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It's hard to believe that the Pittsburgh Pirates were 20-9 at the end of April. Alas, here we are, just a couple of 10-game losing streaks later, and the Buccos are 12 games under .500 and 11 games out of first place in the NL Central once again. All is right in the world.
Unfortunately, as a Pirates fan, this is a song and dance I'm all too familiar with. While the pessimist in me continues to believe that nothing has changed and this endless pain will continue, something does seem a little different about these 2023 Pittsburgh Pirates. We have seen more MLB debuts in the first 100 games of the season than I can ever remember. The newest comes in the form of starting pitcher Quinn Priester, catcher Endy Rodriguez, and middle infielder Liover Peguero.
With Peguero stuck behind plenty of talent long-term, it's probably best to focus on the other two newcomers to decide if Pittsburgh can provide fantasy managers with a bit of magic despite their inevitably disappointing record. So, let's take a deeper dive into the overall outlook and very small returns thus far from Quinn Priester and Endy Rodriguez.
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Quinn Priester: Starting Pitcher
Priester is a 22-year-old right-handed starting pitcher who stands tall and slender on the mound at 6'3" and 195 lbs. He is the Pirates' #4 Prospect on MLB.com.
In 18 Triple-A starts this year, the 2019 first-round pick pitched to a 4.28 xFIP while striking out just under a batter per inning and walking 3.59 batters per nine innings. All-in-all, the data suggests there's nothing overly special about Priester, but scouts have remained optimistic on the pitch-mixing, contact-heavy righty.
The Illinois native works with a four-pitch arsenal made up of a sinking fastball, a slider, a curveball, and a changeup. While the curveball typically gets the most swing-and-misses, Priester can attack hitters differently in each at-bat, filling up the zone in hopes of weak contact before using any of his off-speed pitches to try to get a third strike on a hitter. He'll never be a huge strikeout arm at this rate, especially with his commitment to the low-90s sinker, but there's plenty to like about a pitcher who can get ground balls at an elite rate with three off-speed pitches to throw in when needed.
In his MLB debut on Monday, July 17th, Priester came out as we expected, filling up the strike zone early and often. In his first three innings of work, the youngster retired all nine batters with just 25 pitches (20 strikes) on eight ground outs and one line out. Just as he profiled in Triple-A, Priester was able to generate a lot of soft contact on the ground to get off to a strong, efficient start.
Unfortunately, Priester's second time through the batting order woke him up in a hurry. After an uncharacteristic five-pitch walk to leadoff man Steven Kwan, Amed Rosario blasted a low-and-in slider to dead center field to make it a 2-0 game in the fourth inning. Priester used the next 11 pitches to generate a flyout and two more ground outs to surpass the middle of the order without further damage, but not before a careless walk and a lack of swing-and-misses put the Bucs in a hole.
Priester finally recorded his first strikeout on a foul-tipped curveball to Josh Bell with the fifth pitch of the at-bat to lead off the fifth inning. The emotions must've run high, because he walked Will Brennan on the next four pitches before impressively recording the second swinging strikeout of his career, this time with a fifth-pitch sinker that just dropped below the zone. The next at-bat resulted in Bo Naylor clocking a middle-of-the-zone sinker off the wall for an RBI double before a flyout ended the fifth inning. Overall, despite two walks and three earned runs on two hard-hit balls, Priester was as advertised through five frames.
Unfortunately, the positive part of this segment ends here, as Priester hit a brick wall the third time through the order, allowing two singles, two doubles, and a homer before getting yanked after 5.1 innings of work. The culprit of the damage in the sixth inning appeared to be missing the zone early in the at-bat before losing command with hit-able pitches in the middle of counts. Priester didn't give the best hitters in the lineup a different look the third time around, and they made him pay in a big way.
Overall, it's tough to be too critical of the 22-year-old who received zero run support from his young squad, but there are both positive signs and warning signs to be taken away from Priester's debut. For one, he seems to have the soft-contact stuff needed to eat up innings at this level. The command and pitch mix was fine for five innings, and the walks seemed rather avoidable. However, just two whiffs on 73 pitches are not good enough. Sure, this sample size is small. but it carries over from his trends in Triple-A. We'll have to wait and see if his ability to miss bats rises as he becomes more confident in black and gold.
As far as fantasy managers are concerned, there doesn't seem to be much here outside of the deepest of dynasty/keeper leagues. Priester can be a good MLB pitcher, there's no doubt about that. But we don't have the numbers from his minor league career or the eye test from his first start to believe he'll be more than a 7.00 K/9 pitcher in the major leagues for right now. With two or three walks expected and the occasional long ball likely, it's tough to sell Priester in his current state... But keep an eye on him if the swing-and-misses start to show up.
Endy Rodriguez: Catcher
Unfortunately, there's much less to say about Endy Rodriguez's young career thus far. After going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in his debut alongside Priester, the 23-year-old switch-hitting catcher struck out three more times on Tuesday. Starting behind the plate in both games, Rodriguez hit in the seventh spot in the order in his first two starts before taking a seat on the bench for Wednesday's matinee series finale.
Rodriguez is Pittsburgh's #3 Prospect on MLB.com and now that he's up, the Bucs have five of their top seven prospects on their current major league roster at the same time!
In a pinch-hit appearance in the bottom of the 7th inning on Wednesday, the Dominican Republic native switched from the left side to the right when a reliever was called from the bullpen. After battling the count full, Rodriguez pulled a soft liner into left field to put runners on first and second with one out, which would eventually lead to a five-run, game-winning inning for the Buccos. Rodriguez then took over the catching duties for Austin Hedges, and in the bottom of the eighth inning, you guessed it, the youngster struck out swinging once more.
The good news? Rodriguez has played in 73 Triple-A games in his career, and his strikeout rate during that time has hovered around 14.5%. Therefore, this strikeout thing should level out over the next few series. The bad news? An 85.7% K-rate looks bad no matter which way you slice it. Derek Shelton has verbally committed to Henry Davis remaining in right field most days as of now, which leaves the majority of starts behind the plate to the newly-promoted Rodriguez. Hedges will continue to be the short side of the platoon so long as the top prospect finds his way as a hitter in the coming weeks.
Overall, the future should be bright for the Bucs' long-term solution behind the dish. More and more often we're seeing bat-first catchers like Henry Davis spend less time with knee pads on and more time as designated hitters, first basemen, or outfielders. That leaves a significant void for a catcher like E-Rod who is an above-average defensive player who should be a source of good contact towards the bottom of the lineup with decent pop from both sides of the plate. It's also worth noting that Rodriguez has experience playing some first base, second base, and outfield as well.
Unfortunately for fantasy managers, things are a little crowded with three catchers on the Pirates roster, and outside of deep, daily-move leagues, it's tough to commit to Rodriguez as your starting catcher, especially with his run of strikeouts early on. That being said, dynasty owners should be able to see the path for this young man, and it's easy to tell where he fits in when you consider the likes of Hedges and Jason Delay as his current competition for reps. Keep an eye on Rodriguez's contact skills from both sides of the plate as well as his ability to keep runners at bay on the bases, and if he starts to get hot, Shelton might have no choice but to start him five to six times a week.
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