Pittsburgh Pirates 2025 Minor League Previews: Altoona
Curve feature pitching depth, stalled hitters
Altoona in 2025 won’t have the star power of the Indianapolis rotation, but the Curve will have good pitching depth, including at least a couple of the team’s better pitching prospects. The hitters are a different matter, as it looks like very few position players will be promoted to or from Altoona this year. Under the current front office, the hitting prospects have had a pattern of hitting a wall in AA.
One caveat: We don’t have a roster for the Curve yet. Most of the roster, though, is pretty obvious based on the Indianapolis roster and on which players were in the AA exhibition games in late March. I’ll note the players I’m not sure about.
Pitchers
The Curve should have had three of the Pirates’ better pitching prospects in Hunter Barco, Anthony Solometo, and Carlson Reed. Unfortunately, Reed will start the season on the 60-day injured list. He probably made the most progress of any prospect in the system last year, with a big finish at Greensboro. The injury isn’t supposed to be serious, so hopefully we’ll see him around mid-season.
The lefty Barco is another of the team’s fast risers. He missed his draft year, 2022, due to Tommy John surgery, and 2023 was a recovery year. In 2024, Barco had a strong first half for Greensboro, then moved up to Altoona but quickly went out with a knee injury that shouldn’t be a lasting problem. He was supposedly reaching 97 mph this spring, which would be a good addition to his strong slider and splitter.
Solometo, another lefty, was a similar story before 2024. He made his way quickly to AA after being drafted out of high school, looking like a top prospect. Then the roof fell in. There were always some doubts about his stuff and whether his funky sidearm motion would work against right-handed hitters. Then in 2024 his velocity dropped below 90, sometimes well below, and his control disappeared. The Pirates thought he showed some progress late in the year after spending time on the development list. His performance this year will be critical.
Two of the system’s better ceilings belong to right-handers who could move up from Greensboro, although we don’t have any confirmation of that yet. Alessandro Ercolani and Wilber Dotel have both impressed scouts with their stuff. Ercolani has made impressive progress, all the more so because he won’t turn 21 until late April. He dominated in 2024 except for one very bad month in May. The Pirates have limited his workload, using him in a swing role. Dotel saw a velocity spike in 2024, reaching triple digits, but he’s still working on his command. He had trouble last year with walks, gopher balls, and left-handed hitters. His chances of promotion may be a little lower than Ercolani’s.
A couple of other pitchers are apparently returning after spending half of last year with the Curve. Sean Sullivan doesn’t miss a lot of bats, but he started last year with two very big months before struggling for several weeks and then going on the IL for the rest of the year. He missed some time this spring and now may be getting squeezed out of the Indianapolis rotation. Lefty Dominic Perachi relies heavily on a high-spin curve. He was almost unhittable in half a season at Greensboro last year, but had a rough time at Altoona. He’s been used in a swing role.
Po-Yu Chen has moved up one level at a time, always as a rotation mainstay, but in 2025 he’ll open back at Altoona. He’s always had good and bad stretches, for some reason, including last year. He throws a variety of pitches, usually with good command, but his fastball has been too hittable.
Two other pitchers who could see some rotation time with the Curve are Emmanuel Chapman and Derek Diamond. Chapman is from Cuba and throws in the mid-90s, but his command and secondary stuff haven’t been strong. He got solid results in Altoona in a swing role last year, without missing many bats. Diamond is a control artist who’s had gopher ball problems in a season and a half at Greensboro. He could end up back there.
A lot of relievers could spend time with the Curve in the early season, more than can probably be active at any one time. I assume there’ll generally be a few who aren’t active, or who may be hurt. It’s a pretty eclectic assortment, but it’s not hard to imagine one useful pitcher emerging out of the group.
The Curve potentially has four lefty relievers: Jaden Woods, Blake Townsend, Tyler Samaniego, and Nick Dombkowski. Woods and Samaniego both had success at lower levels, but both have had more trouble in AA. Samaniego also missed most of last season. Dombkowski, a soft-tosser, signed as a non-drafted free agent and has served as an upper-level organizational pitcher, sometimes as a starter. He’s pitched well in AA but not so much in AAA. The Pirates signed Townsend as a free agent late last year and re-signed him for 2025. He’s shown some ability but has had a lot of trouble staying on the field, throwing only 136 innings in six years.
Possible righties are Valentin Linarez, Cristofer Melendez, Wilkin Ramos, Justin Meis, and Cam Sanders. The only ones originally signed by the Pirates are Linarez and Meis. The latter pitched well as a starter for Greensboro in 2022, but has struggled in AA. Linarez relies heavily on a good slider, but like Dotel hasn’t quite put it all together. He opened 2024 in the Altoona bullpen and had a terrible time, so the Pirates moved him down to Greensboro at mid-season. From July on, he struck out 43% of the batters he faced.
Melendez and Ramos are intriguing pitchers who need to improve their command. Melendez came in a trade way back in 2018 and has hit 100 mph, but he missed all but two games in 2023-24 while on the restricted list for unknown reasons. Ramos came in a trade (extra credit if you remember who Tanner Anderson was), left in the minor league Rule 5, and now is back as a free agent. He’s reached the upper-90s with a sidearm motion.
Sanders just signed as a free agent. (MiLB.com still hasn’t quite figured out that the Pirates signed him and not prep outfielder Camden Sanders.) He misses a ton of bats, but misses the plate a ton, too.
There are quite a few relievers who could move up from Greensboro at some point, even to open the season. The bullpen shuffling no doubt will be constant and it’s impossible to say which relievers will pop up with good seasons. Check the Greensboro preview for more names.
Catchers
The main catchers look to be Abrahan Gutierrez and Aaron McKeithan. Geovanny Planchart could also see time with the Curve, having finished last season there.
Gutierrez came in a trade back in 2021, then became a free agent last fall and re-signed for this season. He has solid skills all-around, but he hasn’t hit well in AA and has also had trouble staying healthy the last two seasons. He has more potential with the bat than the typical glove-only catcher, so a healthy season could get him on the radar as a potential third catcher.
McKeithan is a glove-first catcher whom the Pirates acquired in the minor league Rule 5 draft. He effectively replaces Dylan Shockley, whom the team lost in the same draft. McKeithan likely will take on Shockley’s role as an upper-level organization catcher.
Infielders
What interest can be found in Altoona’s position players will come in the infield. Termarr Johnson will return after finishing last season with the Curve. Jack Brannigan and Mitch Jebb will be moving up from Greensboro.
Johnson, as we all know, has been the Pirates’ most controversial prospect. Drafted on the strength of a supposedly elite hit tool, he’s shown solid power and an elite batting eye, but a distressing amount of swing and miss in the strike zone. He did seem this spring to be going the other way more often, something he did the year he was drafted but not much afterward. Defensively, the Pirates have continued to play Johnson some of the time at short, but he needs to stay at second. Importantly, Johnson won’t turn 21 until June.
Brannigan is a very toolsy player, with good speed, a strong arm and very good defensive ability. He also has good power; his 18 home runs were fourth in the South Atlantic League in 2024, even though he missed about 40% of the season with injuries. He has, however, had contact issues, like nearly every hitting prospect in the system. Initially a third baseman, Brannigan has increasingly played short, including nearly every time I saw him this spring. Like Jared Triolo, he can probably play quality defense anywhere. Oddly, the Pirates announced Brannigan as a two-way player when they drafted him, and he’d shown impressive stuff on the mound in college, but he’s never pitched as a pro.
Jebb is a speed- and, ostensibly at least, contact-oriented player. He’s one of the best base stealers in the system. For some reason, he had major contact issues early in 2024, but he hit well in the second half. He isn’t likely to hit for power. Initially a shortstop, scouts have doubts about his ability there. He’s better at second but may be best in center.
First base will probably belong at least partly to Nick Cimillo. Drafted as a catcher, he’s hardly ever played there and his glovework at first could use some improvement. He had to hit his way into playing time, but he destroyed SAL pitching in the first half of 2024. He didn’t have good numbers at Altoona after that, but it was mainly due to a disastrous 2-for-42 slump in August. He hit well after that. Cimillo is the rare hitter in the system who has power and pretty good plate discipline. The big caveat is that he’s 25. Imanol Vargas, a free agent signing, could share 1B/DH duties with Cimillo. He has power and, naturally, contact issues. Oddly, Vargas hit 22 home runs in AA in 2023 but then spent 2024 in low A at age 26, so it’s hard to say where he’ll be assigned.
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For utility players, the Curve figures to have Kervin Pichardo and Brenden Dixon. Pichardo, who came in a trade, plays all over the infield and put up decent hitting numbers for the Curve last year. Dixon is a corner player who has some power but, yes, contact issues. Kalae Harrison, a 2023 18th-round draft pick, could also see time at Altoona as a utility player.
Outfielders
The Altoona outfield should have a familiar look. Sammy Siani, Jase Bowen and Tres Gonzalez all spent most or all of last season there. It also appears Hudson Head will finally make it to AA as one of the few hitters to get promoted from Greensboro.
Head spent three years with the Hoppers, although he missed over half of 2024. He hit about the same every year; in fact, his numbers actually dropped slightly each year. He’s a very toolsy player who was supposed to be the biggest part of the return for Joe Musgrove. Head did seem to be swinging the bat well this spring.
Siani made significant changes to his hitting style for 2024, getting away from a dead-pull, uppercut approach, and started to torch SAL pitching in his third season there. He didn’t hit as well after a promotion to AA. He did get mentioned in all of the Rule 5 previews last December, but he wasn’t selected and now he’s headed back to Altoona.
Bowen and Gonzalez both struggled with the Curve in 2024, badly in the latter’s case. Bowen has shown some power at times and runs well, but hasn’t hit consistently.
The Pirates have also assigned one of their final spring cuts, D.J. Stewart, to Altoona. This is puzzling, because Stewart has 1001 major league plate appearances with an OPS+ of exactly 100. It’s possible there were just too many AAAA types to assign them all to Indy. Stewart could see some time at first.
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Altoona transactions are up. Dotel, Erc and Diamond were in fact promoted. A couple guys I guessed wrong on: Cy Nielson was moved up, Blake Townsend wasn't.
Overall, it's disturbing how few hitters are getting promoted throughout the system. Very few.
"This is puzzling, because Stewart has 1001 major league plate appearances with an OPS+ of exactly 100."
This dude getting assigned to AA meanwhile that 100 OPS+ would have been sixth on the team last year behind Bart, Reynolds, Cruz, Cutch and Grandal. Guess we just don't have a spot on the roster for an average bat when you've got world beaters like Bae, Pham, Frazier, Triolo, Valdez, and IKF on the roster......