Off-season Questions: Who Are The Next Prospects Up in 2020?
Every year all 30 Major League Baseball teams start with a 25-man active roster at the beginning of the season. However, it usually takes more than 25 men when you are trying to put together a successful season. That is where your Minor League prospects come in, filling holes for injuries or ineffectiveness on the Major League club. Some of those prospects have seen the bright lights of the show before, while others are getting their taste of the Big Leagues for the first time in their careers. It is these prospects that come up and make an immediate impact that gets the crowd excited and make them start wishing for the future.
Last season, the Pittsburgh Pirates impact rookie was infielder, and #3 overall prospect, Ke'Bryan Hayes. Hayes came up and electrified the Pirates fan base hitting .376 with five home runs and 11 RBI in his 24-game Big League showcase. While Hayes is here to stay, there are still several prospects in the Minor Leagues who are looking to make their impact felt in 2021. Today, we will look at which prospects we can expect to make their Major League debut in Pittsburgh this season and what their impact may be. This list will not include anyone who has already made their Major League debut, sorry Will Craig, Jared Oliva, Nick Mears, etc. This list only includes players who have not played a game in a Pirates uniform.
OF: Travis Swaggerty
When the Pirates drafted Travis Swaggerty in the first round of the 2018 MLB Draft, they knew that he could hit the ball. Swaggerty never had a batting average below .303 in college and had plus speed swiping 39 bases in his two seasons at Southern Alabama. The batting average has dropped off a little bit since making the professional ranks, but he is still showing that he can swing the bat. 2019 was Swaggerty's best season of his pro career as he made it to Advanced-A Bradenton and hit .265 with nine home runs and 40 RBI in 121 games played. He finished the season fifth on the team in RBI, sixth in batting average, and led the team with 23 stolen bases.
He was ready to make the jump to Double-A Altoona before the 2020 season was canceled, but instead, he was sent to the Pirates satellite campus. He impressed satellite camp coach Brian Esposito and that could help him make the jump to Triple-A in 2021. This will be a big step for Swaggerty and if he can show that he can hit Triple-A pitching, there is a good chance he could be in the Major Leagues by the second half of the season. With Swaggerty, you aren't going to get big power numbers, but he should be a guy you can plug in at the top of the lineup. There he can use his ability to get on base and his speed to put pressure on the opponents. He is projecting to be a centerfielder for the Pirates and when the time comes, would most likely play next to Bryan Reynolds in left.
IF: Hunter Owen
When it comes to versatility, Hunter Owen is your guy in the Pirates Minor League system. He has played six of the nine positions on the field, including a short three-game stint at catcher. However, his primary position is second base and he made it all the way to Triple-A in 2019. It was a tale of two seasons as after Owen hit .295 with 15 home runs and 44 RBI in Double-A, his numbers dropped over 42 games in Triple-A where he hit just .192 with four home runs and nine RBI. Owens's power has shown through for the duration of his pro career as he has had double-digit home runs in four of his six seasons in the organization. He very well could have made the jump to the Major Leagues in 2020, but the cancellation of the Minor League season took that away.
Owen's power ability would be a nice addition to a team that has been struggling to find true power hitters. He isn't going to be a 30 home run guy consistently, but if he can hit 15-20 a year for the Pirates, that is a big boost to the middle of the lineup. The biggest us for Owens is the fact that he can play multiple positions. Utility men have done well in Pittsburgh and Owen can come up and provide relief both in the infield and the outfield. However, the one area he will have to work on is his strikeout rate if he wants to be successful. In 2019, Owens struck out 33% of the time and walked just 7.5%. His power sometimes gets him to antsy at the plate and causes him to chase bad pitches.
RHP: Cody Bolton
With the Pirates facing so many injuries over the last several seasons, one area they need to be deep at is starting pitcher. We have already seen some of the Pirates' Minor League options like JT Brubaker and Cody Ponce, but who sits behind them? One guy, we could see make the jump to the Big Leagues in 2021 is starting pitching prospect, Cody Bolton. Bolton was another prospect at the Pirates alternate site in 2020, as he tried to work through some struggles that the transition to Double-A in 2019 gave him. Bolton made nine starts for Altoona in 2019 and went 2-3 with a 5.83 ERA in 40 innings of work. He kept his high strikeout rate, with 33 in 40 innings, but his walk rate was higher than ever at 9.5%. Bolton has shown good control throughout his career, and it may have been the promotion that had him nervous.
The positive thing about Bolton is the fact that his fastball can consistently hit in the upper 90s, going as high as 97 miles per hour. Because of this, Bolton has featured a high strikeout rate of 24.3% throughout his career. Double-A was really the first bump in the road of his pro career 2017 6th round pick has never had an ERA over four in his pro career before Double-A last season. To go along with his high-powered fastball, Bolton also features what scouts have called a plus slider and change-up to play off of. His slider seems to be his out pitch coming in almost ten miles an hour slower than his fastball, which he uses to set-up. Look for Bolton to start 2021 in the Indianapolis Indians rotation and then possibly make the Big Leagues by year's end.
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