While the Pittsburgh Pirates are dealing with difficulties at catcher at the major league level, their top prospect at the position is being promoted to Double-A Altoona because of his performance.

After slashing .341/.450/.585 with three doubles, one triple, five home runs and 22 RBIs in 22 games at High-A Greensboro this season, Henry Davis is expected to make his debut for the Altoona Curve at 6 p.m. Tuesday against Somerset at Peoples Natural Gas Field, Pirates farm director John Baker confirmed Monday.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Davis is ranked the Pirates’ No. 2 prospect and in the top 100 of MLB Pipeline (No. 23) and Baseball America (No. 41). MLB Pipeline ranks Davis the No. 4 catcher prospect in baseball, and the top three already are in Double-A or Triple-A.

“I’m excited,” Baker said. “That’s a lot of pressure on a player, to bear that cross of (being) 1-1. You always have to perform. And so it’s gonna be fun to see how he responds. If you’re going to be a really good major league player, you’re gonna be under a lot of pressure all the time. And I would say from my experience with Henry that he’s really looking forward to it.”

The loss of Pirates starting catcher Roberto Perez, a two-time AL Gold Glove winner, to a hamstring injury has had a domino effect on the organization’s catching depth. The Pirates selected the contract of Michael Perez and promoted Carter Bins from Altoona to Triple-A Indianapolis, though Baker said it had no bearing on the decision to move Davis up to a higher affiliate.

“Henry’s promotion had nothing to do with what happened in the big leagues,” Baker said. “Henry’s promotion was 100% because of Henry’s performance. He got through the soft stuff that we asked him to do, the soft relationship skill stuff. He nailed those things and put them into action. We think he’s ready. We’re excited to see it.”

After being selected first overall out of Louisville last July, Davis signed for a $6.5 million bonus and made a smashing debut in the Florida Complex League by going 2 for 4 with a double, a two-run home run and three RBIs.

Davis played eight games for Greensboro last summer, slashing .308/.387/.808 with two doubles, a triple, three homers and seven RBIs before being shut down for the season with an oblique injury. Pirates manager Derek Shelton said Davis had a “short, impressive look” in his first spring training.

Baker said the Pirates wanted to see Davis start the season in High-A because it’s a “good sparring partner,” given the scattershot pitching. Davis was 28 for 82 at the plate, with a 1.035 OPS but impressed the Pirates’ development staff as much for his approach as anything.

“First, it was pretty clear after a month that he was pretty severely outperforming the level offensively,” Baker said. “But that wasn’t necessarily the product (for the promotion). I think Henry’s going to hit wherever he goes in baseball. It was more about the things that we asked him to do that were the softer skills: relationships with pitchers, making sure he was approaching the game with a servant mentality – which he did bring in, coming from Louisville.

“Henry’s the kind of kid if you have a reason behind what you’re telling him, he’s not beholden to any beliefs other than the belief that he’s one of the best players in the world. So he just accepts feedback, any sort of critical feedback immediately and walks out and applies it. He did it really quickly. I’m really proud of him. He definitely deserves to be competing against a higher level of baseball.”

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