Pittsburgh Pirates Further Youth Movement With More Promotions

Pirates to promote Quinn Priester, Liover Peguero, and Endy Rodriguez, what will they bring to the major league team?

After getting swept by the San Francisco Giants, Ben Cherington decided it was time for a shake-up.

We already knew that 2019 first round pick Quinn Priester was going to make his major league debut on Monday against the Cleveland Guardians, after the game we found out he was going to have company.

As first noted by Jason Mackey, the Pirates will be calling up Endy Rodriguez and Liover Peguero for Monday’s game.

With the offense continuing to struggle, they sent down Rodolfo Castro to make room for Andrew McCutchen, the Pirates are trying a mass shake-up to try and get things going.

Priester The ‘Bulldog’

The biggest question surrounding Priester will be how well his fastball is going to play at the next level. Both his four seam, and sinker, are very hittable pitches but he’s mostly been able to limit it to being beaten into the ground.

When it comes to the sinker, 40% of plate appearances that end in the pitch have been ground outs.

If that’s the case at the next level, paired with two breaking pitches that can get swing and miss, he’s going to have some success.

Safe expectations with his pitch set are more in line with a back of the rotation starter, someone who will have a good game here and there, but with some bad ones blended in there.

Think JT Brubaker, but with more upside.

The one thing that has always stuck out with Priester has been his competitiveness. He’s going to push him, and he always wants to be the ‘guy’. When Kieran Mattison was on the podcast, he spoke how in 2021 during the playoffs Priester came and let him know he’d be in the bullpen for the deciding game five, despite just pitching.

Maybe the fastballs will limit his upside, but he’s a gamer, and that alone may keep him in more games than he should be.

Long Time Coming For Endy

During the 2021 season, I watched a lot of Bradenton games, and Endy was a player that immediately started to stand out for the Marauders. By the end of the season, they were Low-A Southeast champs, and Rodriguez finished near the top of nearly every major offensive categories.

Turns out, he was no where near close to being done, as he put together one of the best offensive seasons in all of the minors during the 2022 season.

The power numbers haven’t been there this season, but the hit tool remains a plus feature in his belt. Hitting 20-plus home runs like he did in 2022 probably won’t happen again, especially in the majors, but he’s someone who is going to stick behind the plate and still be able to hit and pitch in 10-15 home runs.

While he’s far from a finished product behind the plate, his ability to hit will be a much welcome addition to the offense.

Peguero Reminding Everyone Who Forgot

Not going to be one to pump my own chest, but when a lot of people started to cool off on Peguero after a rough 2022 season, I still saw the skillset and the potential and didn’t want to give in.

This year he’s walking more and making more contact - not to mention he’s hitting for more power.

The simple answer, Peguero has looked like a completely different player than what he did just a year ago, even on the defensive side of things. There is still some room for improvement, but the infielder answered the bell after being left behind in Altoona to start the season.

Now he gets to team back up with Nick Gonzales, with the pair being super close after being double play partners for multiple years in Greensboro (2021) and Altoona (2022).