blowing the ball by hitters like he did in high school.
However, he only appeared in five games in rookie ball the following season because of shoulder tightness. He appeared in just five games between the Bristol Pirates and Gulf Coast Pirates. He allowed just three earned runs in 241 innings, but 10 unearned runs and his arm was tiring by July. That is when he turned to former Pirates reliever Vic Black for help in strengthening his arm. He came with a new approach and a shorter arm angle in 2018. He would make the move to full-season baseball in 2018 with the Low-A West Virginia Power and went 4-5 with a 3.81 ERA in 17 games, 16 starts. With a change in arm-angle, sometimes you have to worry about a pitcher losing his accuracy. But, in Kranick's case, his accuracy stayed with a walk percentage of 5.5 while his strikeout percentage went up to 23.7%.
As Kranick got better, he made the next jump in his career during the 2019 season, being moved to the Bradenton Marauders roster. He took on the biggest workload of his career and saw the most success he has ever seen. He made 20 starts for the Marauders and went 6-7 and posted a career-best 3.79 ERA in 109.1 innings of work. He continued to place the ball well in the zone, but he was getting hit around more than ever with an opponent batting average of .246. His strikeout numbers dropped dramatically, to a 17.2 strikeout percentage, but he got out of jams by generating ground balls.
2020 was supposed to be the year that Kranick made the big jump to Double-A Altoona and go from promising arm to top-prospect. However, the pandemic changed that path to Altoona but still offered Kranick the opportunity to pitch at People's Natural Gas Field. Kranick made the Pittsburgh Pirates satellite camp roster and got to showcase his stuff in front of top Minor League coaches. The scouts were impressed with Kranick's body of work and pinpoint control while pitching in the simulated game situations. As the Minor Leagues begin to start back up in 2021, Kranick should finally get his opportunity to showcase what he can do at the higher levels of the Minor Leagues.
Young Arm Big Promise
When looking at the Pirates Top 30 prospects list, Kranick currently ranks 24th overall in the system. At just 23-years-old, Kranick still has a lot of promise for his professional career, but not a lot of experience. It is this lack of experience at the higher levels of the Minor Leagues that should keep Kranick safe from the Rule 5 Draft, at least at the Major League level. Kranick has not had jump off the page numbers that would garner him making an impact at the MLB level now, and if drafted he would have to stay on an MLB roster all season. However, where the Pirates would have to worry about losing Kranick is in the Minor League portion of the draft.
With a mid-90s fastball, Kranick has a high ceiling for Major League success and his control is just another notch in his chain. If the Pirates are able to retain Kranick this off-season, it will add another key piece to their pitching depth in the organization moving forward. The 23-year-old projects to be a mid to top of the rotation arm and, if he can limit the number of hits he allows, could be a fixture in the next competitive Pirates team's rotation. So, I don't think that Kranick deserves a full-time 40-man roster spot, but the Pirates should work on protecting him for the Minor League portion of the Rule 5 Draft.
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