During the offseason, the Tribune-Review will offer Pirates A to Z: An alphabetical, player-by-player look at the 40-man roster, from outfielder Miguel Andujar to pitcher Miguel Yajure.

Player: Mike Burrows

Position: Pitcher

Throws: Right

Age: 23 (Nov. 8)

Height: 6-foot-2

Weight: 195 pounds

2022 MLB statistics: None.

Contract: Not yet eligible for arbitration

Acquired: Selected in the 11th round of the 2018 MLB Draft

This past season: The Pirates enticed Burrows to skip a scholarship to the University of Connecticut with a $500,000 signing bonus but couldn’t imagine how quickly he’d become one of the top pitchers in their farm system.

Burrows had pitched in only 15 games prior to the covid-19 pandemic, yet had a 2.20 ERA and 0.898 WHIP in 49 innings over 13 starts at High-A Greensboro in 2021 to become a prized prospect.

“You see the fruit of his labor, all the work he put in during the pandemic,” said Kieran Mattison, who managed Greensboro in 2021 before moving up to Double-A Altoona. “He’s learned how to use his weapons and find his identity on the mound. He’s bringing electric stuff. When he’s on, he can get outs at any level.

“He has a fastball with plus ride, a breaking ball with plus spin, a really good changeup to keep guys off balance and the abiilty to hit all four quadrants on his own. That’s who he is. He’s the ultimate competitor on the mound. He don’t shy away from competition. He has everything it takes to be successful as a starter at every level.”

Burrows proved as much in the Arizona Fall League, where he went 2-0 with a 3.52 ERA and 1.17 WHIP, 16 strikeouts against five walks in 15⅓ innings over five appearances.

Burrows started last season at Altoona, where he gave up two earned runs or fewer in nine of his 12 starts and ranked sixth among all Eastern League pitchers in ERA (2.94) and batting average against (.199) and seventh in strikeouts (69) before his promotion to Triple-A Indianapolis on June 16.

When Burrows was selected to play in the Futures Game, he was 8-8 with a 3.06 ERA, 199 strikeouts and a .205 batting average against in 43 appearances and ranked first among all Pirates full-season minor leaguers in ERA (3.52) and WHIP (1.14), and second in strikeouts (81) and batting average against (.221).

“I always had a fire under my (butt) about that kind of stuff, just wanting to be better than I was, having that fear of being the same as the year before,” Burrows said. “That’s what drove me during covid. That’s what drove me during the last offseason coming into this offseason, really, that confidence. Not so much an arrogance, just a confidence that I can do it. It has been crazy. I look back on it and over a year’s period it was (Arizona) Fall League to Double-A to Futures Game to Triple-A. It was a lot of stuff, a lot of accomplishments.”

miKe burrows pic.twitter.com/pIEO3TgAeT

— Young Bucs (@YoungBucsPIT) July 17, 2022

Burrows threw 18 pitches in the fifth inning of the Futures Game, getting a fly out to center, a swinging strikeout on a 96.2-mph fastball of Spencer Steer — who was traded to and finished the season with the Cincinnati Reds — and giving up a walk and single before getting a groundout in the American League’s 6-4 win over the National League.

“It was such a cool experience, just to be at another major league field and be on a mound there, just to see a crowd there – even though it wasn’t super large,” Burrows said. “To be in that atmosphere, on a major league field playing baseball was incredible.”

Burrows went 1-4 with a 5.31 ERA and 1.35 WHIP, 42 strikeouts and 12 walks with five homers in 42⅓ innings over 12 appearances at Indianapolis. He had six strikeouts in back-to-back games against Memphis and Iowa before being shut down in late September with right shoulder inflammation. Burrows finished the season averaging 10.6 strikeouts and three walks per nine innings in 94⅓ innings over 24 appearances, including 22 starts.

miKe burrows do be dealin' tho ????‍???? pic.twitter.com/lVrXyIG1g9

— Young Bucs (@YoungBucsPIT) August 20, 2022

Once hopeful that he would get a late-season call-up to the majors, Burrows is now able to look back on how fast he climbed the ranks and developed into a prospect ranked No. 8 in the Pirates’ system by MLB Pipeline and No. 9 by Baseball America, which ranks him its No. 93 overall prospect.

“I knew eventually there had to be a time. Being an 11th-rounder, I knew it wasn’t going to be right away,” Burrows said. “No one was going to give me that credit. I had to earn that. Go out and earn that credit, earn the credibility and prove myself. I kind of liked that, not being given that credit right away. Let me go out and earn that. That’s how I want my career to go. I want to earn that. And if I don’t, I don’t. But I want it to be earned, not given. All of it. That was another part of the mindset.”

MIKE BURROWS IS GOOD.

We’re obviously really hyped about @BaseballAmerica’s new NO. 98 PROSPECT IN BASEBALL (!!) pic.twitter.com/fSrKD2yHSl

— Indianapolis Indians (@indyindians) September 7, 2022

The future: Burrows learned a valuable lesson by trying to figure out the cause of his shoulder issue. He suspects it may have been an overload on the arm, putting “tremendous stress” on the shoulder by overdoing his arm care.

“I could’ve gotten a day (in the majors), could’ve gotten a week, could’ve gotten no time,” Burrows said. “I was really looking forward to this year. Once I got hurt, it was like, ‘Let’s just get ready for next year. Let’s not do anything to screw up next year.’ Because next year’s going to be a big year for myself and for this organization. I want to be a part of it. I don’t want to put myself in a position where I won’t be a part of that. That was in my head when that all happened.”

On Nov. 15, a week after his 23rd birthday, the Pirates added Burrows to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. General manager Ben Cherington called to inform Burrows of the news.

“That was nice. It was an honor, to see my name on a major league roster,” Burrows said. “I think that was really cool. And just hearing Ben calling me and letting me know that was one of those surreal experiences, just another step in the journey where you’re just like, ‘Wow, we’re here now. We’ve made that extra step.’ There’s going to be many more but that was a good one to hear.”

Burrows said he feels “great” now and is back to training and working to expand his pitch repertoire. Where he rose through the ranks on the strength of his four-seam fastball and curveball combination, Burrows added a changeup and is developing another breaking ball.

“I think the fastball-curveball got me to a really good point,” Burrows said. “Adding the changeup and knowing how to utilize it deeper in games and utilize it more to keep hitters off balance and allow the fastball to play up was huge. Now we’re developing a slider.

“If that slider develops well to what I anticipate it will, I think that’s just another great weapon in the arsenal and it’s going to make other stuff play up, especially the curveball. It’s one of the pitches that got me here, but I think that, at a major league level, having that extra breaking ball is going to make the other one play up. I think the slider overall at the major league level, it’s been a tremendous pitch league-wide.”

Although Burrows is likely to start the season in Triple-A, he’s expected to make his major league debut sometime next summer. Pirates reliever Colin Holderman was impressed with what he saw of Burrows while spending some time at Indianapolis after being acquired from the New York Mets in the Daniel Vogelbach trade in late July.

“I got to see him pitch and it was electric,” Holderman said of Burrows. “I loved what I saw. He’s got big-time stuff and I know that he has what it takes to do it up here at this level. Great teammate, great human being, as well. Time will tell, but I think he has what it takes.”

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