Next Sunday will be the preview of the Dominican Summer League season, which begins the day before. The Pittsburgh Pirates have two teams this year in the Dominican and at least 64 new players who are signed right now and could see action in the league for the first time. They have signed 69 international amateur free agents since July 2nd (including a new one on Friday), with four of them heading directly to the U.S. The others will get their first taste of pro ball in the DSL.
Over the last seven weeks, we have checked the progress of the last seven international signing classes for the Pirates. It covered the last year that they didn’t have a bonus pool, the lean years where the Pirates were making the playoffs which resulted in smaller bonus pools to work with, and this past year when MLB corrected that mistake and gave the Pirates a $5.75M pool.
I’m going to summarize what the Pirates have from the international side. This only includes players who they signed as international players and doesn’t reflect international players used as trade pieces. Since the DSL is only international players right now, and there are about 35 international players in Extended Spring Training who will be dispersed among the three short-season clubs in the U.S., I’m sticking to the four full-season clubs and the ones in the majors.
Before I get into that, here are links to those last seven articles in case you missed any. All of them detail each player signed and what’s left from the class. The only article I didn’t do that with is the 2017-18 article because none of them have played yet. The 2011-12 class was a good one to stop at because those players will become minor league free agents this winter if they aren’t on the 40-man roster.
We start at the top with the players who are either on the Pittsburgh Pirates right now, or have seen time with the team this year. The two big names on the international side are Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco. Neither really had the look of prospects on paper early in their career, but both were highly rated by the Pirates.
That’s something to keep in mind when looking at international stats early in careers. Scouting reports are more important than stats. The current group of July 2nd signings played in a minor league version of the DSL last year after signing, called the Tricky League. They did two months of a Fall Instructional League afterwards, which included a regular schedule of games. They also report to Spring Training two months before the season starts, giving them a lot of games that don’t show up on the back of their baseball cards. That’s before they even play their first pro game. What you see in the DSL stats is less than half of their time in pro ball. Marte and Polanco didn’t look on paper like future Major League regulars, but it showed in their tools at a young age.
Among position players, you also have Elias Diaz as a strong backup right now, ready to step into a bigger role, and Jose Osuna has been a solid bench player over the last two seasons.
On the pitching side, you have Edgar Santana as the only player signed within the last seven international signing classes to make the majors so far. That sounds a lot worse than it is because you wouldn’t expect any recent signing to be in the majors within their first five years. That kind of progress through a system rarely happens. Santana was helped because he’s a reliever and they can move quicker through the system. He’s the only one with the team right now, although Dovydas Neverauskas pitched with the club last year and earlier this year.
So the Pirates have seen service time from six of their own international signings this year. As for the minor league side and the guys who have made full-season ball already, we move down to Indianapolis. Besides Osuna and Neverauskas, they have seen playing time from Pablo Reyes and that’s it. Eric Wood is from Canada, but he was drafted, so he wouldn’t qualify with this group. Reyes is one of those players trying to prove he deserves a 40-man roster spot before hitting free agency this winter and right now you couldn’t ask for much more from him. Osuna and Neverauskas playing in the majors is a plus, though it seems like a negative for Indianapolis as a group when it’s just Reyes seeing regular time now.
At Altoona, you have Elvis Escobar in his last season before free agency and it’s highly unlikely that he gets a 40-man spot. I refrain from saying he won’t because things could click with his tools and the season still has over three months, but don’t hold your breath. Dario Agrazal is already on the 40-man roster and was having a great season until his last two starts. He has potential to make it to the Pirates as a starter, which isn’t something they have seen often from an international player over the years.
Jin-De Jhang also becomes a free agent at the end of this season, although he did that last winter and returned to the Pirates. He just returned from a winter arm injury, so it’s too early to judge his current results. Yeudy Garcia is in the bullpen and doing very poorly, so he’s unlikely to provide any value anytime soon. He experienced such a drop-off in quality after his breakout season with West Virginia in 2015. His velocity was down, his control was nowhere near what we saw earlier and he had a tough time adjusting, going to a slider heavy approach that ended with a shoulder injury. His velocity has nearly fully returned in relief, but he still doesn’t have the prior control.
At Bradenton, you see more from the international side, as their top four prospects coming into the season are all international signings. Luis Escobar is the head of the group and he’s been somewhat inconsistent, although the stuff is still there. Eduardo Vera has been a workhorse pitcher, piling up effective innings. His stuff isn’t quite at 2017 standards, but he’s not far off right now and still getting the desired results. Oddy Nunez isn’t pitching poorly this year, but the stuff that made him a top 50 prospect coming into the year, isn’t there this season. He’s a lot like Yeudy Garcia when he arrived at Bradenton. The velocity is down about 4-5 MPH and the control isn’t as solid as last year. Nunez is young, with a huge frame, so it could be a temporary setback.
Besides the starting pitching trio, you also have Adrian Valerio, who looks like he is coming around with the bat now. Valerio’s calling card is his defense at shortstop and that’s been solid, but he has also used his speed better this year. So while the hitting is slightly below what you want to see, he’s still having a decent season when you consider all aspects.
Bradenton also has a reliever with potential in Ronny Agustin, who has a plus curve and low-90s velocity. He doesn’t have the best control and that may never come around, but an improvement in that area could go a long way.
Down at West Virginia you have the current highest ranked international prospect in the system in Lolo Sanchez, although that could change when we do our updated rankings in July if he doesn’t snap out of a season long slump.
You also have infielder Rodolfo Castro as one of the youngest players in the league and he’s holding his own with the jump from the GCL. Domingo Robles just turned 20 and he’s impressing in the starting rotation. Sergio Cubilete is also in the starting rotation and works off of a nice mid-90s fastball. Castro and Robles have a chance to be legit prospects by the end of the year, while Cubilete is already 23 years old and will need to show more at a higher level for that to happen.
Catcher Raul Hernandez is a backup with experience at the level and Joel Cesar is a hard-throwing reliever with control issues and he’s dealing with an injury right now.
If you notice the countdown style number of prospects as you go up the farm system, you’ll see six international players with West Virginia, five for Bradenton, four for Altoona and three in Indianapolis. Then you have four others in Pittsburgh, not counting Osuna and Neverauskas, who are already counted in the Indianapolis group.
That’s 22 total at the top five levels, which isn’t a great total and speaks to not only the players they signed, but the bonus pool system that limited them during those playoff years. There are 100+ international players not on a full-season club in the system, some with a lot of prospect potential like Sherten Apostel, Jean Eusebio and Ji-Hwan Bae, so we could see a change in these low numbers within the next 2-3 years.
