As Major League Baseball’s lockout slowly creeps to the one month mark, teams are faced with the challenge of trying to improve their rosters while not being allowed to be in contact, let alone sign, major-league free agents.
The workaround is minor-league free agents are still on the table. That doesn’t mean Carlos Correa could a minor-league deal that’s coincidentally nine figures. If a player finished the year on a 40 man roster, they qualify as an XX(B) free agent and are therefore unavailable to MLB teams.
So that leaves a batch of several hundred minor-league free agents still up for grabs. The Pirates got started on this market before the holiday by signing Clemson product Mitchell Miller to a minor-league pact. Given the team’s holes, especially with pitching, it would be safe to assume they’ll dip back into the minor-league pool a couple more times before all is said and done.
With that in mind, I found 10 players who have some level of major-league upside and are worth kicking the tires on.
LHP Zack Erwin
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: A struggling minor-league starter moves to the bullpen, makes a mechanical chance, finds some extra velocity and finally clicks. Erwin’s tale is pretty common. Mechanically, he lowered his arm slot and was able to rev up his fastball to 92-93 mph for the Athletics’ Class AAA affiliate last year.
Zack Erwin’s(@yaboysherley32) fires 2 scoreless frames. pic.twitter.com/2TIytpls3t
— Athletics Minor League Report (@Athletics_MiLB) September 25, 2021
Erwin is turning 28 next month, so I feel comfortable giving him that “crafty lefty” label for simplicity’s sake. A fringe reliever who had a 4.00 ERA over Class AA and AAA isn’t going to draw a ton of attention, but the Pirates could offer a better chance at pitching in the majors if he proves he can consistently work the edges of the zone.
INF Robel García
If García never plays another game, his comeback story is still incredible. After being out of the minor leagues for over five years, he returned to pro ball with the Cubs in 2019, clobbering 27 homers over 388 plate appearances for their Class AA and AAA affiliates while holding his own in his first trip to the majors. After bouncing around the waiver wire a couple times the last two years, he wound up in Houston, where he was given his first legitimate shot at major-league playing time.
It went terribly, slashing a meager .151/.216/.208 over 117 plate appearances, with the batted ball metrics to back it up. (That is when he made contact, striking out 35.9% of the time). He didn’t find his footing in the minors either, hitting .162 with a .640 OPS.
Maybe that 2019 season was a one-hit wonder, but García has shown in his short sample size that when he makes contact, it’s usually pretty solid (36.5% hard-hit rate, .357 xwOBACON). He can also play every infield position, and I wouldn’t be shocked if he could at least fill-in in the outfield if necessary. If he can recapture that 2019 magic, he could be a bench utility player.
RHP Drew Hutchison
If the idea of bringing back Hutchison – of Francisco Liriano trade fame – back isn’t funny to you, then you just don’t have a sense of humor. Every team needs a veteran or two to stash away as a starter in the minors in case things go sideways. Hutchison was the guy for the Tigers last year before being brought back up to the majors midseason.
But instead of being a throwaway inning eater, Hutchison actually turned in a good season in Class AAA and then posted a 2.11 ERA or 21.1 innings for the Tigers. His fastball velocity jumped back to his 2015 form with a little extra spin that he’s picked up over the last five years.
He won’t blow hitters away and is probably a swingman at best, but every team could use a guy like that somewhere in their system for depth. If he fully focused on being a reliever, I could see him tossing 60 or so innings with a roughly average ERA.
2B Shed Long
When researching Baseball America’s list of minor-league free agency, I was legitimately surprised to see the Mariners let Long walk. Of course they have one of the deepest farm systems in the game and are the cusp of competing, so he does not fit exactly into either their long-term plans or short-term, win now aspirations, but he was a top 10 prospect for the Reds and Mariners with some defensive versatility and good raw hitting tools.
Granted, those tools haven’t translated to the majors yet, hitting below the Mendoza line with a .261 xwOBA and 32.2% strikeout rate in 2021. He suffered a stress fracture in 2020, underwent surgery last winter and then again this October after the first one didn’t take. That injury could be what’s held him back the last two years. If healthy, I have a feeling this uppercut swing is tailor-made for the Clemente wall:
There's long gone and then there's LONG GONE. 😱#TrueToTheBlue x Shed Long pic.twitter.com/bointanZCj
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) September 18, 2019
RHP Dillon Maples
I try to give better analysis than just saying “spin rate,” but my goodness, his spin rates!
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Yeah, I see the drop in July once the sticky stuff crackdown went full force. Those second-half spin rates are still ridiculously high across the board though. Few pitchers get as much movement as he does on his breaking pitches, and that’s complimenting a fastball that averaged 95 mph.
The concern is nobody seems to know where those pitches are going. Out of 139 batters faced last year, he walked 25 (18%), hit eight more and threw five wild pitches. To look at it another way, in over one-fourth of his plate appearances last year, he gave the opposing team a free base. That control is what’s keeping him on the fringe despite having elite pitch movement.
Maples is a Cubs product, so perhaps a reunion with director of coaching and player development John Baker would be enticing.
RHP Mario Sanchez
Ok, it’s only fair that I go from someone incredibly wild to a pure strike thrower. That’s what Sanchez is, walking 23 over 114.2 innings between the Nationals’ Class AA and AAA affiliates last year, mostly as a starter. He doesn’t have the spin of the other pitchers on this list and he throws in the low-90s, but he is a guy you can round out a AAA rotation with and put him on call if innings need to be eaten in the majors.
His ceiling would probably be a multi-inning middle reliever because there’s no tool that jumps off the charts here. But sometimes you just need someone to attack the zone, Dario Agrazal style. (I should mention Dario Agrazal is a free agent too, if you want to swap Sanchez out for him.)
C Chance Sisco
The Pirates have plenty of catching depth in the lower levels of the farm system, but are incredibly thin at the major-league level after the Jacob Stallings trade. Roberto Pérez could provide them with Gold Glove level defense, assuming he stays healthy. After that, it’s Michael Pérez and Jamie Ritchie on minor-league deals, neither of whom has really any upside.
Sisco was a top 100 prospect in 2017 and 2018, and while it’s unrealistic to think he’ll live up to that billing any longer, he had a pretty good 103 OPS+ over 36 games played in 2020. He did tank last year, being let go by the Orioles and Mets, but there are worse bounce-back candidates as a hitter. The defense is suspect, but the Pirates employ catcher guru Glenn Sherlock and hired Radley Haddad to help work with catchers. If they could coach him up on defense, he could have a starter upside. It would be better than the perceived plan now, which is to just find short-term stopgaps while biding time for Henry Davis.
1B/DH Curtis Terry
The Pirates were able to re-sign Yoshi Tsutsugo, but first base could be an incredibly thin position for them. The door’s not completely closed on a Colin Moran reunion, but it’s unlikely at best, and Mason Martin could be poached in Rule 5. If Tsutsugo reverts back to his Rays/Dodgers form, the Pirates could be in serious trouble at first.
So let’s take a look at Terry, who broke into the majors last year with the Rangers in a cameo that he would probably prefer we all forgot about. Still, he entered the year on the backend of the Rangers’ top 30 prospect list. He had a nice showing in an admittedly hitter-friendly Class AAA environment (22 homers, .882 OPS), and did tag one baseball 107.4 mph in his brief stint in the majors.
If the Pirates are able to keep Martin, then first base becomes a lot less of a problem position. If they lose him, they’d be happy to have someone like Terry waiting in reserve rather than diving into the waiver wire.
RHP Patrick Weigel
Weigel has spin (2,800 RPM on his slider), good velocity (94.6 mph average on his four-seam) and those dreaded control problems that have kept him out of the majors. 7.9 BB/9 in AAA simply won’t cut it.
But that frisbee action…
Patrick Weigel gets out of a bases-loaded jam in his @Brewers debut. pic.twitter.com/sBNXblOD7W
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 28, 2021
Maybe cutting down on some of that arm action can help him hone his movement more. There is video of him with a simple pull back and throw without the big sweeping motion behind the back, so it wouldn’t be completely new to him.
OF Justin Williams
I hesitated to include an outfielder on this list because the Pirates have plenty of internal options. Bryan Reynolds will man center again, Ben Gamel is back on a one-year deal and Anthony Alford and Greg Allen will compete for reps. Plus the Pirates selected the contracts of Travis Swaggerty, Jack Suwinski and Canaan Smith-Njigba in November, giving them a batch of prospects ready to make the leap to the majors. Maybe a veteran outfielder could fit in the mix somewhere, but a youngster? Other positions need to be addressed first.
But to round out the list, let’s take a look at Williams. The 26-year-old was the Cardinals’ No. 13 prospect according to Baseball America’s midseason update, but they ditched him after he hit .160 with a .531 OPS over 137 plate appearances in the majors. Despite the poor results, he showed a good feel for the strike zone and posted an impressive 92.1 mph average exit velocity.(33rd best among the 487 big-league hitters last year with at least 50 batted ball events). You can do worse than finding a guy who doesn’t chase and hits it hard.