Our new Prospect Watch features daily updates on three players in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ system. Looking for the nightly game recaps? Check out Pirates Prospects Live:
Yesterday’s Results: Pirates’ Offensive Woes and Losing Streak Continue
Today’s Action: Pirates Play Short-Handed, Braxton Ashcraft Debuts in Altoona
Today’s Prospect Watch looks at two standout hitters in Bradenton, and a three hit day from Connor Scott.
TIM WILLIAMS: Termarr Johnson, 2B, Bradenton (A)
The Pirates drafted Termarr Johnson with their first round pick last year. I haven’t seen much from him, outside of highlights. Lately, the highlights seem to be the only thing to watch. After a slower start to the year, Johnson is hitting .259/.449/.638 in the month of June. He’s got a 24.4% walk rate and a 23.1% strikeout rate. He’s hit six home runs in 58 at-bats during this stretch, along with four doubles.
When Johnson hits the ball, he makes solid contact. Anthony Murphy broke down his recent four-hit day, which highlighted the first round hitting skillset. Johnson was drafted out of high school, but is showing an advanced bat. Early in the year, he was striking out 35% of the time and wasn’t hitting for power. The fact that his strikeouts are down over the last month, and the power is up, are positive steps.
Since this is his first season in pro ball, and since he just turned 19-years-old two weeks ago, I wouldn’t expect the Pirates to rush Johnson. I could see him getting time to adjust to pro ball and to build some momentum before the next level. What’s interesting is the Pirates have a chain of middle infielders who could be promoted by the end of the year. Liover Peguero in Altoona, Tsung-Che Cheng in Greensboro, and Termarr Johnson in Bradenton. All three are now hitting well, and if this trend holds a month from now, I think all three could be on the move.
TIM WILLIAMS: Connor Scott, OF, Altoona (AA)
Connor Scott went 3-for-4 last night with Altoona. The outfielder, acquired from the Marlins in the Jacob Stallings trade, has a .588 OPS on the year. In watching the three hits, we get to see why Scott is a prospect despite the numbers, but also why he’s got some work to improve those numbers.
In the first pitch he saw last night, Scott lined a single to right-center.
#Pirates outfield prospect Connor Scott picked up three hits in Altoona last night. Here is number one, a line drive single to right-center. pic.twitter.com/1XG0OPWKlR
— Tim Williams (@TimWilliamsP2) June 21, 2023
I left these at-bats full, rather than capturing the hit, as I want to focus on the setup from Scott. I’ve noticed a tendency he has to rest his bat on his shoulder. He doesn’t have a lot of upper body strength, which could be preventing some of his singles from going for more. I’ll get to this in a bit.
Scott has some of the best hand/eye coordination I saw on the Altoona roster this year — up there with Liover Peguero and Henry Davis. There’s obviously a difference in power production between Scott and those other two, with Scott having one homer this year. The good thing is that he sees the ball and hits the ball. The bonus is that he is doing a better job of lifting the ball this year. Scott’s ground ball rate is down to 29.3%, while his fly ball rate is up to 52% — a significant increase from the 35% range he was at with the Marlins.
Here is the second hit:
The second hit from Connor Scott last night for Altoona. With a runner on third, he dropped a 1-2 breaking pitch into center field for an RBI single. pic.twitter.com/9HNkw76oGv
— Tim Williams (@TimWilliamsP2) June 21, 2023
This was another display of Scott’s great hand/eye skills. He’s defending in a 1-2 count here, and gets a breaking pitch that drops to the bottom of the zone, a bit away. Scott’s power seems to be best at pull side, but he can still push the ball middle-away with some slice on the ball. Notice how he finishes with his body pulling away but his head extended out almost over the plate and his eyes on the ball. Scott never really loses track of the ball, and his upper half can adjust and stay on it, even if it doesn’t leave him in a power position:
This swing is very top guided, and it got the job done. Scott looks like he’s almost moving in two directions here, with his lower half going to right, and his upper half adjusting to the pitch. This creates the slice he has the other way. However, as you can see in the third hit, he can get that slice even on inside pitches:
This third hit last night from Connor Scott shows off the speed from the 6' 3" outfielder. He goes inside out on another 1-2 pitch, and beats out the throw to first from the shortstop. pic.twitter.com/Jt0iq2tiiu
— Tim Williams (@TimWilliamsP2) June 21, 2023
Scott gets another inside-out swing. I’ve seen a few home runs from Scott where his power zone seems to be that low, inside corner. The tall, lanky outfielder throws an almost golf swing onto that zone and controls his bat well. The hit here comes off the bat quick, and at a tough opposite field angle, moving away from the shortstop. Scott uses his speed to beat out the throw. His speed, plus his defense all over the outfield, add to his overall value.
Scott makes contact here, but not great contact. My concern with him is power. That might be due to a lack of upper body strength on the pitches where he makes contact. It could also be due to a top-guided swing that doesn’t really fit his power frame. He’s in his age 23 season, and his second run through the Double-A level with some bad results. This is a case where the stats don’t line up with the skills from the scouting report. The rare skill here is his ability to track the ball and put the bat on it with some spin. Hitting the ball with more force will lead to the skillset from Scott appearing in the stats.
WILBUR MILLER: Enmanuel Terrero, OF, Bradenton (A)
Enmanuel Terrero signed with the Pirates back in 2019 for $600,000. Since then, he’s been one of the steadiest hitters at the system’s lower levels. He put up a .707 OPS in the Dominican Summer League in 2021 (after the pandemic wiped out the 2020 season), .890 in the Florida Complex League in 2022, and currently .839 with Bradenton this year. Terrero isn’t a big guy, at 5’9”, and is more of a contact hitter with good plate discipline. In each of his first two seasons, he walked more than he struck out. He hit only one home run each year and one of those was inside-the-park.
This year, Terrero seems to be taking bigger cuts and trying to drive the ball more. His K rate was just 13.5% in his first two seasons combined; this year it’s 24.5%. The cost so far hasn’t been high. He’s batting .299, good for seventh in the league, and has an OBP of .402, also seventh. His walk rate remains high at 14.1%, although not quite as high as the 18.4% he put up in his first two years. He’s been streaky, with his OPS by month going from .950 in April to .686 in May and .944 in June. The bigger swing seems to be helping his power some, but not dramatically. He has four home runs and his ISO has increased from .113 last year to .137. Of course, the Florida State League is the worst of the full-season minor leagues for hitters, and especially power, so that has to be taken into account.
Defensively, Terrero has played all three outfield positions. He has good but not blazing speed, enough that he should be able to handle center at least on a fourth-outfielder sort of basis, and his arm is around average. Fourth outfielder probably is the most realistic projection for him. He doesn’t have the sort of strong, compact swing you see with players like Termarr Johnson and Tsung-Che Cheng, so he’s most likely, long-term, to be more of a gap hitter. So far, though, his hitting hasn’t faltered and he’s about half a year below the FSL average age for a hitter.
Prospect Watch Archives
6/20: Cal Mitchell, Travis MacGregor, Alessandro Ercolani
6/19: Henry Davis, Bubba Chandler, Julian Bosnic
6/18: Jared Jones, Matt Gorski, Tony Blanco Jr.
6/17: Liover Peguero, Dominic Perachi, Carlos Mateo
6/16: Kyle Nicolas, Anthony Solometo, Jack Brannigan
6/15: Shalin Polanco, Abrahan Gutierrez, Will Matthiessen
6/14: Nick Cimillo, Geovanny Planchart, Jesus Castillo
The Prospect Watch runs every day at noon, featuring three players from the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system.
