Anthony Solometo and bounceback candidates in the Pirates' system
Can Anthony Solometo bounceback after a rough 2024 season?
Having a bad season as a prospect is never ideal, but development isn’t always linear. The minor leagues are the place to work on your overall game, sometimes leading to struggles.
So, now and again, prospects have bad seasons. It’s not the end of the road for them, especially if it’s easily identifiable on why they struggled.
The best thing you can hope to do is learn from it and look to bounce back the following year.
There is probably no prospect in the Pirates system that fits that better than Anthony Solometo. He entered the 2024 season as our fifth-best prospect in the system, but after a rough year in Altoona, he found himself 20 spots lower (25) in this year’s edition.
After a strong start to the season in Greensboro back in 2023, Solometo made it to Double-A, becoming one of the youngest pitchers in the Eastern League. He pitched solid, but it wasn’t quite what he was doing in the lower levels.
Last year was a disaster, however. In 23 games, Solometo posted a 5.37 ERa in 70.1 innings, walking 39 and striking out just 53 batters.
He spent some time on the Development List, the Complex, and Bradenton, but nothing really clicked.
Even though 2025 will likely be a third year he has seen time in Double-A, it’s easy to forget that he will still be 22 years old, and he won’t age up until after the season.
The fastball will never be overpowering, but he has a good slider. If he can get back to throwing more strikes consistently (and getting the velocity back up), Solometo is an easy pick to have a bounce-back season in 2025.
If anything was encouraging about 2024, he kept the ball on the ground more often than in 2023.
His early success was mainly due to his groundball rate, which hovered around 50%. In 2023, it dropped to 40% but jumped back to 51.1% in 2024.
More bounce-back candidates
Enmanuel Terrero: 2023 wRC+ - 116, 2024 wRC+ - 72
Injuries limited him to just 52 games last year, which may have played a part in his struggles, but Terrero struggled to impact the ball the way he had in 2023 last year. The strikeouts increased while his OPS dropped nearly .200 points.
At 22, he may be forced up to Greensboro at this point. I'm not sure if he’s an actual prospect or just a depth guy, but he generated some intrigue back in 2023.
Jackson Glenn: 2023 wRC+ - 120, 2024 wRC+ - 53
More of a depth player, Glenn put together a solid season in 2023 after he started elevating the ball more, but he fell into some of his old habits last year. He hit .284/.349/.455 with 12 home runs and 60 RBI in 2023 but then hit .188/.249/.282 with four home runs last year.
His line drive rate dropped a couple of points, he hit the ball on the ground 44% of the time, and then 33% of his fly balls were infield pop-ups.
Not a recipe for success.
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Like the idea of a minor league bounce back candidates piece. Good job guys.
Has anyone mentioned Bart as the 1st baseman? And have Davis and Endy platoon?