Solomon Maguire first started to notice that scouts were watching him when he was 14 years old.
At first, they were watching Maguire and his mates. As time went on, they started to focus in on him. In his native Australia, it’s usually pitchers who draw the most attention from Major League Baseball teams. It takes something special for an outfielder to grab someone’s eye.
A few years later, Maguire joined Australia’s Under-18 Baseball World Cup team. It would end up being his breakout, as he'd go on to lead his team in RBIs (7) during the tournament. But before he even played in a game on that stage, big-league teams were already zeroing in on him during the training camp.
“It was at that training camp that a lot of scouts said I went from a boy into a man,” Maguire was telling me.
Maguire had turned into a legitimate prospect. He had speed, a good arm, and in a Perfect Game showcase for top high school players in 2019, he hit the ball harder than just about anyone. There’s always a risk involved with taking a player from a country like Australia because the talent pool isn’t as deep, but Maguire had good raw tools that scouts believed could develop.
The tournament that put him on the scene started in August 2019. Shortly before it got started, the Pirates, then under Neal Huntington, started showing more interest in Maguire. The feeling was mutual.
There was just one problem. The Pirates had already signed dozens of international players that year. The league has a cap for how much each team can spend on international free agents, and by this point, the Pirates were very close to that limit. After his showing in the World Cup, Maguire cemented himself as the type of player who could command a signing bonus of around $1 million Australian, far more than the Pirates had to offer at that time.
Even with no plan in place to clear that hurdle, Maguire and Tony Harris, the Pirates' Australian scout, kept talking.
“By that point then, I didn’t know if the Pirates were going to sign me, but I was really confident that I wanted to go with the Pirates, just because of how safe and secure they made me feel,” Maguire said. “They explained their process and their system, so that was a team I really wanted to go to.”
In late January, now under new management, the Pirates contacted him again. They had recently made a trade that allowed them to spend more money on the international market. The next week, Maguire signed a deal worth $594,000 in U.S. currency, which was just under $1 million Australian.
It would end up being the largest bonus the Pirates gave a position player during the 2019-2020 international signing period. It was the third-largest deal an Australian had ever signed for to go to America.
How fitting it was that the money to get him was part of a deal that involved another former international free agent.
THE FIRST SPLASH
While the actual deal didn’t happen until Jan. 27, a Starling Marte trade had long been expected. Marte was one of the best players during the Pirates’ rise from 20 straight losing seasons and played at a near All-Star level in the years that followed, but the team had fallen into last place and the farm system needed replenished.
Marte was an obvious trade candidate. He knew it too, and after a while, was ready to move on.
"[The Pirates] have the power to decide about my future," Marte told Hector Gomez of Deportivo Z 101 in the Dominican Republic in November. "If it was for me, I [would] leave for a team that is ready to compete right now on a World Series and that's not our case."
A Marte trade was first seriously explored during the baseball winter meetings in San Diego last December. By the time January rolled around, a deal looked inevitable, and Marte was given an excused absence from PiratesFest the weekend before the trade was made.
In late January, the deal was done. Marte was heading to the Diamondbacks, and the Pirates received shortstop Liover Peguero and pitcher Brennan Malone, two 19-year-old prospects. They also increased their spending limit in the international market, an addition that was made specifically to acquire Maguire, making him the unofficial third player in return.
While the trade was expected, it was hardly an easy decision for then-new general manager Ben Cherington. In a perfect world, he would be able to keep a player like Marte, but the Pirates’ shortcomings -- both short and long-term -- were more than what the center fielder could offer.
"In total, there was a [talent] threshold that we felt like we needed to cross to consider trading someone who's been a really good player for the Pirates and been a part of the Pirates organization for a long time," Cherington told reporters the day of the trade. "We weren't going to do that lightly, but we felt like this opportunity with the D-Backs brought to us two young players who we're really excited about."
Cherington said that the Pirates had to assume some risk in order to maximize the return in the deal. The risk with this deal was the players they acquired were all young. Peguero and Malone immediately became top-10 prospects within the Pirates’ farm system, but they will not be ready for the majors for years. Their success or failure going forward will be due in large part to the Pirates’ revamped player development.
And if they reach their ceilings, the deal could be among the best in franchise history.
PIRATES
Liover Peguero takes a grounder in the Pirates' development camp in October.
'SHOW OFF MY TALENT'
“Ain’t no way I got traded to the Pirates.”
Peguero couldn’t believe it. After the initial shock wore off, he then refused to believe it.
Once that wore off too, he felt something new: Fear.
“I was scared because it was something that I didn’t expect,” Peguero was telling me.
Peguero doesn’t rattle easily, but this caught him off guard. He and the Diamondbacks had been close ever since they signed him when he was still a raw, skinny 17-year-old shortstop out of the Dominican for $475,000 in July 2017. After three seasons with them, he thought he was going to keep rising through their farm system.
The fear eventually wore off too, and after a while, he saw the positives of going to the Pirates.
“It’s been a great opportunity for me to move forward,” he said. “Show off my talent.”
Unlike many other minor-league players, Peguero had a chance to show off his talent in person this year, being invited to the Pirates’ alternate training site in Altoona, Pa., during the regular season.
During the shutdown, he was back in the Dominican camp that his baseball journey began in.
In the Dominican Republic, kids with baseball aspirations need to find a buscone. This person will coach players for years, and when they turn 16 or 17, he acts as an agent -- or a peddler working for agents -- to sell them to major-league teams, where they will take a share of the signing bonus. Buscone is a play off the word buscar, which translates to “look for” or “search.”
Peguero described the person he trained with as a “manager,” and gave just his first name: Josue. While back home in the spring, Josue helped Peguero however he could. If he wanted to take batting practice, he would go to Peguero’s home and throw to him in his private batting cage. If Peguero wanted something that was closer to game feel, he arranged having other professional pitchers on the island come by to challenge his prized pupil.
And if he wanted to take some infield drills, he went back to the camp where he spent his youth, taking grounders and flipping double play feeds to kids as young as 11 and 12.
One would think Peguero would be a superhero to those kids. A talented American ballplayer who came from this very camp and signed for hundreds of thousands of dollars? That’s the dream right there.
He got a little bit of that hero worship – not that he was looking for it – but he got just as many kids talking smack. Telling him they were going to be a better player than he is someday.
He loved it.
“That’s something every Dominican kid has,” Peguero said. “That motivation to get better every day.”
Peguero draws his inspiration from his mother, Alexandra. The middle child with two sisters, Liover and his family grew up poor. The way he saw it, baseball was not just a passion, but a way to give his mom the life she deserved.
“I used to look at her and say, ‘Hey, I promise you, I’m going to be a big-leaguer. I’m going to give you a better, better and better life. I promise you,’ " Peguero said.
Growing up, Peguero would go work with Josue during the day and then come home and talk to his mom at night. “Try to cheer her up,” as he put it.
“I love playing baseball. That’s my whole life,” he said. “But there’s always something else that helps move you forward.”
When he wasn’t playing ball, Peguero found another passion: American music, particularly rap. Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne. Peguero would listen to them and then translate the lyrics into Spanish. As he listened to new artists, his vocabulary continued to grow. Eventually, he taught himself the language without ever taking a class.
The Pirates want to establish a culture of learning, where players look to get better every day. Peguero is a highly-rated prospect for them not just because he projects to be a major-league shortstop with a plus bat and speed, but because he looks for ways to better himself, on and off the field.
“People are seeing very quickly how much he loves to play the game,” Cherington told me recently. “How competitive he is, how skilled he is. He’s young and definitely got things to improve on and has to keep working towards that, but he’s exciting.”
The player who knows him arguably the best is Malone. Both started last season in rookie ball together and were eventually promoted to the Diamondbacks’ short season team in Hillsboro, Ore. Their similar personalities drew themselves to one another.
After they got to know each other a little better last year, Malone told Peguero a secret.
“Dude, if you were in the batter’s box and I was pitching, I would strike you out.”
Peguero was taken aback for a second. Malone was smiling, but he meant it.
It became a recurring joke for the two of them. They haven’t had that at-bat yet. Maybe someday, but Peguero is not exactly eager for it to happen. If it does happen and he, say, ropes a double into the gap, he knows Malone is going to shake it off and say that was just the first inning. Plenty of at-bats still to go.
And if he eventually did get that punchout …
“I can’t let it happen,” Peguero said, laughing. “It would be painful.”
'BECOME A PITCHER'
Ok, but Malone would strike him out. He’s sure of it.
He even has the sequence picked out: Fastball up in the zone, curveball low, bury another curveball for a swinging strike three.
“Then pick it up, call it a day,” Malone joked to me.
You have to respect a man with a plan. Hopefully for the Pirates, the two stay teammates so they don’t play out this scenario outside of exhibitions anytime soon.
Malone and Peguero almost didn’t meet up with the Diamondbacks though. The right-hander was one of the top prep pitchers in the 2019 amateur draft. The Pirates scouted him and thought about selecting him with their first-round pick, but ultimately passed on him in favor of a different high school arm, Quinn Priester. The Blue Jays, whose draft team was led by future Pirates assistant general manager Steve Sanders, were also interested in him if he happened to slip out of the first round.
The Diamondbacks would end up selecting him with a compensatory first-round pick, 33rd overall. Looking at it now, he’s happy he got to make the change.
“It’s a good spot for me,” Malone said. “It’s somewhere I can grow and develop. It’s also on the east coast, so it’s close to home.”
Malone called several different cities home growing up. He was drafted out of the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where the Pirates have their spring training facilities. He grew up in Atlanta, but moved to Charlotte when he was 11. He wasn’t excited to move, so he made a “trade” with his parents. If he was going to Charlotte, they would let him start playing travel baseball. They agreed.
When he was in the seventh grade, a few years into making his baseball his primary sport, Malone’s career hit its first detour. He tore his rotator cuff and would miss the season.
That injury ended up being a good thing in the end. He focused on his rehab and mechanics, and when he got back to the mound in the eighth grade, his velocity went from the mid-70s to the high-80s. He was consistently hitting 90 mph by his freshman season.
Now, he is sitting in the mid- to upper 90s, with Baseball America noting that he could hit triple digits some day.
So this year wasn’t the first time Malone has had to try to get better as a pitcher without being able to appear in games. That doesn’t make 2020 any easier, but it gave him a chance to focus on his approach.
“It was a difficult year, not just for me, but for all of the minor leaguers that didn’t get to play this year,” Malone said. “I think it’s an opportunity for us to just pause our careers for a second and get better. Just focus on development and not performance so much.”
Malone has done a lot to try to get better. He has slimmed down 25 pounds, going from 240 pounds to 215, to help him be more mobile and flexible on the mound, especially in the hips. He is also focusing on getting his timing down with his back leg during his push off the rubber. If he does that, it helps his arm go out in front more consistently and adds more snap to his curveball.
It’s all part of his journey to grow as a player.
“I was a fastball predominant guy trying to become a pitcher,” Malone said. “That’s a hard thing for someone to do when you want to throw hard all the time. It’s hard to focus on development. I’m at the age where I realize I’ve got to slow things down and just focus on hitting my spots.”
Most of the Pirates’ top pitching prospects are in the lower level of the minors. A year like 2020 could have been detrimental to the Pirates’ plans going forward, but that core group was still able to get better, according to Cherington, including Malone.
“We’re seeing everything we saw in the draft,” Cherington said. “We’re seeing everything we saw when we traded for him. He’s just a really strong, exciting athlete.”
PIRATES
Brennan Malone in the Pirates' development camp in October.
'SO FAR AWAY'
Maguire has never played cricket.
“It shocks so many of the Americans,” he said chuckling, knowing people are always going to ask about Australia’s more well-known batted ball sport.
No, Maguire was always a baseball kid. He started in t-ball at 4 ½ years old. His dad, Mark, wasn’t exactly thrilled to start because a scheduling conflict meant he would miss Solomon’s sister’s flute recitals. He quickly changed his mind once he saw him play and became the t-ball coordinator. Years later, he became president of Solomon’s baseball club and negotiated the deal that made him a Pirate.
Maguire had a gift, and his parents saw it from a young age. As they talked with other baseball families in Australia, they knew he had an uphill climb to draw the attention of American teams and colleges because he was a hitter, not a pitcher. They couldn’t just scout his fastball velocity and how he looked in a bullpen session.
Maguire needed to prove that he was a good baseball player, not just a good baseball player for Australia.
“A lot of Australians still compare themselves to other Australians, and that’s something that early on, I realized I can’t compare myself to just Australians,” Maguire said. “Although I was quite good in Australia, I had to see what my competition was like from the Dominican and countries like that. See what they were capable of doing.”
Maguire’s first big trip was when he just nine years old. He was the youngest player on an under-12 team from Sydney that traveled to Osaka, Japan to play a series of games against the local All-Star team.
Unsurprisingly, they lost every game.
He was 4,800 miles away from home, the youngest player on a team that was getting clobbered daily. But it was there that he started to take the idea of playing baseball for a living seriously.
“I was very homesick, but I started playing really well,” Maguire said.
There would be plenty of trips after that. Taiwan for the under-12 World Cup. Panama for the under-15, and South Korea for the under-18. Arizona in October 2019 for a college showcase, sponsored by Major League Baseball. A stop in the Dominican after that to check out the baseball scene there.
“The dream sometimes felt so far away just because of how we [Australian baseball] compared to other countries,” he said.
“But it worked out I guess,” he added with a laugh.
He picked up a trick during all that travel: Ask questions. These weren’t just showcases. It was a chance for him to learn from some of the best players in the world.
He did more of that when he was invited to the Pirates’ development camp in Bradenton in October, spending a lot of time talking to and working out with fellow outfield prospects Cal Mitchell and Matt Gorski. Now it’s not just scouts and management who are impressed with Maguire, but also the people who will be competing with him for playing time going forward.
“To think that the dude is only 17 years old and to see what he can produce on a baseball field, it's remarkable,” Gorski told DK Pittsburgh Sports. “I know what I was like at 17 and it wasn't even close to where he is now. So he's a really good ball player and a really genuine guy that's way more mature than I was at 17 years old. To move from a different continent to over here at that age is definitely a special thing to be able to do."
THE BET
In recent years, when the Pirates traded a major-league player, they mostly acquired more major-league-ready prospects in return. Andrew McCutchen was swapped for Kyle Crick and Bryan Reynolds, and Gerrit Cole was dealt for Joe Musgrove, Colin Moran, Michael Feliz and Jason Martin in January 2018. Four of those six players were mainstays of the 2018 team, and Reynolds and Martin made their major-league debuts in April of 2019, though injuries to the roster did push their promotions up a bit. Add the Jordan Lyles for Cody Ponce trade with the Brewers during the 2019 deadline in as well, and the Pirates had gone years without acquiring high-profile players who were in the lower levels of the minors.
Now some of those players were good guys to add, and there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with trading for older prospects. After all, part of the reason why the Pirates need to acquire more young talent is because of the infamous Chris Archer deal that shipped away Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow, as well as first-round pitching prospect Shane Baz.
But generally speaking, most of the appeal of acquiring a major-league ready prospect is that they can make an immediate impact on the team. The downside is by this point of their development, there is usually relatively little unexplored upside. What you’re trading for is what you get, and the ceiling is usually lower.
In recent years, many of the Pirates’ top prospects either failed to pan out, only broke out when they went to another team or needed a shift in mentality and strategy from the new coaching staff. Small market teams are reliant on the players they produce, and the Pirates were struggling in this area.
That’s what makes the Marte trade such a radical departure from what the team had done recently. They are betting not just on these three players, but that their new player development can help them reach their potential. It cost them one of their best players in order to make that bet, and it will be years until they know if it paid off.
Peguero, Malone and Maguire know who the Pirates traded to acquire them, but they feel it doesn’t matter how they got here. What they do going forward does.
“I feel like there’s some sort of pressure, but my ultimate goal is to be the best player I can be and make it to the major leagues,” Malone said. “I feel like the pressure was already there in the first place. It hasn’t changed much. The goal is still there, to get to the same place.”
