The Pittsburgh Pirates have promoted infielder Liover Peguero to Indianapolis according to the Altoona Curve website. He was just recently named as our top hitter for the month of June.
In his second season with Altoona, he hit .260/.333/.459 over 69 games, with 20 doubles, 11 homers and 19 steals. The OPS is a 94-point improvement over his total from last year.
The 22-year-old Peguero has committed just two errors over his last 69 games, while switching between shortstop and second base. He had 11 errors over the first 40 games of the season, so he’s shown a tremendous improvement in that area.
He has already played two big league games last year, so along with his extensive Double-A experience at a young age, he should be a big league option if they need him at any point. Not that he doesn’t need much Triple-A time, but he’s had plenty of upper level experience at this time.
Earlier Promotions Aplenty
The Pittsburgh Pirates started off July 4th morning with some fireworks, promoting top prospects outfielder Lonnie White Jr and shortstop Yordany De Los Santos from the FCL Pirates to Bradenton. They also promoted right-handed pitcher Jorge Ramos to Bradenton.
The 20-year-old White Jr was the 64th overall pick in the 2021 draft, who received a $1.5M bonus to forego a commitment to Penn St. He has dealt with injuries since signing, including simultaneous elbow and hamstring injuries in the middle of last year that kept him from doing any baseball activities. He had to get thumb surgery this year after a Spring Training injury.
White Jr (pictured above from three days ago) hit .258/.303/.516 in nine games after signing in 2021. His playing time was only limited that year due to the short time between the draft and the end of the FCL season. He played just two games last year due to the multiple injuries. This season he is hitting .317/.434/.444 in 17 games, with five doubles, a homer, 11 walks and six steals.
White Jr likely would have been with Bradenton early last year if he was healthy. He would have been there to start this season if not for the thumb injury. These games in the FCL this year were basically like rehab outings, so it’s not an unexpected promotion.
Yordany De Los Santos can be considered an aggressive promotion by the Pirates. He is just 18 years old, celebrating a birthday back in mid-February. He has 76 games of pro ball, including 59 of those in the Dominican Summer League last year, where he hit .258/.372/.363 over 234 plate appearances.
De Los Santos is hitting .328/.397/.463 over 78 plate appearances this season. He’s been splitting his time between shortstop and third base.
He was the top signing for the Pirates back on January 15, 2022, when the 2021-22 international signing period opened up. The Pirates gave him a $1.2M bonus. He wasn’t just the highest bonus for them, he was also ranked highly by prospect sites covering the international side.
Jorge Ramos is a 21-year-old right-handed pitcher from Mexico, who signed back in early 2019. He has actually pitched well in the FCL for the last three seasons as a reliever, after working as a starter in the DSL during his rookie season in 2019. He has 13 strikeouts and an 0.71 WHIP in 11.1 innings this year.
Ramos was actually a noteworthy signing back in 2019. He was the first signing out of Mexico by the Pirates after the rules changed for signing players.
Prior to his signing, players would receive just 25% of their bonus, with the team getting the rest. Those teams actually signed the players first, so he was getting paid and trained by a “big league” team by Mexico standards. Now players get 100% of their bonus, while their teams get a 35% “finders fee” on top of that as their cut.
I’ll note that it has been noticed by myself and others on the site that the jump from the FCL to Bradenton is far smaller than it was before they got rid of the middle short-season levels.
Teams had to deal with roster limits for the first time that really cut into their available players. There were limits in the past too, but you just needed to add an affiliate to increase your own limit. Now the roster limit is the same number for everyone, which is going down even more next year. That has led to teams keeping more of the raw tool/high upside type players than the guys who make lower level games bearable to watch, aka the low-ceiling polished players with no real MLB upside.
I don’t think that’s an issue, as you should take high upside over the upside of a potential AAAA type player if everything goes right. The problem is that Low-A has become a raw tools league, while the lack of levels like the Appalachian League/New York-Penn League has led to better players being held back in the FCL, making that league better.
So you’re combining a rougher version of Low-A with a better version of rookie ball, closing the gap between the two leagues, which used to be a huge jump.
A player like Yordany De Los Santos doing well in the FCL at 18 years old should be able to handle the jump better because of the smaller gap between the two leagues.
There should be more moves coming up today to clear roster spots for these three players. Bradenton doesn’t play until 6:35 PM tonight, so it might be a few hours before we hear anything. That’s also assuming that these players are active for today and not just beginning their Low-A time tomorrow.
Check back later for any updates.
Additional Moves Come In
Bradenton has promoted right-handed pitcher Ryan Harbin and infielder Francisco Acuna to Greensboro. Infielder Jackson Glenn has been promoted to Altoona.
The 21-year-old Harbin put up an 0.83 ERA, a 1.04 WHIP and 44 strikeouts in 32.2 innings for Bradenton this year. He had previously pitched just 41.2 innings total since being drafted in 2019 and signed to an over-slot deal to forego college. He spent time on the Injured List during the 2021-2022 seasons.
Acuna missed the beginning of this year and the end of last year due to a PED suspension. He was doing well for Greensboro last year before the suspension, so he’s just returning to his previous level. He hit .179/.313/.179 over 17 games with Bradenton this year.
Glenn is hitting .299/.380/.474 in 38 games this season. He spent four weeks in the middle of the year on the Injured List, which has limited his playing time. The 25-year-old fifth round pick from 2021 struggled with Greensboro last year, putting up a .625 OPS over 86 games in the hitter-friendly park.
Jose Hernandez Starts His Rehab Work
The Pirates announced that left-handed pitcher Jose Hernandez will begin a rehab assignment with Indianapolis on Tuesday. The Rule 5 pick has a 2.63 ERA over 27.1 innings, with a 3.41 FIP, a 1.02 WHIP and 28 strikeouts through 26 appearances.
Hernandez went on the 15-day IL on June 18th with a calf strain.
JC Flowers was placed on the Development List for Indianapolis. He hasn’t pitched in 11 days, but we wasn’t pitching well before that time. He has a 9.43 ERA for the season over 27.2 innings. He has 33 strikeouts, but it comes with 37 hits allowed and 24 walks.
