Players hoping to return after missing time in 2024 due to injury
Four players to watch that missed most or all of 2024 due to injury
Unfortunately, injuries are a huge part of baseball. Missing out on crucial development time is costly, and it can take some time to get back into the swing of things.
As is the case most years, the Pirates had a handful of players who will be looking back to getting on the field and make up for some lost time.
Eddy Rodriguez
One of the players I was looking forward to getting eyes on in 2024, Rodriguez began, and then finished, the season on the injured list. He had some moments in the 53 games he played between injuries but was mostly a rough time—hitting .209/.342/.269 with one home run and 17 RBI.
He did walk 14.8% of the time and steal 11 bases but didn’t show much power. He also had a strong week while I was down in Bradenton—hitting .278/.409/.333 with a double, stolen base, and four walks against the St. Lucie Mets.
Rodriguez will be 21 for the 2024 season and will probably factor into the first base/corner outfield picture in Bradenton again.
Owen Kellington
Kellington was among the prep players the Pirates gave an over-slot signing bonus to in the 2021 draft class. He missed the entire 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery. I wrote about him earlier this offseason as a name to watch this year as he recovers.
Before getting injured, Kellington struck out 90 batters in 80 innings pitched with Bradenton in 2023. They’ll likely be an easing back process, but he will also be 22 when the season starts and has a season in Low-A, so he should find himself in Greensboro as soon as he’s good to go.
Sean Sullivan
There was a strong argument that Sullivan should have begun 2024 in Triple-A but instead spent another year with Altoona.
He didn’t pitch after June 26, so the first question is what type of injury he had and whether he will be ready for the start of the season.
He’s logged 186.1 innings at the Double-A level, posting a 3.86 ERA, so he’s ready for a new challenge, and depending on how he fares in Triple-A, he could be a depth option as either a back-of-the-rotation starter or multi-inning reliever.
Jesus Castillo
Castillo kept some good company in 2023, joining Jackson Holliday, Termarr Williams, and Jett Williams as teenagers to draw more than 100 walks in a minor league season.
The other three names were all first-round picks, and it was the first time any teenager had hit the century marks in walks since 1996.
Castillo walked more than he struck out but never impacted the ball enough to take advantage of the approach.
Castillo played in 25 games in 2024 before getting hurt and missing the rest of the season. He is a versatile defender—he played eight different positions in the same game in 2023—with some speed. He had 39 steals in 2023 and 10 in 25 games when he was hurt.
The issue is he has hit .191 with Bradenton, with just 14 extra-base hits in 616 plate appearances.
Pretty cool — Jesus Castillo took a photo of himself turning two. 🙂
I just looked up Owen Kellington's high school numbers again from where he played in Vermont.
7 and 0 with a 0.22 ERA. In 49 innings, he had 133 strike outs. 91% of his outs were strike-outs. They could have stuck me in the oufield and it probably woudn't have mattered.