Where Konnor Griffin developed into baseball’s top prospect and the consensus minor league player of the year this season, another teenage Pittsburgh Pirates prospect made a powerful impression.

Edward Florentino, an 18-year-old outfielder from the Dominican Republic, dominated the Florida Complex League and earned a promotion to Low-A Bradenton to emerge as a top-100 prospect.

The Pirates opened their week of minor league awards Tuesday with Florentino as the headliner by earning the organization’s top rookie-level player of the year award. They also honored 20-year-old right-hander Yonleg Gaetano as their rookie-level pitcher of the year, Double-A shortstop Duce Gourson as their Omar Moreno Baserunner of the Year and the High-A Greensboro Grasshoppers as the top staff, as announced by director of coaching and player development Michael Chernow.

“For me, it was exciting,” Florentino said on a video conference call. “A lot of things happened to me this year. If someone would have told me this in the first month of the year, I (wouldn’t) believe (them). It’s something that you’re working for this… but when you really see yourself right there, it’s impressive.”

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Florentino hit a combined .290 with 23 doubles, 16 home runs, 59 RBIs and 35 stolen bases in 83 games split between the levels, earning a promotion in late June.

Florentino slashed .347/.442/.642 with six doubles, two triples, six home runs and 23 RBIs in 29 games with the FCL Pirates. Florentino batted .262 with 17 doubles, 10 homers and 36 RBIs in 54 games with the Marauders, and ranked second in the Florida State League in stolen bases, runs scored, extra-base hits (27) and total bases (98) and in the top five in hits, home runs, RBIs, slugging (.503) and OPS (.883).

He is ranked No. 81 by MLB Pipeline and No. 94 by Baseball America.

“For me, that was so impressive because I didn’t expect that,” Florentino said. “So I always try to be in the best of the list. Getting on that this year was impressive for me.”

Gaetano, signed as an undrafted free agent in April, went 2-2 with five saves, an 0.93 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 39 strikeouts and a .168 batting average against in 13 appearances (three starts) with the Dominican Summer League Pirates Gold team in 2025. He allowed an earned run in only two of his 13 regular-season appearances. Gaetano recorded five strikeouts in five scoreless innings without allowing a hit in his lone start for the Gold team in the DSL Cup.

The 23-year-old Gourson, a 2024 ninth-round pick out of UCLA, ranked seventh in the Pirates’ farm system with 31 stolen bases and batted .275 with 21 doubles, two triples, 10 home runs, 38 RBIs and scored 56 runs in a season split between Low-A Greensboro and the Curve. Gourson has been successful in 89.7% of his stolen base attempts in two pro seasons.

The Grasshoppers, whose 88 wins were tied for fourth-most in the minor leagues, clinched the second-half postseason spot from the South Atlantic League’s North Division for their second straight postseason berth and third in the last five seasons.

Led by South Atlantic League manager of the year Blake Butler, the Grasshoppers’ coaching staff features pitching coach Matt Myers, hitting coaches Jon Prieto and Jonathan Roof and bench coach Phillip Wellman. The support staff includes development coach Steph Lombardo, athletic trainer Coleman Duke, strength and conditioning coach Nick Ritchie, baseball operations assistant MaryAlice Baldwin, nutritionist Kelliann Harnden and clubhouse manager Alonzo Whiteside.

“As much as the wins are nice — they’re nice every night to share a beer over — I think the player development wins are probably the thing that stands out to me the most,” Butler said on a video conference call. “Those things really only happen together when you’re creating a space for development. You’re creating an environment that the players feel like they have an opportunity to get better at baseball, focus on the things, face the things that they’re not good enough at yet, wrestle with some of that stuff. That takes tact. That takes patience. It takes knowledge and commitment to growth. A lot of collaboration as well. …

“I really think the environment that the players were able to reap the rewards from comes from the staff. It’s not something that just a manager can create. It has to come from everybody. It takes buy-in from everybody. It takes commitment from everybody. … Our group never batted an eye. Even in the dog days in August, they continued to work hard to the finish line. We fell a little short from a playoff perspective, but I think those development gains, hopefully, you guys are seeing and writing about in Pittsburgh in the near term.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)