Baseball America continued their series of the top ranked prospects by position, going with the right-handed pitchers on Friday afternoon. This is always their biggest list each year and 2022 is no different. They went 50 spots deep with this list in a year they says is rated four out of five stars for position strength. The Pittsburgh Pirates have three players on the list.
We already knew from BA’s top 100 prospects list that Roansy Contreras and Quinn Priester would be on this list from Friday unless they severely shortened the size of the list. They rank 19th and 22nd overall respectively. The third Pirates prospect to make the list is Jared Jones, who put up a 4.64 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP in 66 innings in 2021 for Low-A Bradenton. While those numbers don’t give off top prospect vibes, the combo of his age and strikeout total are what is most impressive. The 19-year-old Jones had 103 strikeouts, averaging 14.0 per nine innings. He ended up in the 36th spot on this list.
Contreras dominated when healthy for Altoona this past year, which allowed him to make his big league debut late in the year, despite a forearm injury costing him significant time. Priester pitched well in a tough ballpark in Greensboro, finishing the year with a 3.04 ERA in 97.2 innings, with 98 strikeouts and a 1.24 WHIP.
This list gives the Pirates seven players total on the top prospect lists, which includes their top six prospects in the system, along with Jones. Left-handed pitchers is the only list let to reveal.
