Control issues the tale of two halves for JP Massey

After jumping out to a great start to his professional career, control issues came back to plague JP Massey down the stretch

The Pittsburgh Pirates have gone pitcher-heavy over the last couple of drafts, especially at the college level.

One was JP Massey, drafted in the seventh round out of the University of Minnesota as a senior. He signed for $150,000, an under-slot deal for where he was taken, sitting out the rest of the 2022 season.

Massey put up some strong strikeout numbers in college, he was just plagued by walks, which bounced him in and out of the rotation.

The Pirates were looking to save some money in the draft to look add elsewhere, but with the right tweak or two, Massey certainly has the stuff to be a noteworthy prospect.

Entering the 2023 season, Massey began the season in the rotation for the Bradenton Marauders to get acclimated to pro ball.

Whatever was done in the offseason leading up worked, as Massey quickly emerged as one of the best pitchers in the Flordia State League.

He was named the FSL Pitcher of the Month in May after posting a 0.72 ERA (two earned runs) while striking out 29 batters and allowing just 14 hits over 25 innings pitched.

During his time in Bradenton, Massey posted a 3.28 ERA (3.83 xFIP) with 57 strikeouts in 49.1 innings pitched. He also posted a huge ground ball rate of 59.5%.

Massey throws five pitches - fastball, sinker, curveball, slider, and change-up - with the two breaking pitches being a massive part of his success. He posted an insane 57.1% whiff rate with his curveball, as well as a 43.1% mark with the slider.

Single-A hitters had little to no answer to them, earning him a spot in the Future’s Game during All-Star Weekend.

He was promoted to Greensboro on June 20, and from there, the control issues started to creep back out. The control wasn’t great in Bradenton (11.4%), but it ballooned up after being promoted, as he nearly walked (17.4%) as many as he struck out (19.7%).

When it was all said and done, he had a 4.65 ERA (5.28 xFIP) with 23 walks and 26 strikeouts in 31 innings pitched.

There were some encouraging signs in Greensboro, as he improved his HR/FB% and line drive rate while holding hitters to a lower average, but that wasn’t enough to cover up the control issues.

Massey might be better suited for a bullpen role in the future, especially with two solid-breaking pitches. His fastball averaged 93 mph while in Bradenton, but it didn’t seem like he could hold that later in the season.

He already doesn’t have the most ideal shape to it (11.3 IVB, -5.9 VAA), so throwing in the low 90s will leave it open to get beat up pretty hard the further he moves up the ladder.

Keeping him in the bullpen, where he can focus primarily on the slider and curveball, may be able to hide that, but he’ll have to improve the control for it to matter.

It was a brutal end to a season that started so promising for Massey. If the Pirates keep him in Greensboro, there should be an opportunity to keep him as a starter, but his long-term future could be as a reliever.

Massey looked like a blooming success story for the Pirates’ development team, turning a guy with horrible walk numbers in college into an effective professional pitcher. That could still be the case, but it comes down to the control.