Pirates Prospects has learned that right-handed pitcher Shane Baz has been traded to the Tampa Bay Rays as the player to be named later in the Chris Archer deal from July 31st. Baz was just named as the Appalachian League Pitcher of the Week yesterday. More on this news shortly.
UPDATE 3:25 PM: Analysis from Tim Williams…
After the trade, Neal Huntington said that the player would be a significant one, and that people would know the name. That makes sense with Baz being the guy, as he’s a first rounder from last year and a top ten prospect in the system.
The addition of Baz to this deal means that the Pirates gave up a lot of talent to get Archer. That’s expected for a top of the rotation guy with multiple years of control. While they did give up talent, they didn’t give up anyone who the team would need in the short-term or long-term (assuming one of the current internal outfielders steps up, or they extend Corey Dickerson to replace Meadows).
The future rotation looks like it will be locked up for years. Archer joins Jameson Taillon, and those two will be joined by Mitch Keller in the next year, giving the Pirates three top of the rotation guys who are all under control through 2021 or later (Taillon through 2022 and Keller likely through 2025). Joe Musgrove is under control through the 2022 season, and the rest of the current rotation options for the future (Chad Kuhl, Trevor Williams, Nick Kingham, Clay Holmes) are under control through 2022-2024, depending on the pitcher.
Baz had the best upside of the lower level pitchers in the Pirates’ system. We rated him the number six prospect in our recent mid-season top 50, and the second best pitching prospect behind Keller. In the original rankings before the trade deadline (and before we published), he was followed by Taylor Hearn as the third best pitching prospect in the system. Hearn was traded for Keone Kela at the deadline.
So the Pirates have thinned out their starting pitching depth, but they don’t have a need for several years, giving them plenty of time to build up new guys. They also have some interesting guys in the lower levels after taking so many prep pitchers the last few years. The names include Travis MacGregor, Braeden Ogle and Max Kranick from the 2016 draft, Cody Bolton and Steven Jennings from the 2017 draft, and Braxton Ashcraft and Michael Burrows from the most recent draft.
All of those guys are projects and have things to work on to improve their status and become potential reliable MLB starters. But that same situation existed with Baz.
While he had the most upside, Baz was still a project in a way, and will be with the Rays as well. He was expected to go to West Virginia this year around the start of May, but was held back in Extended Spring Training due to command issues. The Pirates sent him to Bristol, after taking a few pitches away from him to get him focusing on commanding the fastball and developing the slider into an out pitch. The control still struggled, although the strikeouts improved this year, and he had some better outings in regards to control the last few starts, including in his most recent outing.
Baz is a high upside guy, and a top prospect for his stuff, which includes a fastball that can hit upper 90s and sit mid-90s, along with a slider that does look like it can be an above-average or plus out pitch. But he’s got some work to do to get to that point, with the big focus being on his fastball command. The Pirates weren’t any more guaranteed to have a long-term replacement for one of their current starters with Baz than they are now without him. They just have one less project to work with at the moment, and no one who currently shows the same upside as Baz in the lower levels.
