At the start of each month, we run a series of Prospect Roundtable articles looking at players who are surging up and surging down. There is one month remaining for the full system, and rather than looking at the season totals, we’re looking this month at the second half starts.
We looked at the players who are off to hot starts since the beginning of July, and each of us picked one whose surge we are buying. There’s one young infielder in the FCL who really stood out.
JOHN DREKER: Javier Rivas, INF
My prospect trending up is Javier Rivas with the FCL Pirates. When he signed in July of 2019, I was told that there was a chance that he would end up being the best player signed by the Pirates in their 2019-20 international signing class. Due to the canceled 2020 season, we didn’t get to see him in actual games until 2021, and he was downright awful — one of the worst hitters in the entire DSL. That would have worried me more in the past, but I did extensive research over the winter looking at DSL success and how it translated to the majors. There was almost no bump at all among the best hitters/pitchers each year reaching the majors versus everyone else. In other words, scouting reports mean significantly more than results at the level. This spring I asked about players doing well in Extended Spring Training and Rivas was one of the first names mentioned, so he’s been on the radar this season. The results early on have been impressive, especially in July, where he had a .994 OPS as the month came to a close. He did fine in June for the pitcher-friendly league, but July has been closer to the numbers I expected when I first heard about him right before he signed with the Pirates. He’s an athletic player with five-tool possibilities, which makes him someone to watch going forward as those tools start to translate to results.
WILBUR MILLER: Javier Rivas, INF
Rivas was a prominent signing for the Pirates in the 2019-20 signing period, although we don’t know the bonus because he’s from Venezuela. Whatever it was, it seemed like wasted money after he hit .133/.214/.173 in his 2021 debut in the DSL. The numbers were so bad that, when he showed up on the FCL roster this summer, I expected some sort of horror show at the plate. Rivas started the season 2-for-21, but I saw several of those games and he didn’t look overmatched like I expected. He has good bat speed and his swing decisions, although they could improve, aren’t bad, especially for the low minors these days. In mid-June, he started to hit, including some power, although his OPS for the month was still only .671. He seemed to settle in around that point for a while and I started wondering whether he’d continue to improve, which he still needed to do. Then on July 26 he had a six-hit game, and extended his streak to eight straight hits in his next game. He’s now batting .296/.359/.487 overall, with surprising power for a guy who’s still pretty thin. He should get stronger as he grows into his frame; he won’t turn 20 until September 1.
What makes Rivas more intriguing than just some guy who got hot for a while in rookie ball is that he’s potentially a plus defender at short. He has outstanding agility and actions at the position for a guy who’s 6’3”, along with good hands and enough arm for short, or third for that matter. He’s made a number of highlight reel plays just in the games I’ve seen. The Pirates are moving him around between second, third, and short, probably in large part because they have two other good infielders on that team in Jesus Castillo and Jeral Toledo. Rivas should be able to stick at short, though, so it’ll be very interesting to see how he does in full season ball.
ANTHONY MURPHY: Po-Yu Chen, RHP
Po-Yu Chen was a name I was going to be watching closely going into 2022. He showed some great control in the FCL last year, and although that didn’t translate immediately, you could partially blame that on him adjusting to the automated strike zone and facing a better level of competition.
Now that he’s settled in at the Single-A level we are starting to see a lot of that potential that made him coveted by the Pirates. After his strong month of July, it’s starting to feel like he’s turning the corner with his development and heading in the right direction.
Chen allowed seven earned runs in 26.1 innings in the month of July, five of which came in a lone outing that last just 3 1/3 innings. Even without his best stuff, six of the 10 outs he recorded were by way of strikeout.
With some of the best spin rates on the staff, Chen has a whole arsenal of pitches he has used to get batters out. His fastball is in the low-to-mid 90s, has one of the better offspeed/splitters in the system and the spin rates on his curveball would make it among the best in the majors in that metric.
RYAN PALENCER: Rodolfo Castro, INF
In the last month, Rodolfo Castro has continued to do the things that got him to the the big leagues. He hit four doubles and four home runs, staying persistent with the power display. However, he has also improved greatly on a couple aspects that have kept him from sticking in the big leagues. In his 20 July contests, Castro is hitting .284 and had raised his season average over 20 points. His 21 strikeouts are the lowest of any month this season. But most importantly, he’s committed just two errors. Additionally, he’s played 11 games at shortstop over the stretch, where he’s had his biggest struggles. Castro’s improvement with the glove has his stock improving tremendously.
TIM WILLIAMS: Quinn Priester, RHP
Quinn Priester has been lights out so far in Double-A. He has a 1.87 ERA in 33.2 innings, with all but seven taking place in July. This is Priester’s Double-A debut, and it doesn’t appear to be much of a challenge, based on what we’ve seen so far. A concern with Priester in the past was that he wasn’t dominant enough, with lower strikeout totals. Those didn’t come with these overall results. He has shown games where he’s had high strikeout rates, and he has one per inning in his Double-A time. Strikeouts don’t matter as much when opposing hitters can’t do anything when they put the ball in play. Priester has held opposing hitters to a .230/.299/.287 line this year, while showing better control numbers than the past. The Pirates moved Mike Burrows up to Triple-A after 52 innings. Burrows had higher strikeout numbers, and higher walks. It’s possible that Priester could join Burrows in Indianapolis by the end of the season. It’s not bold to say that you’re buying one of the best pitching prospects in the system and the game. However, that’s exactly what I’m projecting when buying Priester. He and Burrows will give the Pirates rotation a huge boost next year, and I think what we’re seeing from him now is at least starting to add comfort to that projection.
THIS WEEK ON PIRATES PROSPECTS
Williams: Ben Cherington’s Pittsburgh Pirates Trade History
Prospect Roundtable: Which Second Half Surges Are You Buying?
Prospect Roundtable: Which Players Might Repeat a Level Next Year?
