Pirates Prospects Daily: Thomas Harrington Continues His Success In Single-A

For the first time this season, the Bradenton Marauders have lost a game in which Thomas Harrington has started.

The 36th overall pick in last year’s draft, Harrington has quickly shown why he was so highly regarded by the Pirates when they selected him.

After striking out nine across 5.1 innings, he also showed that it may be ready for a new challenge as well, even despite allowing two runs and getting tagged with a loss for the first time this season.

Harrington has made seven starts this season, getting the nod on Fridays, and has struck out 37 while walking just 11 across 33 innings pitched.

It’s been his advanced secondary offerings that has allowed him to have so much success so far.

With a near 40% whiff rate with both his slider (39.29%) and changeup (37.5%), the Campbell product has kept Single-A hitters guessing since the start of the season. He’s also shown he can throw the slider for strikes, adding another element, as Harrington currently owns a 42.65 Called Strike + Whiff rate (CSW%).

While the upper levels have been hit by injuries, there is somewhat of a jam in Bradenton and Greensboro. That’s what makes Harrington’s situation interesting. He’s obviously shown that he’s advanced enough to move on from Single-A, maybe that he didn’t even need the stop to begin with.

The Pirates have several of their top prospects (Anthony Solometo and Bubba Chandler, as well as some other intriguing arms (Braxton Ashcraft and Po-Yu Chen), making it hard to find room for Harrington.

Valentin Linarez looked like he had the build, and put up the numbers in Bradenton that could have potentially put him on a Luis Ortiz type ascension, but hasn’t taken that step.

He’d be a candidate, but the Pirates might not be willing to pull the plug on him as a starter just yet.

This seems like a good problem to have for the Pirates, not enough spots for the options that they have. At some point, regardless of who is blocking him, dominating at a level you are clear ready to move on from will only do so much for his development.

Prospect Notes

— Speaking of Chandler, control has still been a struggle for him this season. He walked five in three innings on Friday, and has a 18% walk rate through his 29.1 innings of work this year.

This is the first year the righty has completely focused on pitching, and there was always going to be growing pains for Chandler. He’s shown some flashes here and there, but to get to that next step, it may mean leaving behind a less-than-ideal stat sheet at the end of his time in Greensboro.

— Tsung-Che Cheng hit a grand slam, his sixth home run of the season, and Tres Gonzalez drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. The attention automatically turns to the pitching in the lower levels, and for good reason.

Cheng and Gonzalez remain bright spots on the hitting side of things this season, and will be among the top names to watch when they make the big jump to Double-A at some point over the next year.

Daily Video Rundown

EVERYBODY EATS pic.twitter.com/A4t8ASWmIb

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 20, 2023

Altoona was the only minor league game streamed, as the Indianapolis game was postponed, so there wasn’t much video out there. Luckily, the Pirates put up double-digit runs.

We're not quite done yet. pic.twitter.com/ln0EF6k43n

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 20, 2023