The Pittsburgh Pirates are signing 22 players on the first three days of the international signing period, which opened on Sunday. Here are the scouting reports for the 12 players who have already signed, plus Raymond Mola and Jun-Seok Shim, who have been announced as having agreements, but have not officially signed yet. Both will be done by Tuesday morning, with Shim coming sooner than the others.
Jonathan Rivero – Lefty hitting catcher from Venezuela who is advanced for his age. A recent growth spurt has him at 6’1, 191, and he has also put on good weight, with room for more. His bat shows power already with projection to add more. He has all of the tools to remain behind the plate, including athleticism, arm, good instincts and makeup. He turned 17 years old in December.
Angel Perez – The Pirates added two catchers from Venezuela. Perez is 5’10, 160, with a medium frame. His defense ahead of offense, with the ability to stay behind the plate as he gets older. As with almost everyone else in this signing class, his athleticism gets a lot of notice. He makes solid contact at the plate and drives the ball to the gaps, using the middle of the field well. Power could develop later.
Andres Villafane – He’s a 5’10, 175 pound center fielder out of Colombia, who turned 16 on St Patrick’s Day. He’s very athletic, with above average speed that has improved recently (6.6 in the 60). He has strong instincts in the outfield, and the ability to play all three outfielder positions, though right field is probably out of the picture due to an arm that rates average at best. He’s a very aggressive player on both sides of the ball, whose speed works on the bases and defense. He has a solid approach at the plate, and drives the ball well to all fields, though he gets pull happy. He’s a real gamer.
Miguel Rodriguez – He’s a 5’11”, 152 pound center fielder out of Venezuela, who turned 16 in April. His speed gets a 70 grade, while his arm is a 55 grade. He will remain in center field, where his speed will help him impact both sides of the ball. He’s a top of the order hitter, with a medium frame, strong bat-to-ball skills that produces a lot of line drives. Another plus athletic player, who is still filling out his frame.
Janderson Linares – He’s a 17-year old (October birthday) left-handed pitcher out of Venezuela, who stands 6’2″, 180 pounds. He has a large frame, shows athleticism on the mound, with a durable body that should allow him to be a starter. He has the ability to spin the ball well, with average control of three pitches. His fastball is 86-88 MPH now, that has room to add plenty of velocity. His slider is his best secondary pitch, sitting 71-72 MPH, with a good feel to spin it, though it can be more of a slurve at times. His delivery is very deceptive, and he has an aggressive approach on the mound. His changeup is an average offering now, sitting 79-81 MPH.
Carlos Castillo (pictured up top) – He’s the most exciting of the pitchers signing today. He’s a 6’2″, 166 pound right-handed pitcher, who turns 17 next month. He had a growth spurt recently, so there’s more room to fill out his frame. He’s a great athlete with a solid frame, who has the full package for a future starter. He shows above average arm speed, throws all three pitches for strikes, with great spin on his pitches, and minimal effort delivery that produces easy strikes. He already spots his fastball, which he has taken from sitting 84-85 MPH last year, to touching 92 MPH in his last outing. He throws a curve that’s around 76 MPH, with 12/5 shape. He also has an 80-81 MPH changeup.
Joenelly van der Linden – Lower profile signing out of Aruba who is a bit raw now. He’s 5’11, 145 pounds, with plenty of room to fill out. He’s signing as a shortstop, but appears to be headed for second base, where his defensive tools will play better. As you would expect, it was the athleticism that got him noticed at this point in his game, though he has solid bat-to-ball skills, with a possibility for future power.
Ronal Gomez – Left-handed pitcher from Colombia, who stands 6’4″, 150 pounds (yes, those are correct numbers). He turns 17 next month. He’s a very lanky pitcher, with a frame to add a lot. This is a deep projection player, who will take some time, but there are current things to like about his game. He has three pitches that are around the plate. He has an 86-88 MPH fastball already, though he doesn’t maintain velocity long, so expect him to work in shorter outings at first. His curve projects to be a solid pitch. It now sits 70-71 MPH, and has some late bite. His changeup is 80-82 MPH. Pirates like the desire here and he’s progressed recently. He’s a smart player, real gamer, who is driven to get better.
Yosmar Gimenez – He’s a 16-year-old (May birthday), 6’2″ 155 pound shortstop from Venezuela. He has a projectable body, athletic with a lean/cut physique, but room to add more. He was originally a shortstop, then got moved to center field by his trainer, and only recently returned to the shortstop spot. He has a plus arm and the tools to stay at shortstop in the future and have solid defense, but he’s very raw at the spot. He has solid speed, with a 6.8 time in the 60. Very smart player, good instincts all around, the bat rates average now, but he has shown good power from the left side.
Nicolas Carreno – He’s a 5’11, 155 pound left-handed pitcher from Venezuela, who turned 16 in June. He has a medium frame to add to in the future. He has the ability to spin the ball well. He throws his fastball 89-91 MPH, while offering a slider that is 78-81 MPH. His changeup is a work in progress, one in which he was just given a new grip on the pitch and it has progressed quickly. He’s a very smart pitcher, with a good feel for the strike zone.
Joseph Sequera – He’s the third catcher from this initial signing group. He turned 17 back in November and stands in at 6’0″, 185 pounds. He’s a strong kid who already shows some power from the right side of the plate and makes solid contact. He should be able to stick behind the plate, as he looks comfortable in his actions.
David Matoma – The final player from today is from a country you don’t see producing baseball players. MLB holds camps in Africa and Europe and the best players from certain areas will attend those events. The entire continent of Africa will have about 20 kids at these events, with South Africa being their version of a baseball hotbed, though it’s far from the most popular sport in their country. Then there’s the country of Uganda, which didn’t have a single pro baseball player until just under a year ago. Matoma is not a raw player though. He’s very athletic, standing in at 6’0″, 155 pounds now at 16 years old, with obvious room to add to that frame. His selling point right now is a fastball that gets up to 92-93 MPH and sits 88-92. His slider is 80-84 with good spin. His changeup is 78-83. He’s a bit of a project, but not the biggest one on this list. He has legit upside. Much more on him here.
Jun-Seok Shim– 18-year-old right-handed pitcher, ranked tenth in this signing class by MLB Pipeline. He has a big frame at 6’4″, 215 pounds and he’s touched 101 MPH already. He throws four pitches, with his fastball, curve, changeup and slider all having plus potential. The fastball and curve are ahead of the other two pitches now, but he’s a strike-thrower with all of his offerings. He’s the big signing in the class, who you will hear much more about in the future, especially after his signing is official. For now, here is a quote from Max Kwan, who is the Pirates Director of Player Personnel:
“We have been tracking Jun Seok for the last three years and couldn’t be more thrilled to bring him into the organization. We believe he will fit right in with our diverse culture and growing population of players and personnel from the Pacific Rim. He has a strong combination of flexibility, arm speed and spin, which is rare for a player with this type of size and frame.”
Raymond Mola – A 17-year-old, switch-hitter outfielder, who was ranked 26th overall by MLB Pipeline. He received 50 grade tools across the board in every category. He has a large frame and he’s a corner outfielder, who has shown the ability to drive the ball well to the entire field. Everything he does now matches up to the grades, average runner, power, arm, defense, with the bat tool likely being the carrying tool. He has above average bat speed and gets credit for how he plays the game.
The rest of the signings will get reports once they officially sign. I’ve never heard of teams announcing signings before they happened, so the reports aren’t written up yet. We will have our 2023 signing tracker up soon as well, which will be updated throughout the year, so bookmark it.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
I like the efforts they are making in Asia. I read an article about the efforts they are making in Venezuela
opening campshaving events when others team are not. Hope it pans out.It’s official! Good coverage thus far on this.
https://twitter.com/Pirates/status/1614730028033482753
He actually signed well after they posted that. When the Pirates made the announcement it was 7am Korean time. He wasn’t signing his contract over a bowl of wheaties. It happened a few hours later and now they are going to have an event at PNC Park next week to introduce him to the press.
They must have been pretty sure he was signing to make that announcement before his signature was on that contract.
The players in the Dominican still haven’t signed. I just talked to one of the people who is in charge of that and he literally had to cut short the conversation because he was getting on the plane to go to the Dominican
John,
Any word on the Panamanian recruits that the Pirates were linked to in May? How could we miss on having an Iverson Allen in the organization?
But is he gonna practice? Sorry couldn’t help myself.
So it turns out that I misunderstood what they said. The 2023 signing class, as they told me, are the players who would’ve been eligible to sign on July 2, 2023. So these kids are signing still, you just have to wait another year. I should have known better when they told me the ages of the two players, because I even thought to myself that they wouldn’t be able to sign if that was their ages right now, back when they told me in May
Thanks John. Makes sense. Both of those players seemed to have a good WBSC tournament U15 a few months ago. So young.
Next year.
In case you were ever wondering about how far in advance teams and players come to an agreement, there is your proof. I reported in May 2022 about players who are signing in January 2024. They aren’t the only players with agreements either but I don’t know any other names, just that one of them is from Curaçao
Do the players have to wait those 2 years until actually receiving the bonus? If so, that really sucks for the players, as they’re taking on alot of risk to wait around for a future payday, that probably isn’t official until after a physical.
Yes, but with kids like this you are talking about them being 14 years old when they agreed. I believe the one just turned 15 and Iverson Allen was still 14 at the time. Players also don’t just get handed checks when they sign, even on the draft side.
A good example I heard about when it happened was a 2011 draft pick named Brian Sharp, who played 19 games before retiring. He signed for a $2000 bonus, but all he got was his salary. He didn’t receive a penny of that bonus because he wasn’t around long enough. Around the same time they had a catcher named Max Rossiter, who played one game then quit due to family/personal issues. People were assuming he grabbed his bonus and left, but all he really got was something like four days pay, which was probably about $130. There are stipulations written into the contracts. Bigger bonuses are paid over three years and players are required to put in those three years to get it UNLESS they are released.
Thank you for the reply John. Wow, interesting stuff on the bonuses.
On the international side, I was just thinking that if I was a pitcher that agreed to a big deal, but had to wait one or 2 years to collect any of it, I would be worried about throwing too much in those 2 years of limbo out of fear of hurting the arm & having that deal voided due to injury. On the flip side, that would be bad for the team bc now that high signing isn’t going to be progressing as a player in those 2 years of limbo.
Another example is a position player that agrees to a bonus, then hit’s a growth spurt & sees all his measurables tick up has now passed on a potentially larger bonus.
I just can’t imagine this process of agreeing years in advance of the actual signing benefiting either party much except in the instance of a team agreeing to a deal with a player that gets better in the 1-2 years before the official signing & the team saves some money had they waited – but until the signing is official, the door is technically open for another team to offer more last minute.
I completely forgot about him. I’ll have to check
Great coverage PP team, special kudos to John!
Sign a guy from the far away land of Virginia, 22 names have been released and only 7 or 8 from the DR.
They have 22 players they are signing, anyone else will be someone that they scouted after today and added. The kid from Virginia is actually from the Dominican. That’s where he was born and lived, otherwise he couldn’t sign today. Counting him, they are signing nine players from the Dominican. Even though the Pirates announced them as signed, they are actually signing Tuesday morning. All of them are at the Pirates Dominican academy, so it’s safe to say they will all sign.
What about the be highly ranked Cuban, that was linked to pirates
Did he sign yet?
Not yet, he’s signing tomorrow morning in the Dominican. The only non-Dominican player there for the signings
Jauregi ? If that’s who you are referencing, yes he did.
how does this class compare to a few of their previous ones?
Kinda want to see the $$. It’s not much of a measure, but we don’t have much else for comparison purposes.
Shim SEEMS like a bigger deal than, well, maybe anybody since Heredia (nojinx). Curious to see how he compares to Shalin P’s bonus. Shim, Mola and the Cuban guy seem *maybe* comparable to Yordany and Blanco last year, quality wise, except there’s three. So much depends on whether they can develop 2-3 pitchers. And odds are they’ll sign a few older guys later. Maybe they find another Ortiz.
I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing each year’s class reach the FCL.
Well, they must’ve liked the catcher Rivero. Tracker says $840K. Pretty sure that’s the most they’ve given an intl catcher.
Haven’t most of the Int’l big bonus guys under Cherington looked really bad so far though?
The Asian guys haven’t. Polanco and Rivas have made good progress. Yordany did well after a slow start, not that DSL stats mean anything. Blanco was hurt nearly all year. Juan Jerez really hit a wall at Bradenton after doing well in the FCL. (I can’t always remember which were the top bonus guys.). The pitchers have been all over the lot, but that’s really typical.
I dunno, I’d have to spend some real time trying to get an overall handle on it.
Yeah I guess Chen’s been pretty good. I remember looking at Polanco and Yordany’s numbers and being “oof”
hmmm i see interesting.
yes i’m also excited to see last year’s class in the FCL. hopefully a few make the jump.
2023 will be the first year I’ll be able to watch Bradenton after getting a good look at the previous year’s FCL team. I didn’t see that much of them in 2021 because it was a nuisance getting into Pirate City, which was closed to the public until the last few games. I mostly had to go to Sarasota.
Get these.guys in & start feeding them!
And STOP feeding a couple of those BIG buys in that picture, lol.
It’s ok if they grow up and not out!