Pirates' 2024 Minor League Recaps: Altoona
Not a great year for a prospect-thin team
Altoona didn’t enjoy a banner year in any respect in 2024. The team finished 62-76, leaving it last in the division. And the prospect ranks were thin. The Curve, at different points in the season, did feature a few of the Pirates’ most notable prospects. The AA level, though, has become a major roadblock in the upward path for Pirate prospects since Ben Cherington took over as GM.
The marked tendency for players to hit an impenetrable wall once they reach Altoona says a great deal, and not in a good way, about the team’s scouting and development efforts.
The Curve were solidly below average in both hitting and pitching. The offense was 8th in the 12-team Eastern League in scoring. The hitters were 11th in OBP, slugging, and OPS. They followed the all-too-familiar pattern of hitters throughout the system, finishing with the third-most strikeouts.
They were ninth in both walks and home runs. The hitters weren’t especially young, either, as their weighted average age was a little above the league average.
The pitching staff was younger — the league’s youngest, in fact — so they have a minor excuse for being ninth in ERA. They walked the fifth most and were dead last in strikeouts.
Hitters
Altoona used 29 hitters during the season. Not counting rehabbing players, only two could be regarded unequivocally as prospects, particularly after the Pirates traded Charles McAdoo. The two were shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng and, very briefly, second baseman Termarr Johnson.
Cheng didn’t do a lot to justify his spot on the 40-man roster. He batted just .218/.329/.341, nearly identical to his line at Altoona in the second half of last season, a line that got him a return trip. His walk total was good, but he struck out in 23% of his plate appearances, a high rate for a hitter whose main asset is supposed to be his hit tool. He had a reverse platoon split. Cheng played 26 games at second but otherwise stuck with short, where he remained a reliable defensive player. He finished the season at Indianapolis, going 6-for-13 in six games.
Johnson didn’t reach Altoona until late August and appeared in 14 games there. He got off to a dreadful start, going 2-for-29 in his first nine games. He got hot in his last five games, going 9-for-19 despite having one four-strikeout game. That let Johnson finish his AA time with a .712 OPS, as a guy who turned 20 just a couple of months before. Even with the rough start, Johnson fanned only 11 times in 57 plate appearances, with seven walks.
An awful lot of the team’s remaining hitters are players who appeared to be prospects when they reached AA but seemed to have hit a wall there. Some have gotten mired in AA, and others have appeared in AAA, mainly in organizational (generally, bench or fill-in) roles. Some players have been stuck in AA for multiple seasons. Others just got there but struggled.
The team’s two primary catchers, Carter Bins and Abrahan Gutierrez, looked promising when they arrived in trades. Bins came in the Tyler Anderson deal (the other player from that trade, righty reliever Joaquin Tejada, hasn’t gotten past rookie ball). He missed most of 2023 with an injury but now has appeared in AA in parts of four seasons, as well as getting into 86 games at AAA. He spent most of his time in AA this year and struggled with a .656 OPS, although he seems to have improved defensively.
Gutierrez arrived in exchange for Braeden Ogle. (Oddly, Gutierrez originally was slated to arrive from Philadelphia for Tyler Anderson, but the other prospect involved was hurt, leading the Pirates to trade Anderson to Seattle and work another deal for Gutierrez). He’s struggled to stay on the field the last two years, getting into just 77 games for the Curve.
This year he put up just a .605 OPS and threw out 15% of base stealers. Organizational catchers Wyatt Hendrie, Eli Wilson, and Dylan Shockley also saw some time with Altoona, so there wasn’t a lot of continuity behind the plate.
The infield featured three players from the 2021 draft: Jackson Glenn, Brenden Dixon, and Mike Jarvis. Glenn, a fifth-round pick, seemed to have some promise after putting up a .772 OPS in 54 games for Altoona in 2023, but he had a rough time in 2024. He batted .192/.252/.286 and struck out in over a third of his ABs. Dixon, in his first try at the level, showed a little power, with eight home runs in 64 games, but he batted just .188 and also fanned in over a third of his ABs. Jarvis split time as an infield backup between Altoona and Indianapolis, batting just .103 in 27 AA games. Dixon mostly played third, Glenn second and third, and Jarvis second, third, and short.
First base was mostly handled by minor league veterans Seth Beer and Joe Perez until Nick Cimillo moved up from Greensboro. A former first-round pick of Houston, Beer split his season between Altoona and Indianapolis, batting an uninspiring .281/.366/.397 for the former. Perez put up just a .671 OPS for Altoona and finished the season in Independent ball.
Cimillo had a big first half for Greensboro but had a lot more trouble with the Curve, batting .224/.324/.367. He did exhibit good plate discipline, with a 12% walk rate and 17% K rate, so he wasn’t overwhelmed. He actually hit reasonably well in AA, except for a terrible 2-for-42 stretch in August.
Another trade acquisition, Kervin Pichardo, finished second on the team to Cheng in plate appearances. He came from San Diego for Jackson Wolf and won’t turn 23 for a couple more weeks. Pichardo divided his time pretty evenly between second, third, and short. (None of the team’s infielders played any position with any regularity except Cheng at short.) Pichardo tied Cheng for the team lead in home runs with 11. He batted .252 (the league hit .237) but had a weak BB:K ratio of 27:128.
Stalled prospects also dominated the Altoona outfield. In fact, Connor Scott (another trade acquisition who didn’t work out, although the Jacob Stallings trade did produce Kyle Nicolas) got released during his third attempt at AA.
This year’s Curve team had a number of outfielders with varying levels of AA experience, but the absence of strong performances was a consistent theme. Jase Bowen got his first extended stint in AA, and declining plate discipline limited him to a .241/.298/.366 line with ten home runs. He played center the majority of the time but also started a lot of games in right.
Tres Gonzalez was in his first AA stint, and it didn’t go well. He hit .239/.313/.273, with just ten extra-base hits, nine of them doubles, in 363 plate appearances. Matt Fraizer was trying AA for the third time, although he got close to half his playing time during a mid-season spell in AAA. He hit .240/.318/.365 with the Curve and will be 27 before next season starts. The Curve also gave some outfield time to Dustin Peterson, a veteran who was eventually released.
The closest thing to an encouraging season from an outfielder came from Sammy Siani. He got off to a fast start at Greensboro, probably due to changes in his swing, and was promoted in time to play in 96 games for Altoona. He hit .254/.325/.368 and seemed to be getting acclimated with a .811 OPS in August.
Altoona’s best hitter in the season’s second half was Yoyner Fajardo. Initially signed by the Pirates, Fajardo went to Minnesota in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft two years ago. The Pirates re-acquired him for cash in the middle of this season. He hit .300/.406/.373 with just two fewer walks than strikeouts, plate discipline we seldom see in this system. Fajardo played in the outfield corners for the Curve. He’ll be a free agent after the season.
Pitchers
The highlight for the Curve, prospect-wise, was a series of the Pirates’ top pitching prospects. Bubba Chandler, Braxton Ashcraft, and Thomas Harrington all had successful Altoona stints that lasted about half a season or more.
Chandler was there the longest and also made the most noise. Starting the season at age 21, he scuffled with control issues for a while. Through June 15, his ERA was 5.13. In his next two starts, he fanned 21 batters, starting a string of seven games with a 2.25 ERA and much better command. Chandler then moved up to Indianapolis and pitched even better. For the entire season, Chandler’s control improved sharply from previous years, as he walked 3.1 per nine innings while striking out 11.1 He had 148 strikeouts total and allowed only 81 hits in 119.2 IP.
After being on restrictive pitch counts in his 2023 recovery season, Ashcraft started getting stretched out. He also scuffled early in the season and had a 6.63 ERA in his first five games. After that, it was 1.89 in six games, finishing with a 12-strikeout performance. Then it was on to AAA, where Ashcraft pitched even better, at least until injuries ended his season early. Between the two levels, he walked just 1.5 per nine innings while striking out 9.5. The nature of the injury remains unclear.
Harrington missed the first month of the season but appeared in 13 games, a dozen starts, for the Curve before making eight starts at Indianapolis. He showed exceptional control in AA, walking just 1.3 per nine innings, leading to a 1.00 WHIP and 2.24 ERA. He fanned 9.7, better than the Eastern League average of 9.3.
Two of the Pirates’ top left-handed pitching prospects also appeared with the Curve. Hunter Barco made a four-inning cameo after a promotion from Greensboro before a minor knee injury ended his season early. Anthony Solometo, in contrast to all of the other top pitchers, had a tough season. He struggled with dropped velocity and poor control until mid-June when the Pirates put him on the development list for a month. He returned to Altoona after several starts in the low minors and wasn’t significantly better. For the season in AA, he had a 5.98 ERA, with a 5.4 BB/9 and just a 7.1 K/9.
The team’s other two rotation mainstays — although one for only half the year — were Po-Yu Chen and Sean Sullivan. Along with the pitchers listed above, apart from Barco, they formed the top six in innings. Of those six and also Barco, all are under 24 and as young as 21 except Ashcraft, who missed the equivalent of two seasons due to injury. He’ll be 25 in early October.
Chen had some extreme ups and downs, which isn’t totally surprising for a finesse guy whose fastball is hittable and who pitches with little margin for error. In April, opponents raked him for a .930 OPS. Starting with his last May start, though, and continuing through his next-to-last July start, he had an ERA of 2.13. He scuffled some again in August. Chen finished with a 4.03 ERA and 1.29 WHIP, and a very low 6.4 K/9.
Sullivan got off to a strong start, with a 2.96 ERA in April and May. He had a rough month in June and, whether related or not, went out for the season at the end of the month. He finished with a 3.84 ERA and 1.27 WHIP and also with a low K/9 of 7.1.
Four other pitchers made at least seven starts. Drake Fellows was acquired way back in the Joe Musgrove trade but threw only 23.2 career innings before 2024 due to injuries. He’s 26 now, and the Pirates moved him up through the system quickly, even giving him three starts in AAA. He spent the most time with Altoona and struggled.
Lefty Nick Dombkowski originally signed out of college as a non-drafted free agent. He split the season between AAA and AA, serving as a swingman. He pitched well for Altoona, with a 3.17 ERA and 1.10 WHIP. He’s also 26.
The Pirates signed Emmanuel Chapman out of Cuba. He started in the Greensboro bullpen but spent most of the season in a swing role with the Curve. He had a 3.57 ERA but not a high K rate. And he’s, yes, 26.
Finally, lefty Dominic Perachi moved up after dominating at Greensboro. He struggled through 41 innings with the Curve, mostly as a starter, putting up a 6.15 ERA.
The Altoona bullpen was a problem throughout the season. A lot of pitchers appeared in relief, with nobody standing out.
Five righties served as mainstays through much or all of the season, appearing in 30-46 games: Eddy Yean, Justin Meis, J.C. Flowers, Grant Ford, and Jack Carey. Some scouts seemed to like Meis going into the season, but he had a rough time, with a 6.44 ERA and other stats to match. Flowers had a 3.44 ERA after getting demoted from Indianapolis, but his walk and K rates were weak. Ford and Carey had solid ERAs, a little under 4.00, but their other numbers weren’t as good.
Yean, the primary return for Josh Bell, had easily his best season for the Pirates, putting up a 3.45 ERA and making it to Indianapolis for two games. He greatly improved his control, which was a problem previously. He walked just 2.6 per nine innings but also struck out only 8.0. He’s eligible for free agency, but the Pirates are sending him to the Arizona Fall League.
Several pitchers who started the season with the Curve had differing outcomes. Lefty Tyler Samaniego was hurt most of the year and didn’t appear after mid-July. He had a 3.57 ERA and 11.2 K/9 in 13 games. Valentin Linarez got demoted after struggling through 17 games. And Cam Junker got released after 15 games.
Some other relievers moved up after pitching well for Greensboro but didn’t get the same results. Lefty Jaden Woods had a 4.93 ERA in 20 games, although he had a good 11.2 K/9. Another lefty, Cy Nielson, struggled pretty badly through 13 games.
Finally, submariner Brad Case moved around the system but spent most of his time with the Curve. He put up a 3.19 ERA, although he allowed a lot of hits and didn’t miss many bats.
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Phenomenal write-up, Wilbur.
This was a level, for me at least, where the talent gap was incredibly clear between pitchers and hitters.
Haines out