Arizona Fall League Preview: Termarr Johnson headlines nine prospects for the Pirates

Termarr Johnson leads a group of nine prospects for Pirates heading to the AFL

The Arizona Fall League rosters were officially released on Wednesday, and the Pittsburgh Pirates will send nine prospects west to participate.

They will play for the Scottsdale Scorpions, with a collection of prospects from the Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, New York Mets, and San Francisco Giants.

When it comes to the players the Pirates will be sending over, five will be pitchers, and the other four will be hitters. They also sent nine last year (most teams send eight), but Alessandro Ercolani only pitched a few games and didn’t finish out the season there.

So, one of the five pitchers could have an early shutdown planned into them going to Arizona.

Here’s a look at each player that the Pirates will be sending over to the AFL:

Note: Mike Burrows is no longer on the roster but is listed below. His replacement, Valentin Linarez is added as well.

Hitters

Termarr Johnson, 2B

He’s the teams top prospect that is heading over to Arizona, and will be one of the youngest players participating, which is no shocker as that is generally the case where he is at.

Termarr had an interesting year that he finished up with 14 games in Double-A with Altoona. He got off to a slow start, but slowly dug himself out of it. He didn’t flash some of the raw power he did last year but still managed to hit 15 home runs, two of which came with Altoona.

He also flashed a little more aggressiveness on the basepaths, stealing 22 bases on 27 attempts.

This will be a great opportunity for him to continue to face more advanced pitching. Overall on the season Johnson hit .237/.366/.386 while walking 15.6% of the time.

Kervin Pichardo, INF

Acquired in a deal to send Jackson Wolf back to San Diego after he was DFA, Pichardo spent the entire year at Double-A Altoona playing for the Curve. He didn’t have a horrible season, batting .252/.306/.373 with 11 home runs, eight stolen bases, and 49 RBI.

He will turn 23 during the Fall League, which isn’t overly old for the level he finished up at this year. He didn’t walk much while posting a fairly high strikeout rate, as well.

Pichardo showed some good versatility defensively, playing at least 30 games at second, third, and shortstop.

Geovanny Planchart, C

The 23-year-old Planchart heads to the fall league in an interesting situation. There are only two catchers listed on the Scottsdale roster, so the door is open to get quite a bit of playing time.

There could be someone else who does play catcher as well, but isn’t listed as one, which could cut into the playing time some, but right now there’s quite the opportunity for him.

Planchart had some promise, especially on the defensive side after throwing out 33% of basestealers in 2023 with Bradenton. He was promoted to Greensboro this season and barely played, as the Grasshoppers opted to go with Shawn Ross behind the plate as the primary catcher.

He was then promoted to Altoona as a way to make space for Omar Alfonzo, and only played in a handful of games in Double-A.

In total, Planchart batted .223/.354/.320 with just three home runs (103 wRC+) in 55 games played. He did post strong walk totals (16 BB%) but didn’t impact the ball much this season.

Add in the fact his caught stealing rate was nearly cut in half (17%), it wasn’t the best of seasons for Planchart.

Sammy Siani

The former first-round pick finally broke through and got out of High-A and was promoted to Altoona, where he was just able to work his wRC+ to barely above league average (101).

In 96 games with Altoona, Siani hit .254/.325/.368 with five home runs and 14 stolen bases.

He’s put up solid contact numbers and did add in 13 doubles and six triples to go along with the home runs.

Siani will be 24 in December, and Rule 5 eligible for the second off-season, and a minor league free agent after the 2025 season. So, this could be a good opportunity for Siani to build momentum heading into next year.

Overall Hitting Outlook

Termarr is the highest-ranked prospect overall, and it will be interesting to see how he does. Arizona can have some very hitter-friendly environments, so we will see if he can take advantage of that.

Facing more advanced pitching will be good, as there should be more opportunities in the strike zone, which he struggled with at times this year. There were also some reports of his exit velocity numbers were down. Some, not all, of the parks have that data, so we will get some opportunities to see how hard he is hitting the ball.

The rest of the hitting group are more depth players, although Siani remains relevant due to the Pirates’ lack of outfield prospects in the upper levels.

Pitching

Mike Burrows, RHP

Note: Burrows is no longer on the roster and has been replaced by Valentin Linarez.

After undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, Burrows has slowly worked his way back into the mix and wrapped up the minor league season with tying a career-high 10 strikeouts.

He made his major league debut during the last weekend of the season, and got the win in his only appearance.

Burrows throws from a higher than average release height, and doesn’t have great extension, two factors when looking at certain pitch metrics, and why the fastball didn’t grade out well in Triple-A.

He started out as a fastball/curveball guy before eventually incorporating a change-up and slider, the latter of which was his main secondary offering with Indianapolis.

He threw over 50 innings this year in live game situations, so this is a perfect opportunity to add a few more to his belt heading into the off-season.

Eddy Yean, RHP

One of two players the Pirates received in the Josh Bell trade, Yean is the only that remains now, but even then he is set to be a minor league free agent at the end of the year.

He put together a solid season in Altoona, posting a 3.45 ERA in 73 innings while striking out 65.

He was moved up to Indianapolis after the Double-A season was over and pitched twice, striking out four batters in two innings. The sample has been smaller since, but he got quite a bit of whiff from his fastballs, which were right around average stuff.

Derek Diamond, RHP

When looking for players who may be candidates for the Arizona Fall League, you generally look for anyone who has missed time due to injuries and could be trying to make up some innings.

Diamond missed the first part of the season, making him a fit here. He still threw over 90 innings this year, but that was a bit down from what he did in 2023. He got off to a good start to the season, posting a 2.70 ERA with 28 strikeouts and just four walks in 26.2 innings pitched through May.

From June on, it was more of a struggle, posting a 5.61 ERA in 69 innings pitched—allowing 13 home runs in that span.

Diamond is more of a finesse pitcher, relying on command and control over pure stuff. He got some base metrics from his time in Bradenton, so the Fall League will be an opportunity to see if anything has improved since then.

Brandan Bidois

After not pitching since early July, Bidois returned to pitch a lone inning during the last game of the Indianapolis schedule, which only made sense if he was making the trip to Arizona to get some more work in.

Bidois has put up huge strikeout numbers in the lower levels, albeit with some control issues. He’s struck out 85 batters over 52.1 innings pitched the last two seasons between stops at Bradenton and Greensboro.

Bidois' health has been an issue. He has never pitched more than 30 innings in a single professional season and was on pace to do so this year until the injury.

He gets good extension, especially on his fastball with a steeper approach, and while there is a lot of induced vertical break (IVB), it’s thrown from a higher arm slot. It still graded out a bit above average stuff wise and mixed in a slider and curveball.

Khristian Curtis

Another player who missed some time with an injury, Curtis, slowly started to put things together until he went out.

It was a bit of a rougher time when he returned, but he came back long enough to build up and be ready for an opportunity to make some of those innings back.

Curtis had four pitches that graded out average or better stuff-wise, led by his slider, which got a 47.9% whiff rate. I’ll have more on Curtis and his pitch breakdown later in the off-season during the Fall League.

He ended up striking out 81 batters in 75.1 innings pitched this season with Bradenton, although he did walk 39.

In his last full start before getting hurt, Curtis put together six shutout innings, allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out nine.

Update: Valentin Linarez, RHP

It appears that Mike Burrows is no longer listed on the roster for the Scottsdale Scorpions, instead replaced by Valentin Linarez.

Linarez, 24, began the year with Double-A Altoona but struggled, posting a 6.46 ERA in 30.2 innings pitched before being sent back to Greensboro.

He pitched better once getting to Greensboro, with a 3.20 ERA over 25.1 innings. Linarez offers a big fastball that is easily capable of reaching the upper 90s, and has some of the best extension in all of baseball.

After pitching as a starter to begin the 2023 season, he made the shift to the bullpen, where he was much better. The big fastball, and extension numbers from spring training made him an intriguing player to watch going into 2024, but he got run out of Altoona.

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