BRADENTON, Fla. -- Mike Burrows chuckled when posed with the question. He and his Bradenton teammates saw how Matt Fraizer hit last year. How would the Pirates’ No. 8 prospect pitch to him to try to get him out?
"If Fraizer's still as hot as he was last year, I don't know what I've got for him,” he joked.
You can hardly blame Burrows for being thankful that he doesn’t have to face Fraizer outside of the very seldom scrimmage or live batting practice. At this time last year, Fraizer was almost overlooked within the system. He was a third-round draft pick in 2019, but after a poor start in short season ball because he was recovering from a hand injury and no minor-league season in 2020, he fell off some people’s radar.
“He was on my radar. I played him in college,” Nick Gonzales told me. “That guy can play.”
Fraizer proved Gonzales right and jumped back on those radars in a big way in 2021, hitting .306 with 23 home runs and a .940 OPS across Class High-A Greensboro and AA Altoona. He was named the organization’s Honus Wagner Minor-League Player of the Year and jumped on prospect charts, with FanGraphs ranking him as the No. 8 player in the Pirates’ system.
Another year like that should propel the 24-year-old outfielder to the majors in either 2022 or 2023. He doesn't know if he will be in Class AA Altoona or AAA Indianapolis to start the year, especially since the ongoing lockout could lead to more players being promoted to AAA.
“[I have] same approach, going day-by-day and putting in the work,” Fraizer said at Pirate City Friday. “Treat every day like nothing ever happened last year.
It’s a good approach, but the first step to replicating a season like that is believing he can do it. That has been the main message the Pirates have preached to him going into this season.
“For anybody who had that type of season, you’re gonna ask yourself, ‘Damn, can I repeat that?’ ” Pirates minor-league hitting coordinator Jonny Tucker said. “What we’ve been trying to do as an organization and certainly personally is like, ‘Dude, that is you. It wasn’t a thing where you did that for a week or something. You did that for six months. You sustained that. That’s you.’ ”
One of the focal points for Fraizer during the COVID-19 shutdown and the early parts of last season was getting his contact point out in front more, which leads to more fly balls, line drives and pulled balls. He didn’t see results early, but after a few weeks, he got a hold of a pitch that he pulled foul, but crushed for what would have been a homer.
“Oh,” he thought. “That felt really good.”
From there, he found his swing and kept hitting, winning his league’s Most Valuable Player award.. While the Pirates tried to keep the core of minor-league teams together last season, Fraizer played so well that they had no choice but to promote him to Altoona midseason, where he continued to hit.
“Everybody talks about the big jump to Class AA. It’s still baseball,” Fraizer said. “Hitters were better. They had better approaches, but at the end of the day, they still have to throw it over the plate. The distance is the same. Overall it’s just a reminder that it’s still the same game that I’ve been playing since I was a little kid.”
Fraizer could always hit, but after a year like that, Tucker theorized that maybe the defense needs a bit more emphasis in 2022 to even things out. Fraizer prided himself as a defensive outfielder coming out of college, and has the range to potentially play all three, though he may be best suited in left field.
He wants to prove he can play anywhere.

JOSH LAVALLEE / PIRATES
Matt Fraizer poses before taking part in hitting drills
“I feel like it wasn’t up to where I think I can play, so I think it helped a little bit where if I didn’t have the best offensive day, I would tell myself I have to take away a hit on defense,” Fraizer said. “I want to have that same approach where, ‘Hey, do it on both sides of the field. Make an impact on both.’ A little more emphasis, drill work out here and during batting practice, where I could, as much as I made an impact on offense, I could do just as much on defense. It’s having that approach every day at practice.”
It’s all part of trying to repeat that performance.
“I feel like I’ve always been very strong mentally, but just going into the year and telling yourself, ‘I’m the best. I’m the best.’ Actually believing it … it’s different saying it and actually believing in it,” Fraizer said. “After the days go on, you start looking up, you think, ‘Oh, I actually am the best on the field.’ So it’s a lot easier to believe.”
A year ago, before the season started, Fraizer wrote down three goals he had for himself for that season: A .280 batting average, 10 home runs and 20 stolen bases. He fell a bit short on the swiped bags, only getting 15, not that anyone complained.
So how does he hope to follow it up?
“I do want to get 20-20,” he said with a smile. “That’s for sure. I wanted it last year. I didn’t quite get there, but that’s one of my goals this year.”