Pittsburgh Pirates' 2024 Minor League Previews: Greensboro

How long will the top prospects be there?

Jack Brannigan Photo Credit: WTM

Greensboro will be heavy on position prospects this year. They’ll have a couple of prominent holdovers from the latter part of last year, as well as some talented players moving up from Bradenton and looking to break out.

The Hoppers will also have some hitters who seem to have gotten mired at the level, which is a common pattern in the Pirates’ system. The pitching staff will be much shorter on prominent names but still has some pitchers with upside.

Catchers

Geovanny Planchart made good progress last year at Bradenton. Planchart was the Marauders’ primary catcher for most of the year and improved noticeably on defense. He’s always had a good eye at the plate, but he needs to start hitting the ball with more authority.

The other catchers will be Shawn Ross and Nick Cimillo. Ross signed out of independent ball before last season. Originally an infielder, he started catching and adapted well enough to throw out 39% of base stealers.

He also hit 14 home runs in less than half a season, but that came with a lot of swing-and-miss and a .203 average. Cimillo has mainly been employed at first and DH so far. He hit very well, including good power, in the first half at Bradenton last year but struggled after a promotion to Greensboro.

Infield

The Hoppers’ infield should garner a lot of attention, although for how long could be a question with some players. Termarr Johnson and Jack Brannigan both got late-season promotions from Bradenton to Greensboro last year, and both hit well all along, despite swing-and-miss issues.

They also played with the AA players in exhibition games after being reassigned, but they’ll be returning to Greensboro for now, maybe due to an infield logjam at Altoona.

The Pirates’ top hitting prospect, Johnson rarely chases pitches outside the zone; in fact, he may be the most patient hitter in the minors, hence the .422 OBP on the year. He also had 18 home runs total, despite some missed time early in the year due to a hamstring issue. The looming question with him is how well his sudden transition from hit-tool monster to power-over-hit guy will work in the long term.

Brannigan is remarkably similar to Jared Triolo. He’s a very athletic guy who runs well, while nominally a third baseman, can play solid or better defense anywhere, including short. The main distinction between Brannigan and Triolo is that Brannigan is a power-over-hit batter, the opposite of Triolo.

The other prominent infielder is last year’s second-round pick, Mitch Jebb. He takes a slashing approach at the plate and seldom swings and misses, but he may not hit for much power.

He runs very well. Jebb was drafted as a shortstop, but some scouts see him at second or in center. The Pirates will move Johnson, Brannigan, and Jebb around between second, third, and short, as is their tradition, and Jebb could play some in the outfield.

The first baseman will be Josiah Sightler. Drafted in round 15 as a college senior in 2022, Sightler was coming off Tommy John surgery and was out until mid-2023. He put up crazy numbers (he batted .516) in 18 games at Bradenton and then moved up to Greensboro, where he struggled to hit.

Maikol Escotto will probably be in a backup role. He was supposed to be the high-upside return in the Jameson Taillon trade, but he’s struggled to hit, managing just a .619 OPS last year at Greensboro.

Outfield

The Hoppers’ outfield will consist of young players moving up and trying to break out and hitting prospects who’ve struggled to develop. The most prominent prospect moving up will be Lonnie White, Jr.

White was an over-slot signing with the 64th overall pick in the 2021 draft, but he missed nearly two years with injuries after signing. Finally healthy partway into last year, he earned a promotion to Bradenton and hit with increasing power as the season went along. In 200 plate appearances with the Marauders, White slugged .488 in a league where the norm was .369.

There’s a lot of swing-and-miss, but White drew plenty of walks as pitchers seemed to grow more and more reluctant to give him anything to hit. He’s potentially the power and speed outfielder the Pirates are sorely missing in their system.

Two other outfielders moving up from Bradenton are Rodolfo Nolasco and Charles McAdoo. Nolasco is immensely strong and puts up high exit velocities, but making contact has been a challenge.

After missing half the 2022 season with an injury, he returned to Bradenton in 2023 and led the Florida State League with 20 home runs, but a tendency to chase breaking balls led to a .150 average from July on.

McAdoo was a 13th-round draft pick last year. He put up a .922 OPS in 28 games for Bradenton, with very good power, but caution is always warranted with college hitters playing in Low Class-A. McAdoo will probably see time at second and third, as well as in the outfield corners, but defense isn’t a strong suit.

The most prominent outfielders who seem to have stalled out are Hudson Head and Sammy Siani. Head was regarded as the biggest part of the return for Joe Musgrove, but although he hasn’t been terrible, he hasn’t hit well enough.

In his second season at Greensboro last year, he had a .705 OPS while missing two-thirds of the season due to injuries. Siani was the 37th overall pick in 2019 based on a strong hit tool, but he’s changed his approach. He now waits for a pitch to drive and tries to pull everything. The change so far hasn’t worked.

Finally, Luke Brown, the 2021 ninth-round pick, will return to Greensboro from last year. Brown runs very well, but he never went deep in college and hit very little as a pro until last July, when he suddenly started hitting for a lot of power.

Starting Pitchers

Greensboro has a bunch of pitchers on the injured list. Or, more accurately, a bunch of pitchers on the injured list are on the Greensboro roster because they have to be on some roster. Here’s the list, in case you’re wondering where these guys are:

7-Day IL: Elijah Birdson, Derek Diamond, Ryan Harbin, Scott Randall.

60-Day IL: Adrian Florencio, Will Kobos, Joshua Loeschorn.

It’s always hard to delineate starters and relievers in the low minors, but several pitchers on the Greensboro roster were in Bradenton's rotation last year. This includes Alessandro Ercolani, Wilber Dotel and Dominic Perachi.

All three had their ups and downs. That’s especially understandable with Ercolani, who hails from tiny San Marino and won’t turn 20 for a couple of weeks. Developing better control and a third pitch — beyond a sometimes-mid-90s fastball and a slider — will be his mission. Dotel, like Ercolani, sometimes throws in the upper-90s and sometimes not. He had poor walk and K rates, but so far he’s been very hard for hitters to drive the ball against. Perachi, a lefty, features a high-spin curve, but erratic control and a fringy fastball led to below-average numbers last year.

Other likely starters appeared with Bradenton on rehab last year. The Pirates made lefty Hunter Barco the 46th overall pick in 2022 knowing he had had Tommy John surgery. He’s probably the highest-upside pitcher the Hoppers will have initially.

Barco struck out 19 in just 10.2 IP after he got to Bradenton late last year, although his control was off at times. Drake Fellows, who came in the Musgrove trade, has barely pitched since the Padres drafted him in round six in 2020, just a grand total of 23 and two-thirds innings.

He’s also coming off Tommy John and was wilder than Barco in his brief time with Bradenton last year, but then his layoff was longer.

Another starter, J.P. Massey, will be returning to Greensboro. He was a seventh-rounder in 2022, and like many of the college pitchers the Pirates draft, he has promising stuff but a history of control problems. He earned a promotion to Greensboro last year but struggled there, walking almost as many as he struck out.

Several other pitchers, who are returning from last year’s Hoppers, could work in some sort of bulk or swing role. Jack Carey, an 11th-rounder from 2021, had a rough 2023 season with the Hoppers. Jaycob Deese, a 17th-rounder from last year, also had a tough time, with gopher balls being the main reason.

Finally, once Derek Diamond is off the seven-day IL, he’ll almost certainly be in the rotation if health allows. He was a sixth-rounder last year and won a mid-season promotion from Bradenton, but had serious gopher ball problems at Greensboro. In both his case and Deese’s, the gopher problem can’t be pinned on the Greensboro ballpark.

One other possible swingman would be lefty Luis Peralta, who’ll be moving up after a couple of years with the Marauders. He’s not a big guy but gets at least average velocity, along with a curve and change that both miss bats. He’s always had very high K rates, but control and high pitch counts have done him in.

Finally, Patrick Reilly is supposedly going to start in Greensboro’s opening series, but he’s not on the roster yet. It wouldn’t be unusual for the team to carry another pitcher knowing Reilly won’t be needed, and then switch the two later. Reilly was the Pirates’ fifth round pick in 2023 and showed a well-above-average, mid- to upper-90s fastball. Pitching in short relief, he fanned 19 in just 10.2 IP for Bradenton, although he also walked eight.

Relievers

The bullpen at this level is always something of a running tryout as the Pirates try to figure out which pitchers are adapting well to pro ball. Anybody could take a step forward, backward, or sideways, but the two relievers to watch with the Hoppers initially are righty Brandan Bidois and lefty Jaden Woods.

Bidois signed out of Australia in 2019 but hasn’t seen the field much, with Tommy John surgery playing a role. He finally got significant action with Bradenton last year and impressed enough to appear surprisingly high on some of the team’s prospect lists.

His control isn’t always there, which isn’t surprising, but he features a mid-90s fastball, a high-spin curve, and two other pitches and misses a whole lot of bats—enough to post a 16.7 K/9 last year.

Woods was a seventh-round pick last year and came with a history of control issues, but he walked only three in 14.1 IP in his debut with Bradenton. He also fanned 21 and had a WHIP of 0.91.

The Hoppers will have two other lefty relievers from the college ranks, Julian Bosnic and Cy Nielson, both 2022 draft picks. Bosnic, a 14th-rounder, throws a curve, change, and slider that produce a lot of swings and misses, but he also misses the plate a good deal. He pitched briefly for the Hoppers last year.

Nielson, an 8th-rounder, was with the Hoppers all last year. He had a 4.44 ERA there, but it was almost entirely due to one bad month. He’ll return anyway.

The remaining relievers are righties Yunior Thibo and Darvin Garcia. Thibo earned an early-season promotion from Bradenton to Greensboro last year but had a tough time afterward, with a 6.04 ERA, and he’ll turn 26 this season. Garcia had a history of missing a lot of bats at the rookie levels, but he’s struggled at Bradenton the last two years. He’ll turn 25 in a few weeks.