BRADENTON, Fla. -- Playing catch at Pirate City in Bradenton, Fla., Quinn Priester and Anthony Solometo struck up a conversation about the latter’s breaking pitch.
It was only five months ago that Solometo became a Pirate, being selected in the second round of the amateur draft. Getting to pick the brain of someone like Priester was an exciting prospect.
“I try to act cool, but I'm not going to act like a year ago I wasn't using his card on MLB The Show,” Solometo joked, referring to a way to use a player's digital card to boost their stats in the game.
The duo are in Bradenton for a pitching development camp the organization is holding for their minor-leaguers. Priester, who turned 21 in September, may not be one of the oldest players there, but if you’re looking for someone to model yourself after, you could do a whole lot worse than Quinn Priester.
“He holds himself like a professional,” Solometo said. “It's another [first overall draft pick] Henry [Davis]-type vibe... There's just something different about Quinn. In the room, on the field. The way you can kind of see his mind thinking when he's doing plyos. Having a catch with him today. You can see a difference in him. You can almost tell he has everything he's running through in his mind and knows what he has to do to be successful.”
Tahnaj Thomas saw it too. The right-hander was usually Priester’s lockmate on road trips this season for Class High-A Greensboro. Before one start, he peeked over and saw Priester working on iPad, writing notes about how to attack certain hitters. Which ones could he attack with just his stuff, which ones does he need to attack differently.
“I didn’t speak to him because his headphones were on. I knew he was locked in,” Thomas said. “But I was just looking like, ‘Dang, this is a kid. He’s not even in the big leagues. That’s crazy.’ ”
There may not be a better way to describe Priester than Solometo’s simple summation of “he’s Quinn.” Ranked as the Pirates’ second-best pitching prospect by Baseball America and top overall by MLB Pipeline – and a top 100 prospect by both publications – Priester is one of the most highly touted, and most important, pitching prospects to take cuts in the Pirates’ system recently. There are always going to be eyes on him. If not his teammates’ or a fellow prospect’s, someone’s.
Despite that perceived pressure, it doesn’t seem to bother him.
“I guess I just don’t really think about it,” Priester said at Pirate City Thursday. “I do understand that, with the position I’m in within the organization, that there are going to be eyes. ‘What’s Quinn doing? If Quinn’s doing that, then maybe it’s OK,’ especially for some younger guys. I always like to lead by example… I do understand that with how my life and baseball career has gone that there are gonna be eyes on me and people are going to be making judgements. I just try to give them every reason to make good judgments about myself and hopefully respect me as a player and as a person as well.”
Chatting with Priester, you can see why someone like Solometo would almost have to remind themselves to be cool. Even if you never saw a scouting report, let alone see his diving curveball or mid-to-upper-90s heat, you could almost tell that, yeah, this guy can play ball. He carries himself around Pirate City like he knows the place. Not in a cocky way. He does know this place, almost like he knows what it’s like on any pitcher’s mound. That slight rasp in his voice and solid chest laugh emit a confidence that gravitates people to him.
Pirates prospect Quinn Priester has seen his stock continue to rise. Our @AlexJStumpf asked how he feels about the growing number of eyes paying attention to him. pic.twitter.com/5jwXaNsXLz
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPghSports) December 9, 2021
If he does emerge as that guy, he would want to lead by example. Priester doesn’t want to impose his mechanics or ideas onto other players. He knows they’re all going to be different.
After all, even 2021 Priester is a lot different than the one the Pirates drafted in the first round in 2019.
Mechanically, he started making changes last year during the COVID-19 shutdown to be more direct to the plate. He wanted to stay more grounded, connected to his backside.
Those changes were on his mind going into the season, and it led to a slight stumble out of the gate in his first full year of pro ball.
“I didn’t trust myself,” Priester said. “Now after a full season under my belt of learning, failing and learning and failing, over and over again, I’ve definitely developed a lot of trust in what I can do.”
His season turned out fine. Priester would end the year going 7-4 with a 3.04 ERA, striking out 98 over 97 ⅔ innings. While he wasn’t named the organization’s Bob Friend Pitcher of the Year – that went to Adrian Florencio – he was the Class High-A East League Pitcher of the Year and represented the Pirates at the All-Star Futures Game.
Pitch mix wise, he found a grip for a changeup that has made him excited to actually throw it, rather than doing it because he knew he had to.
Toying around with it for the first time, it immediately got a whiff during a live BP he was throwing. The thought that crossed his mind? “Oh, this is probably good.”
“My best games [in Greensboro] were when the slider was at its best,” Priester said. “That’s definitely a focus this offseason, to continue working on the consistency of that pitch because that pitch offers me a lot in terms of that gives me something hard that’s left, gives me four-seam that’s straight and more of a command pitch, then gives me two-seam that’s hard down to the right. It just opens up my arsenal.”
When Priester was drafted, it was the sinker and curveball that stole the show. Now, he has two fastballs, two breaking pitches and a changeup that he can throw in the zone.
As long as he doesn’t think about it.
This development camp is an opportunity for Priester to think about what he’s doing. Check the Rapsodo data after throwing. Zero in on his mechanics.
That’s good, because when he does it in games, you can get early season Priester results.
“I feel like what makes me good is that I compete and want to win more than the guy at the plate,” Priester said. “I know the best thing I can do is not think. Just allow myself to be athletic and go compete.”
John Baker, the Pirates’ director of coaching and player development, shared a story with DK Pittsburgh Sports earlier this year that in Priester’s final regular season start, he took the hill with a chance to clinch Greensboro’s spot in the championship series. He struggled, but Baker was excited to see how Priester would respond.
“I truly believe in the future, there may be a Wild Card game that he’s starting, and how are we going to know how he is going to respond unless we put him in some of those situations,” Baker said.
The story has a happy resolution: Greensboro made the championship series and Priester struck out seven in his one-run outing. It was the type of outing that if it was a Wild Card play-in, his team would probably advance.
The hope with the Pirates lies in their minor-league system. They have accumulated one of the best collection of prospects in the game, but they need to take that next step, with guys like Priester leading the way.
"With the way things look within the organization, there’s gonna be a lot of opportunity for young guys in the coming years,” Priester said. “I think everybody realizes that. ... I think that pushes everybody a little bit more. We just have to take advantage of it."