The Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t have a catching prospect in MLB.com’s top 10 list that was released today, but Jonathan Mayo released the 11-15 rankings and had Wyatt Mathisen on the list. I’m not sure if the players were listed in order of their ranking, but Mathisen was the fourth one down.
The Pirates drafted Mathisen in the second round of the 2012 draft. He was ranked as the top prep catcher in the draft, although he didn’t spend a lot of time catching in high school. He was so athletic that his coach used him as a shortstop, and rarely had him behind the plate. He spent a lot of time working on his catching with Tom Prince and Milver Reyes in the GCL after signing with the Pirates. He’s got the potential to be a two-way catching prospect, although he’s no guarantee to stick behind the plate. That doesn’t have much to do with his skills. It’s just not automatic for prep catchers to remain catchers all the way through the minors, no matter how athletic they are (SEE: Walker, Neil).
We had Mathisen ranked as the 16th best prospect in the system.
