Spread-It-Around Theory: The Pirates and the International Market

How have the Pirates fared with their top signings?

Credit: WTM

The disastrous McClatchy/Nutting Era of Pirate baseball is now closing in on three decades of nearly unbroken futility, one of the worst stretches in the history of American sports. And the problem isn’t just their refusal to shell out for free agents. A series of GMs have failed at finding and developing prospects.

If you’re old enough to remember the early days, you may remember then-GM Cam Bonifay talking about his philosophy of “power bats and power arms.” Bonifay had the right general idea. He was just bad at execution.

Since Bonifay, the Pirates have veered away from . . . well, pretty much from power anything. It’s my view that they’re caught up in a small-market mindset that discourages them from pursuing what are, in fact, baseball’s two most expensive commodities: big run producers and dominating starting pitchers. Of course, they only get expensive years into the player’s career, but the Pirates for decades have seemed convinced that they have to survive on bargains and magic formulas in all areas of their baseball operations, even where large expenditures, relative to the rest of MLB, are easily within their puny budget.

One area that’s been a casualty of this small-market mindset has been international scouting. The team of Clemente, Sanguillen, Tony Pena, et al., has produced dismal results on that front, maybe even more so than the team’s epic failures in all other phases of the game.

Some of the international failure resulted from a lack of effort. Dave Littlefield was openly dismissive of the idea of expending resources on players who wouldn’t reach the majors for five or six years, and the Pirates in fact spent next to nothing in Latin America during his regime.

Neil Huntington was more sophisticated than Littlefield, but his approach didn’t work out much better. Huntington put far more money than Littlefield into Latin America, but his approach was to “spread it around.” The Pirates during his time signed lots of players to low- and mid-six-figure bonuses, but they avoided the most highly sought-after players. During Huntington’s tenure, they gave out just two seven-figure bonuses to international amateurs. (Actually, there was an unusual third one, which I’ll get to.) One went to Luis Heredia, who never developed, in part because he never got himself in shape. The other, just barely into six figures at $1.05M, went to Harold Ramirez. While not exactly a household name, Ramirez has arguably had the most big-league success of any of Huntington’s international amateur signings. (Starling Marte signed for a small bonus before Huntington replaced Littlefield.)

It shouldn’t be a huge surprise that Huntington’s approach failed miserably. It’s essentially the same approach that the Pirates have used throughout the McClatchy/Nutting Reign of Error with major league free agents. They refuse to compete for talent with real major league teams, instead limiting themselves to signing third- and fourth-tier free agents who’ve drawn no other interest. That’s certainly gone well.

Since Ben Cherington took over from Huntington in fall 2019, the Pirates have loosened up a bit at the top end with international bonuses, but only to a limited degree. They still don’t pursue the top amateur players, except maybe in Asia, as we’ll see. This year (technically the 2023-24 signing period, although no signings were allowed before January 15, 2024) was typical. The Pirates signed OF Bralyn Brazoban (the first name gets a wide variety of spellings) and SS Abdiel Feliz for $2M and $1.2M, respectively, but neither is regarded as top-tier within the available pool. MLB Pipeline, for instance, ranks Brazoban 38th. (Baseball America puts him 12th, but their list is based on bonus amount, not perceived talent.)

So let’s see how the Pirates’ top signings have fared, starting after Junior Vizcaino took over for Rene Gayo as international scouting director in November 2017. Gayo, if you recall, was suspended after MLB determined he was taking kickbacks. When Vizcaino took over, the Pirates had already made the bulk of their signings for the 2017-18 period. Also, many of their top signings for the 2018-19 period had probably already agreed to deals, but I’m going to include that anyway because, in the murky world of Latin American signings, we don’t really know how things proceeded.

One anomalous situation is worth mentioning. In 2017, the Pirates were interested in Korean prospect Ji Hwan Bae, but they got outbid by the Braves, who signed Bae in September for $900K. Trouble was, Atlanta was prohibited at the time from going over $300K for any player, so the other $600K was an under-the-table deal. The Braves got caught and MLB voided the deal in November. That’s when Vizcaino took over and, in March, the Pirates signed Bae for $1.25M. So there was clearly at least a small shift in philosophy right at the start of Vizcaino’s tenure.

Note: For a few players, nearly all Venezuelan, no bonus amount is available. I’m just using the reports on the signings to determine who were the top guys.

2018-19

Oswaldo Gavilan, OF — $700K: Released after 2021 season. Never got past the DSL.

Sergio Campana, OF — $500K: Has not made it past Low A due to weak hitting. Missed most of 2023 due to injury.

Luis Tejeda, SS — $475K: Released after 2023 season. Did not get past the FCL and rarely played in 2022-23.

Dariel Lopez, SS — $400K: Reached High A in 2022 and was fairly well regarded by some scouts despite concerns about defense and poor (actually, abysmal) plate discipline. Missed 2023 with dislocated knee and was lost in 2023 minor league Rule 5 draft. There were indications that the Pirates didn’t protect him because the prognosis on the knee was poor.

Alexander Mojica, 3B — $390K: Hasn’t hit enough to make it past Low A; was sent to development purgatory in both 2022 and 2023, but the Pirates are still trying with him. Poor conditioning and defensive limitations are other factors.

Juan Jerez, SS — $380K: Has shown power but has not made it past Low A due to severe swing-and-miss issues. Missed most of 2023 due to injury.

Orlando Chivilli, SS — $350K: Released after one DSL season.

Adrian Mendez, LHP — N/A: Released after 2022. Never got past the FCL.

Bonus Player: RHP Luis Ortiz signed for $25K at age 20 after a velocity spike.

2019-20

Cristopher Cruz, RHP — $850K: Struggled badly, and got steadily worse, in three seasons in the FCL. ERA in 2023 was 11.91.

Gilberto Alcala, RHP — $450K: Didn’t get to pitch in 2020 due to the plague and 2021 due to injury. Had a weak ERA but good peripherals in the FCL in 2023.

Roelmy Garcia, RHP — $350K: Struggled badly to throw strikes in 2021 in the DSL, and 2022-23 in the FCL. Taken by Rays in 2023 minor league Rule 5 draft, so he’ll be a major league closer within a year.

Yojeiry Osoria, LHP — $600K: Spent three years in the DSL trying to find the strike zone. Finally put up very impressive numbers there in 2023.

Enmanuel Terrero, OF — $600K: Showed very good, contact-oriented approach in DSL and FCL. Started going more for power in Low A in 2023 and sacrificed a lot of contact, but still had solid year. Runs well and can play center. 4th OF potential.

Tsung-Che Cheng, SS — $350K: Now on 40-man roster. Had huge first half of 2023 in High A, found AA much tougher. Good defender, runs well. Part of a pattern of Asian signees doing well in the system.

Solomon Maguire, OF — $594K: Has spent three years in FCL, barely playing due to numerous injuries.

Po-Yu Chen, RHP — $1M: Finesse pitcher who throws a variety of pitches with good command, but fastball is fringy. Had solid 2023 in High A, but hurt by gopher ball problems that weren’t just due to the Greensboro ballpark.

2020-21

This class would have been mostly a done deal when Cherington took over in fall 2020, but he did retain Vizcaino, so I guess you could say he ratified the results. At this point, it’ll get harder and harder to draw any conclusions due to lack of a track record and the very limited value of DSL stats.

Shalin Polanco, OF – $2.3M: In each of his three years, has struggled early at a new level, then started to hit. Was showing significantly more power by mid-season in 2023 at Low A, but missed most of the second half with an injury. Swing-and-miss will be an issue.

Ruben Vizcaya, OF – N/A: Has spent three years in the DSL. Made some progress in 2023, but still hit only 225/348/372.

Jose Garces, RHP – N/A: Good arm, but has had an ERA of 8+ the last two years in the FCL, mainly due to a lack of control.

Gustavo Armas, OF – N/A: Has spent three years in the DSL and hasn’t hit at all. Batted .161 in 2023.

John Zorrilla, SS – $450K: Missed essentially all of first season due to injury, spent 2022-23 in the DSL. Has power and draws a lot of walks, but has extreme contact issues. Batted .118 in 2022, then 205/365/361 in 2023.

2021-22

Yordany De Los Santos, SS – $1.2M: Very toolsy player who had solid season in the DSL in 2022, then impressive showing in the FCL in 2023, but had trouble with pitch recognition after a promotion to Low A. Won’t turn 19 until mid-February.

Tony Blanco, Jr., OF – $900K: A huge outfielder with a lot of power, Blanco missed nearly all of his first season due to injury, then showed some power but had severe contact issues in the DSL in 2023.

Pitterson Rosa, RHP – $700K: Rosa pitched well in the DSL in 2022, but returned there in 2023 and struggled to throw strikes. Missed a lot of bats.

Hung-Leng Chang, RHP – $500K: Chang looked impressive at times in the FCL in 2022-23, but was erratic. Spent the last six weeks of 2023 in Low A and got hit hard.

Eduardo Oviedo, OF – $450K: A power/speed outfielder, Oviedo struggled in 2022 in the DSL, then returned there to hit 299/389/488 in 2023, although with a very high K rate.

2022-23

Jonathan Rivero, C – $840K: Struggled badly in DSL, batting .155 with no power, although with good plate discipline.

Carlos Mateo, RHP – $800K: Mateo has reached triple digits, but he had massive control problems in the DSL, walking 30 in just a dozen innings.

Jun-Seok Shim, RHP – $750K: Shim was very impressive in the FCL, striking out 13 and allowing only six baserunners in eight innings, but a pec strain cost him most of the season. Already showing Chandler/Jones level stuff, but there’s no indication yet what sort of workload he can handle.

Bladimir Pichardo – $750K: Pichardo had a 3.67 ERA in his DSL debut, but walked 21 in 27 innings. He didn’t turn 18 until after the season.

Raymond Mola, OF – $600K: Missed virtually the entire 2023 season with a wrist injury.

Carlos Castillo, RHP – $245K: Had a 2.35 ERA with good peripherals in DSL in 2023.

There are definitely quite a few flops in here, which isn’t surprising by itself, and there are still some players you can’t conclude much about. Still, it’s hard to see anybody here on a path toward being a real difference-maker at the major league level, with the possible exceptions of De Los Santos and Shim. The Pirates haven’t signed an international amateur who ultimately met that description since Starling Marte signed on January 4, 2007. With zero willingness to acquire veteran impact players, the Pirates can’t possibly see any success as long as that track record continues.