It's no secret that the best view of any Pirates' potential future success is from Greensboro, N.C.
But in addition to a slew of pitchers that seem poised to lead the rotation at PNC Park within the next few years, the Grasshoppers roster a couple of the organization's best position player prospects in Nick Gonzales and Liover Peguero, who come in at Nos. 1 and 4 in our house rankings.
The first couple months of the season had been marred by injuries for the Greensboro double-play duo. But with both back in the lineup together Saturday for the first time since May 13, they showed just how good things can get.
Gonzales and Peguero hit back-to-back homers in the first inning off 2016 first-rounder Jay Groome on Saturday in Greensboro's 9-4 win against Greenville at First National Bank Field.
There's more to this than your average minor-league homers.
Gonzales' towering shot to the opposite field came in his first at-bat since hitting the injured list with a broken pinkie finger suffered on a collision on May 19. Todd Tomczyk told reporters Wednesday that Gonzales had been taking live batting practice in Bradenton as recently as last week, but that the Pirates' top prospect would be able to re-join the Grasshoppers this week.
The No. 7 overall pick in last year's draft added another hit Saturday to improve to .304/.371/.589 with three homers, seven doubles and seven RBIs through his first 56 professional at-bats. Gonzales has seemed up to the task since first experience with professional baseball in big-league spring training. The 22-year-old had three hits in 14 at-bats, including a homer and a double, in Grapefruit League play.
Nick Gonzales homered in his first game since hitting the injured list May 19. Liover Peguero has also gone deep twice in this one.pic.twitter.com/mVrMq6kwKW
— Gerard Gilberto (@Gerard_Gilberto) June 27, 2021
Peguero's long ball was the first of two to mark the first multi-homer effort of his professional career. The 20-year-old shortstop also took the big lefty Groome deep in the sixth inning, and finished with three hits, three RBIs and a pair of runs scored.
It's also been a turbulent year for Peguero, who was acquired along with No. 8 prospect Brennan Malone in the Starling Marte deal with the D-backs last January. He and Gonzales had only played about a week's worth of games together after Peguero also missed time with a right knee injury. But he's been having a nice year at the plate when healthy, batting .280/.346/.475 with five homers, six doubles, 17 RBIs and nine stolen bases.
There was already enough there for Greensboro to steal the spotlight in the minors -- and even take plenty away from the major-league club. But if these two can get going at the same time, there could be something special happening down there on a nightly basis.