Jack Suwinski Put in Work to Gain an Edge

ST. PETERSBURG – When the Pittsburgh Pirates acquired the outfielder from the San Diego Padres last year, he was not universally regarded as one of the top 30 prospects in the Padres system.

The scouting reports liked his power surge at the Double-A level, but not much else about his game. The Pirates seemingly bought into the power surge, but may have just preferred the overall work ethic.

Back in January, Cody Potanko wrote about how Suwinski had been improving his swing over the offseason. The result has shown in the majors, with 12 homers in 202 plate appearances this year.

That wasn’t the only thing Suwinski worked on. The list he recited to me included hitting, throwing, lifting, running, sprinting, and doing some trial and error with breathwork, soft tissue, mobility, and yoga.

“Just whatever I can do to get an edge,” said Suwinski of his offseason work.

He seems to have gotten that edge.

The Pirates started Suwinski in Double-A this year. He was an emergency call to the majors as a COVID replacement in April, following a hot start with Altoona. He didn’t cool off in the majors, hitting well enough to stick around. At this point, he looks like he’s up for good.

“A lot of thanks and a lot of gratitude goes to the people that help me in the offseason, in the early mornings and late nights and a lot of training sessions that go into it,” said Suwinski. “A lot of back and forth. A lot of it is talking, and how can we push this a little bit. How can we take it to the next step? I owe a lot of credit to those guys.”

Suwinski is hitting for a .209/.287/.445 line so far this year. Most of his production has been from his 12 home runs. His 31.7% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate pair with his .236 ISO to paint a three-true-outcomes picture. Based on what we’ve seen, it seems like a mistake to think that anything is finalized in the 23-year-old’s game.

When he was acquired, the reports on Suwinski’s base running and fielding were poor. He’s been fine in both regards this year. At worst, he’s not losing any value. At best, some outfield metrics show him as a positive value defender, and he can play all three positions — with 50 innings in center field so far.

“Obviously, I want to be good at everything I do,” said Suwinski. “I know some categories are going to be stronger than others, but at the same time, I’m going to work as hard as I can in all of those categories. I want to be a good player, a good teammate, and when I’m here I want to be the best that I can be in every one of those categories. I don’t want to leave any stone unturned.”

A year ago at this time, Suwinski was arguably seen as a fringe prospect with a short-term power surge.

One year later, he’s tied for the MLB rookie lead in home runs.

That is hard work paying off.