Morning Rundown: Pirates sign Tommy Pham, Pirates Top 25 prospects day
Pirates make signing, site's Top 25 prospects released
The Pittsburgh Pirates finally addressed their outfield situation, signing free-agent Tommy Pham to a one-year deal that is worth $4,025,000.
Pham, 36 (will turn 37 before the start of the 2025 season), hit .248/.305/.368 with nine home runs, 39 RBI, and seven stolen bases in 2024. He’s been somewhat of a frequent traveler over the past couple of years, playing for seven teams (Reds, Red Sox, Mets, Diamondbacks, White Sox, Cardinals, Royals) since 2022.
He’s hit .258/.346/.427 with 139 hits and a 113 wRC+ in his career. He’s also 15 hits away from 1,000. Pham recorded three consecutive 20 home runs seasons from 2017-2019.
The last three free agent signings the Pirates have made combined for a -0.8 fWAR in 2024. When you combine the fWAR of Andrew McCutchen and Caleb Ferguson, they break even at zero.
While Pham has traditionally hit lefties better than righties, he finished with a 91 wRC+ against RHP and LHP.
Pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in less than a week.
After an entire week leading up to it, our Top 25 prospects for the Pittsburgh Pirates will be released later today.
To no one's surprise, Bubba Chandler was the number one ranked prospect, and it was a unanimous decision. The system is still pitcher-heavy, especially at the top, although there are some interesting hitters who have worked their way up to the top of the list.
Enjoy the list and, most importantly, the full-player write-ups that come with it. I’ve learned lately that where the players are on the list isn’t as important (although I did push to get one player moved up) as the actual write-ups.
I put a lot of thought into the write-ups, and I think they show the hours we spend here at the site watching these players, either on TV or in person.
Again, you guys make this happen, and I look forward to discussing it with everyone in the comments section.
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Some commenter at DKPS referred to the “Pham-ine.” Gonna remember that one.
By coincidence, Keith Law dropped his Pirates top 20 today at the Athletic. As indicated previously from his overall top 100, his top four Pirates are Chandler, Yorke, Termarr, and Griffin. A few notes of interest:
1) He has Carlson Reed at #8 and has him as the system sleeper as well. He isn’t thrilled about the delivery but he likes the stuff.
2) He has Barco at #15 due to lack of secondary pitches. Projects him as a reliever.
3) Mueth is not in the top 20; in others of note he mentions problems with lefties due to his sidearm delivery.
4) Solometo is his fallen prospect; it all fell apart in 2024 as we know and unless his stuff ticks up again he’s not going to amount to anything.
He joins others here in being a big Wyatt Sanford fan. He also mentions being totally mystified by the Adam Frazier signing, which will take at bats away from Yorke, who he feels his ready to start in the majors on Day 1 this year.