Morning Rundown: Canaan Smith-Njigba returns to Pirates, three prospects 'picked to click'
Pirates claim Smith-Njigba, move Brubaker to 60 day, prospects mentioned on FanGraphs.
In an interesting turn of fate, the Pittsburgh Pirates picked up a familiar face off of waivers.
After being designated for assignment by the Seattle Mariners, Canaan Smith-Njigba was claimed by the Pirates yesterday, returning to the team he’s spent the last couple of years with.
It’s been a busy month for CSN, as he was DFA by the Pirates on January 31, claimed by the Mariners on February 7, only once again being placed on waivers a couple of days ago before being picked back up by Pittsburgh.
To make room on the roster, the Pirates moved JT Brubaker to the 60-day injured list.
During his first stint with the Pirates, Smith-Njigba didn’t do much with his limited opportunity in the majors after breaking camp with the major league team.
He has a 38 wRC+ in 44 plate appearances with the Pirates but hit 15 home runs while stealing 21 bases in Triple-A last year.
FanGraphs continued their prospect coverage on Monday, taking a look at ‘their picks to click’ by going over some names that could make next year’s edition of their top 100.
While they didn’t select any Pirates - they had Yordany De Los Santos on this list last year - it doesn’t mean they weren’t represented.
At the end, they had a separate section where they listed names that were given to them by some of the sources they talked to within the game, and three Pirates were mentioned.
Esmerlyn Valdez
Alessandro Ercolani
Thomas Harrington
Seeing as he made ESPN’s top 100 list, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise Harrington was mentioned here. He put up good numbers in a hitter-friendly ballpark and tied with Jared Jones for the most strikeouts in the Pirates’ system. Seeing he wasn’t on the top 100 for FanGraph's official list, it’s not too much of a surprise he gets mentioned here.
The other two are a little more of a surprise, at least at first glance.
Valdez put up a 129 wRC+ last year in the FCL, getting a quick look with Bradenton at the end of last year. He finished sixth among qualified hitters in batting average in the FCL.
His stint in the Arizona Fall League was far from ideal, Ercolani was also the youngest player there. His cutter was rated as one of the best pitchers in the AFL by Baseball America’s Stuff+ metric, and he is capable of hitting the upper 90s with his fastball.
He pitched all of 2023 in Bradenton as a teenager and won’t turn 20 until the 2024 season starts.
CSN didn’t waste any time. He’s already here.
AJ Graham was released. He ended up playing 15 games over three seasons. Remember when he was drafted and no one could find any real info about him? It was a strange pick then and ended up working out about as well as you would expect from a completely unknown high school player