Pirates Draft Recap: 2020 class made impact at MLB level in 2023
A look at how the 2020 draft class did during the 2023 season.
The 2020 draft was the first one for the Pittsburgh Pirates under General Manager Ben Cherington, but that wasn’t the most notable thing about it.
Due to COVID shutting down college and high school baseball, thus cutting off scouts from being able to do their jobs properly, MLB decided to cut the draft down to just five rounds.
Even at its biggest, the draft can be such a crapshoot at times that if you can get one or two contributions from it, you can generally look at that year’s edition as a success.
So, with just five rounds, it put even more pressure to hit on the picks that you did make.
Overall, the Pirates selected six players, getting all six to sign, and after a couple of years, the impact of this draft class was finally felt in Pittsburgh.
Drafted with the 31st pick overall out of South Carolina, Carmen Mlodzinski became the first player drafted by Cherington to reach the majors when he was called up on June 16.
Despite an injury that kept him out a couple of weeks, it was a strong debut for Mldodzinski, who became one of the more reliable pieces in the bullpen outside David Bednar.
Based on Baseball Savant, had he pitched enough to qualify, he would have been average/above average in expected batting average against and expected ERA, as well as ground ball rate and extension.
Alex Stumpf of DK Pittsburgh Sports recently went over the success that he had with his sweeper and cutter, with me previously touching on the fastball.
The other player from the draft class to make the jump to the majors this year was Nick Gonzales, the eighth overall pick and first selection made by Cherington.
Rated as one of the best college hitters in the draft class, injuries and strikeout concerns slowed down his progress through the minors, but he finally made his major league debut on June 23.
His first two major league hits went for extra bases, and he’s always shown a little more power than his actual exit velocity numbers suggest (103.5, 95th percentile). Still, there isn’t much consistency that can be had, with around a 40% whiff rate on breaking and offspeed pitches.
While Mlodzinski and Gonzales were the only two from this class to play in the majors, two more still found a way to help out the Pirates.
Nick Garcia and Jack Hartman were traded during the offseason to acquire major league-ready players - Connor Joe and Ji-Man Choi.
Joe picked up over 30 doubles this past season and was one of the few consistent hitters in the lineup, while Choi missed a good chunk of the season and was eventually traded to San Diego (along with Rich Hill) for three players.
Jared Jones was the team’s second-round pick in 2020 and made it to Triple-A at just 21 years old. He’s not only one of the best prospects in the Pirates system but has also found his way on multiple Top-100 lists in the national media.
His fastball/slider combination is good enough to be an excellent late-inning reliever. However, the hope remains his secondary stuff continues to progress enough to stay in the rotation.
For the second year in a row, Jones finished in at least a tie for the most strikeouts among Pirates’ minor league pitchers.
The final player, Logan Hofmann, was released by the Pirates in July. He posted a 5.22 ERA in 58 career games, primarily out of the bullpen.
Funny draft. The last three picks likely didn’t produce anything directly, but two of them indirectly resulted in a solid bench player in Joe (assuming Shelton figures out that’s what Joe is), and (in combination with Hill) a possible middle reliever and a low-level lottery ticket.
My relative disappointment in the 2020 draft class is tempered by the fact that the players I wanted them to take also stink. Baseball is hard.
If they can get an extra grade of command out of Mlod then I think he turns into a real bullpen weapon.