After promoting pair of 1st-round picks, Pirates turn attention to rising prospects

In a week when his fingerprints were all over the Pittsburgh Pirates, especially with the promotions of a pair of top-five prospects, Ben Cherington wasn’t in a celebratory mood.

Since being hired as Pirates general manager, Cherington has championed the need to identify, acquire, develop and deploy talent through the MLB first-year player and international drafts, free agency, trades and even the waiver wire.

The major-league debuts of Henry Davis and Nick Gonzales came amid a 10-game losing streak that saw the Pirates slip from first place to fourth in the NL Central. They also coincided with the Cincinnati Reds riding a 12-game winning streak and going from fourth to first after promoting top prospect Elly De La Cruz. That gave the appearance the front office was panicking.

So Cherington wasn’t as interested in taking credit as much as he was finding a way to stop the skid.

“It means a lot organizationally to have any player that was drafted originally or signed through our international department come up and contribute,” Cherington said. “If guys are coming up and helping us win games, that’s what we need to do. Doesn’t matter at all to me whether they were drafted since I’ve been here or not. We want as many good players as we can get, and that’ll never stop.”

“We need to keep the pedal down on finding the next group of young players and continue to get better at that and development and just keep that line going. That’s the name of the game, and we know we have to be really good at that to sustain winning in Pittsburgh, and so we’re very focused on it all the time. So it doesn’t mean anything in terms of when they were drafted, but the fact they’re Pirates and if they’re ready to come help us win a game, that certainly does mean something and we need more and more of that.”

Behind the scenes at player development meetings, the Pirates determined which minor league players were deserving of being promoted within their top-10 farm system in preparation for the next wave of prospects to make it to the major leagues.

Turning to top picks

It started with a trio of former first-round draft picks.

Right-hander Carmen Mlodzinski, the 31st overall pick in 2020, was the first player drafted by Cherington to make his major-league debut in a move necessitated by the injuries and ineffectiveness of the bullpen.

Davis was the No. 1 overall choice of the 2021 MLB Draft, a year after the Pirates selected Gonzales seventh. That the Pirates turned to Davis and Gonzales had as much to do with their OPS as it did their pedigree.

After recording a .284/.433/.547 slash line in 41 games at Double-A Altoona, Davis put up similar numbers in 10 games at Triple-A Indianapolis by slashing .286/.432/.514 when the Pirates added him to the active roster Monday at PNC Park.

“Henry was at a position where he could do something for us,” Pirates farm director John Baker said, “where he was so competent in the outfield and swinging the bat so well that when a team needs offense, he made himself an option.”

Where Gonzales was considered an offense-first infielder when drafted, his defense improved to the point that the Pirates needed his bat to catch up. Gonzales raised his OPS by almost 30 points at Indianapolis when he slashed .270/.440/.460 with eight extra-base hits, eight RBIs and almost as many walks (17) as strikeouts (18) in 17 games this month when he got the call-up to the Pirates on Friday in Miami.

“If you look at the last three weeks in Indy, he was starting to look like what we envisioned him in the future,” Baker said. “The strikeout rate was down to 20%, the OPS was up over .900. Coming up with some left-handed pitching we were going to see in major leagues, we tried to put him in position to do some damage against those pitchers.

“Nick has worked so hard to become an above-average defensive second baseman. That was always the question about Nick. Everybody believed in the bat and that he was going to be an offense-first player, but I would not call Nick an offense-first player anymore.”

What’s the catch?

That the Pirates promoted Davis, drafted and developed as a catcher, to play right field raised eyebrows in baseball circles and gave the impression that Endy Rodriguez is now viewed as their top catching prospect.

The plan is for Davis to continue to work on his receiving in bullpen sessions with Pirates coaches Mike Rabelo and Jordan Comadena while learning behind Austin Hedges and Jason Delay while Rodriguez remains at Indianapolis as its primary catcher.

“I don’t know that it’s so black and white,” said MLB.com draft and prospect analyst Jonathan Mayo, author of “Smart, Wrong and Lucky: The Origin Stories of Baseball’s Unexpected Stars,” which will be released July 11.

“They were adamant that they believe Henry will eventually start taking over catching duties and will earn the trust of the pitching staff. They feel like he’s made significant strides defensively. I haven’t talked to anyone outside the organization about his catching, so I can’t speak to the veracity of those comments, but I don’t think they pulled the plug.”

Rodriguez rocketed past Davis in prospect rankings last season, when he rose through three levels and was named the organization’s minor league player of the year after showing the versatility to also play the infield and outfield.

Baker spent seven seasons in the majors as a catcher, so he understands the cognitive and physical toll it takes on a player. That’s especially true offensively, which explains why Rodriguez is slashing .248/.336/.381 in 54 games at Indy this season.

“It now gives Endy the opportunity to be behind the plate five days a week. Endy looks like the type of player, in our eyes, that can handle the larger bulk of catching because he’s so smooth back behind the plate,” Baker said. “Endy has dealt with that this year with mastering the PitchCom and veteran pitchers and the dugout awareness required in Triple-A, dealing with baserunners and walks and the strike zone and longer games. It’s all a great learning experience for him.

“It’s going to be a great problem to have when they’re both in the major leagues, and we’re like, ‘Who’s going to catch today?’ On top of that, you add the fact that Endy in two weeks just showed that he can also be a capable major-league first baseman now. He’s giving us more options. He’s such a great athlete and good baseball player. I’m happy for Henry to be in the big leagues now, and I’ll be pumped when Endy gets there, as well.”

Who’s next?

Where Davis and Gonzales drew the most attention, the Pirates made a flurry of minor-league moves last week. Among the most prominent were the promotions of right-handed pitchers Jared Jones and Kyle Nicolas to Indianapolis, where they join top-five prospect Quinn Priester in a young starting rotation.

A 22-year-old right-hander who was drafted in the first round in 2019, Priester leads Indianapolis in games started, innings pitched and strikeouts and appeared on the cusp of a call-up after going 4-0 with a 2.81 ERA and 1.29 WHIP in May. But he followed that with four starts in June where his ERA was 4.30.

“I’ve been watching him carefully, and it’s been one really good start and one not so good. He had four starts in a row in May, and you’re like, ‘Here we go,’ then had a couple clunkers,” Mayo said. “I’m still waiting to see what he can become. Maybe he’s not quite as exciting as the cold-weather projectable, athletic high schooler. You just don’t know what someone is going to become as they physically and mentally mature on the mound.”

Baker said Priester is working on separating his fastballs so that he can have more success against left-handed hitters, and that it’s easy to forget that Priester is only four years removed from high school.

“He’s such a mature kid and so smart that you watch him and think, ‘He’s 26. When’s he going to get to the big leagues?’” Baker said. “Then you look at his age and go, ‘There’s a lot of players that are his age that are in A-ball.’ And he’s a front-line starter in Indianapolis. Quinn is close, and I think the things he’s working on are going to get him there this year.”

Where Priester was drafted by Neal Huntington, Jones and Nicolas were acquired by Cherington. Jones was a second-round pick out of La Mirada (Calif.) High School in 2020, while Nicolas was part of the return from Miami in the Jacob Stallings trade.

At 6-foot-4, 223 pounds, the 24-year-old Nicolas has a prototype starter’s build but has to work on staying in the strike zone. Only 21, the 6-1, 190-pound Jones had a 2.23 ERA and 1.08 WHIP at Altoona but will face a challenge against better hitters in the International League.

“You can get away with less there,” Baker said, noting the automated ball-strike system. “There’s inflated Triple-A pitching numbers, and part of that is the strike zone is so small. You have three days of ABS, and the ball fully has to be on the plate to be a strike.”

The Pirates also are excited about left-handed starter Anthony Solometo and middle infielder Tsung-Che Cheng moving up to Altoona.

Solometo, 20, a second-round pick out of Bishop Eustace Prep in New Jersey, is a 6-5, 220-pounder who Mayo predicted is on track to crack the MLB Pipeline top-100 prospect rankings soon after he boasted a 2.30 ERA and 1.16 WHIP with 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings in the hitter-friendly South Atlantic League.

“Never in my life have I met someone so young and so mature. It’s like talking to someone who’s been in the game 30 years. Is this a really experienced scout or a young kid from Jersey?” Baker said of Solometo, who had six strikeouts and tossed five scoreless innings Friday for Altoona. “You see the numbers he put up in the South Atlantic League pitching in Greensboro, which is like pitching on the moon. It’s the worst place on earth to pitch, which is a nice challenge for any pitcher, and he just dominated that level.”

Cheng, 21, stands only 5-7, 173 but put up big offensive numbers by batting .308/.405./575 with 12 doubles, nine triples, nine home runs and 31 RBIs in 57 games at High-A Greensboro. Even more impressive was that he had a higher OPS on the road (1.066) than at home (.858), and he’s considered an excellent defender at shortstop.

“We call him Z, and he’s a fascinating one,” said Baker, noting that Cheng shined on big stages in the Colombia and Caribbean winter leagues and for Chinese Taipei in the World Baseball Classic. “He’s such an unassuming kid. He’s small, but all he’s done is perform for us. He’s somebody who’s really exciting. I think he’s a really big prospect that overcomes size with baseball acumen and ability. He’s a remarkable kid and a remarkable player. He’s played all winter and all year to get himself into this position.”

While Baker celebrated the rise of prospects in the minors who came via the draft and international signings, the Pirates also have success stories in players acquired by Cherington through trades.

Baker noted that starting center fielder Jack Suwinski and shortstop Tucupita Marcano were acquired from San Diego for Adam Frazier, righty Roansy Contreras from the New York Yankees for Jameson Taillon, and Rodriguez and All-Star closer David Bednar in the three-way trade that sent Joe Musgrove to the Padres.

That wasn’t lost on Pirates president Travis Williams, who complimented Cherington on the steadiness he has brought to baseball operations and his alignment with ownership in steering the Pirates’ ship in a different direction.

“It’s good to see some of the indications of some of the early decisions that we made, whether it be trades that probably weren’t all that popular in the first couple of years or whether that be the fact that we didn’t perform very well and had good draft picks,” Williams said. “Those are tough things for our fans to absorb and swallow, tough things for all of us in the front office to absorb and swallow. But I think we’re starting to see the fruits of that labor, if you will, or indications that we’ve turned this around.”