Kevin Gorman’s Take 5: Watch for these prospects as Pirates spring training starts
When Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers and catchers report to spring training Wednesday at Pirate City in Bradenton, Fla., the 67-man camp will include five prospects who aren’t likely to make the Opening Day roster but could finish the season at PNC Park.
Here’s a look at those prospects:
Endy Rodriguez
The 22-year-old catcher, acquired from the New York Mets in the three-team trade that sent Joe Musgrove to San Diego in January 2021, has rocketed through the prospect rankings after a spectacular season.
Rodriguez won the Honus Wagner Award as the Pirates’ minor-league player of the year after leading their minor leaguers in hits (148), extra-base hits (68), doubles (39), batting average (.323), on-base percentage (.407), slugging percentage (.590) and OPS (.996). He hit 25 home runs with 95 RBIs in 125 games across three levels, going from High-A Greensboro to Double-A Altoona and finishing at Triple-A Indianapolis.
Rodriguez has surpassed Henry Davis as the Pirates’ top catching prospect. Baseball America ranks Rodriguez as the organization’s best prospect and No. 23 overall. The Athletic ranks him No. 34 in its top 100, and MLB Pipeline has him at No. 55.
Rodriguez showed he could hit for average and power while displaying patience at the plate and positional versatility in the field by playing catcher, second base and left field. After slashing .356/.442/.678 with 14 doubles, eight homers and 32 RBIs in 31 games at Altoona, Rodriguez was impressive in a six-game stint at Indianapolis in September. He batted .455 (10 for 22) with four extra-base hits and eight RBIs and boasted a 1.21 OPS.
The Pirates added Rodriguez to the 40-man roster, but general manager Ben Cherington said he will start the season in the minors, likely returning to Indy.
“From what we’ve seen, Endy’s put a lot together in professional baseball,” Pirates pitching prospect Quinn Priester said. “It’s really, really fun to watch him play. … I think everybody’s pretty excited for the things that Endy can do.”
Mike Burrows
After opening eyes with a standout season at Greensboro in 2021, the 24-year-old right-hander developed into one of the Pirates’ top pitching prospects last season with a strong start at Altoona.
Burrows gave up two earned runs or fewer in nine of his 12 starts for the Curve and ranked sixth among all Eastern League pitchers in ERA (2.94) and batting average against (.199) and seventh in strikeouts (69).
Selected to play in the Futures Game, Burrows 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) before his promotion to Indianapolis on June 16.
At Indy, Burrows went 1-4 with a 5.31 ERA and 1.35 WHIP, 42 strikeouts and 12 walks with five homers in 421⁄3 innings over 12 appearances. He had six strikeouts in back-to-back games before being shut down with right shoulder inflammation, preventing him from receiving a late September call-up with the Pirates. Burrows was added to the 40-man roster last fall.
“I could’ve gotten a day (in the majors), could’ve gotten a week, could’ve gotten no time,” Burrows said in December. “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 (it’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.”
With the Pirates’ starting rotation looking set, Burrows likely will begin the season at Indianapolis and continue working on the changeup and breaking pitch he’s adding to a four-seam fastball and curveball combo.
“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,” Burrows said. “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.”
Colin Selby
A 16th-round pick in 2018 who is the product of a Division III program, Randolph-Macon College, Selby went from not appearing on the Pirates’ top-30 prospects list to making their 40-man roster.
Converted from a starter to the bullpen after undergoing Tommy John surgery in March 2020, Selby went 3-1 with a 4.37 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in 592⁄3 innings at Greensboro in 2021, saw his strikeouts per nine innings jump from 8.8 to 10.1 and touched triple digits for the first time.
Selby worked exclusively in relief at Altoona last year, going 2-2 with 2.20 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in 322⁄3 innings while averaging 11.3 strikeouts and 3.9 walks per nine innings. He was promoted to Indianapolis in September and, after being added to the 40-man roster, should start there this spring. With a four-pitch repertoire that features a fastball, curveball, slider and a changeup, Selby could be an early or midseason call-up to a bullpen seeking to add more swing-and-miss.
“Colin Selby isn’t talked about enough,” Priester said. “He throws the crap out of the ball and has some of the best stuff I’ve ever seen.”
Henry Davis
Despite missing a month of his first full season with a left wrist injury that forced him to skip the Futures Game, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft is regarded as one of baseball’s top prospects.
The Athletic ranks Davis No. 30 in its top 100. MLB Pipeline has him at No. 57 and Baseball America at No. 73.
After slashing .341/.450/.585 with three doubles, a triple, five home runs and 22 RBIs in 22 games at High-A Greensboro, Davis earned a promotion to Altoona with much fanfare in early May.
His Double-A debut was a double-edged sword that showed why the Pirates love Davis’ bat and why his development at catcher has been delayed. Davis, who has a reputation for crowding the plate, got hit with a pitch on the left wrist in his first at-bat for the Curve.
“It’s a compliment, right?” Davis said two hours earlier. “It’s a compliment to get hit. It shows respect.”
In his third at-bat, Davis showed why his power is respected: He hit a line-drive homer to left field at Peoples Natural Gas Field. The wrist injury became a lingering problem that forced Davis to go on the injured list and miss valuable playing time behind the plate.
Davis is likely to start the season at Altoona and have to prove himself at Triple-A Indianapolis, but he’s not shy about stating his hopes to play in the major leagues sometime this summer.
“When you talk to Henry, he’s going to speak into existence what he wants to happen,” Pirates farm director John Baker said. “When the game starts and the workday starts, he really is where his feet are. And he’s fully locked into that thing. He knows his path to Pittsburgh is always through the present moment. If he’s fully present, that’s the way he accelerates his path towards Pittsburgh.
“Henry’s done a good job of believing that he’s one of the best players in the world. If you talk to Henry, he’ll probably tell you he should be on the Pirates now. It takes that kind of self-belief to be a major-league player. It’s never something we’ll tamp down with him. It’s something I respect, personally, because he meets that with being there for his team every single day, which is remarkable.”
Quinn Priester
The Pirates’ first-round pick in 2019, Priester is another top-100 prospect whose ascent was slowed by injuries last season but still won the Bob Friend Award as minor-league pitcher of the year.
Priester had to overcome an oblique injury at the start of the season but ended up leading all Pirates minor leaguers with a 3.29 ERA while going 5-5 with a 1.21 WHIP and 89 strikeouts against 30 walks in 901⁄3 innings over 19 starts over four levels.
The right-hander spent most of the season at Altoona, where he went 4-4 with a 2.87 ERA — including a 1.69 ERA in July — and 75 strikeouts against 22 walks in 751⁄3 innings over 15 starts. Priester finished the season at Indianapolis and also pitched in the Arizona Fall League.
“That is the kind of player anyone should hope to work with,” Rodriguez said of Priester. “He is such a pleasure to work with. He’s so nice, so polite. When it comes to on the field, that’s the guy you can trust with a late game in the World Series. He just keeps a good eye on the game. He works very hard, and he stays very focused.”
Ranked No. 57 by The Athletic and No. 60 by MLB Pipeline, Priester still has to work on his pitch development. He spent the offseason trying to locate his fastball up in the strike zone to complement a sinker and curveball and also is working on his changeup. He’s expected to start the season at Indianapolis but plans to finish it with the Pirates.
“My goals are to be in the majors and be an impact player as soon as possible,” Priester said in December. “I want to be the best version of myself come February and give myself the opportunity to be (with the Pirates) in March.
“But with that being said, I understand there’s a natural progression of things, and we have to trust in that. So I’m going to do everything that I can to be the best Quinn Priester this season from as early as I can be and understand that that’s not going to be who I am at the end of the year. I’m going to be better. Whether it’s determined that I’m ready in March or April or May or June, I’m gonna be ready for that opportunity. I don’t want to come up and have to keep learning. I want to be able to win games right away.”
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
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