Don’t Count Quinn Priester Out Due to Low Strikeouts

Quinn Priester had quite the season last year, despite a late start after an injury delaying his move to the mound.

Spending the majority of the season in Altoona, Priester posted a 3.29 ERA with 89 strikeouts in 90.1 innings pitched. He was even better when just looking at his Double-A numbers (2.87 ERA in 75.1 IP), as a rough rehab start in Greensboro as well as his last start of the season inflated his numbers.

Regardless, Priester was recognized as the Pirates Pitcher of the Year by the organization for his overall body of work, and even made some of those innings back in the Arizona Fall League.

Despite all of that, Priester took a hit in a lot of the national prospect outlets, dropping off quite a few Top 100 lists.

While prospect list ultimately isn’t what makes a player great, it is interesting to see his lack of ranking. Despite the success he had last year, and at  the usually top prospect defining Double-A level, the hype seems to be cooling around Priester.

Fangraphs had an interesting note of ‘scouts like Priester, pitch data does not’ and it makes sense. The righty has the build of a starting pitcher with one of the best curveballs in the minors and has added a slider since being drafted, giving him pitches to work with getting hitters out.

He also had a ground ball rate of 50.6%, which was the 70th best mark among the 517 pitchers who threw at least 80 innings in the minors last season.

Strikeouts aren’t the say all, be all when it comes to pitchers. Talent evaluators certainly like to see prospects generate as much swing and miss as they can. If a player is struggling to strike out hitters in A-Ball and Double-A, then the chances he’s going to do so once he makes the majors isn’t too great.

Priester has hovered around about a strikeout per inning the last two years (187 strikeouts in 188 innings), which isn’t great, but maybe not what you want to see out of a top prospect, or someone projected to be a front of the rotation starter.

That being said, there may be a reason to believe that there is more there for Priester when it comes to strikeouts.

There was a lot to like about Priester, and the strikeouts are the one thing that you’d want to see improved. These percentile rankings are based on the 517 players who pitched at least 80 innings in the minors last year.

Even if Priester wasn’t getting a lot of strikeouts, he was generating a decent amount of swing and miss on hitters.

Quinn Priester vs. Malcom Nunez. Good morning, good afternoon and good night. pic.twitter.com/H0fq3RvJnE

— Alex Stumpf (@AlexJStumpf) February 22, 2023

While Priester seems like the kind of pitcher that can have success, regardless if he puts up eye popping strikeout numbers, being able to dig deep and come away with one in a big situation would be huge.

As part of every minor leaguer’s journey, Priester’s game continues to evolve. He came into the system mostly a fastball/curveball guy, and has since really incorporated the sinker and slider, along with a changeup.

With him continuing to learn what works best for him, eventually he should gain the experience to properly put some of that swing and miss stuff together to put hitters away. If that happens, Priester’s game could take off even further.

The Pirates built some decent rotation depth this season, with a couple of other prospects already on the 40-man roster. There won’t be any pressure on Priester to do anything other than continue to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

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