This past week saw seven prospects for the Pittsburgh Pirates in action during winter ball, but things certainly slowed down a bit as we got to the weekend.
In our Winter League recap from last night, it was noted that Endy Rodriguez, Liover Peguero and Dariel Lopez all didn’t play over the last three days, with one of those days being a league-wide day off. I’ve noted this here before, but it’s important to remember. We call this winter ball, but this is the regular season in these countries. The idea is to win, not groom prospects. Peguero hit .150/.191/.350 in 21 plate appearances during the first week of action. Clearly a small sample size, but he’s playing in a league with veteran players, so a prospect pretty much has to hit the ground running or they won’t see much time. Lopez did well in his smaller sample size, going 4-for-13 with a triple and a walk, though he also committed three errors in his brief time. Rodriguez went 5-for-20 with a double and a walk, leading to a .586 OPS in five games. I’m not saying they have been benched, but it definitely helps to do better from the start because veteran players are joining teams throughout the year, making it harder to emerge from the bench.
Jeremy Beasley has pitched poorly in two games so far in the Dominican, which isn’t good for a foreign player. Young prospects from the Dominican have a short leash, but we have seen foreign players have really short leashes. He was acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays on August 2nd. He pitched one late-season game with the Indianapolis Indians after getting hurt before he could make an appearance in the Pirates system. Beasley allowed three runs without recording an out in that game. He has allowed three runs on five hits in two innings in the Dominican.
Enmanuel Mejia has pitched one inning/one game, allowing an unearned run on a hit and two walks. He pitched nine times last winter in the Dominican, then spent the entire 2022 season with the Altoona Curve.
Oneil Cruz is slated to begin on November 1st and play shortstop daily for Tigres del Licey.
Mexico started first and had outfielders Jared Oliva and Fabricio Macias in action. Oliva finished the 2022 season with two strong months and he has continued that in the early stages of winter ball, hitting .359 with six steals in ten games. Macias started off strong, but his last four games saw him collect just one hit. He was dropped down the batting order last night.
Venezuela started last night and the only Pirates player I saw was Ali Sanchez, who was just picked up off of waivers from the Detroit Tigers. Diego Castillo is slated to start on November 1st.
Puerto Rico action begins in just under two weeks and last I heard, Gigantes de Carolina will have Nick Gonzales, Aaron Shackelford, Will Kobos, Brad Case and Jeffrey Passantino. That could change, but those are the early names scheduled to play.
Australia will have five Pirates on the Sydney Blue Sox, who are managed by Pirates scout Tony Harris. Dylan Shockley is the only player announced so far. The season there begins on November 10th, so we should hear the other names soon.
The league in Colombia begins on November 11th. Only Andres Alvarez has been announced for the league, but there should be more Pirates. The Caimanes de Barranquilla team is managed and coached by three coaches with the Pirates, so they are likely to have some Pirates players.
We had five daily winter league recaps in the last week, and that’s about how many we should see per week. They will keep us occupied this off-season into January, possibly even very early February.
