The Pittsburgh Pirates are promoting 2019 first round draft pick Quinn Priester to make his Major League debut on Monday, according to Jason Mackey, who later confirmed the date from the Tweet below.
Sources: Quinn Priester expected to make his MLB debut next week against the Guardians. Monday or Tuesday. The 2019 first-round pick considered the Pirates' fourth-best prospect by MLB Pipeline. Worked just one inning last night. Story to come.
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) July 15, 2023
Priester pitched a single inning last night for Indianapolis, which now seems like it replaced his typical work day leading into a start. He’s got a 4.31 ERA in 87.2 innings, with an 8.6 K/9 and a 3.6 BB/9.
The downside to Priester has been that his fastball that doesn’t have much deception, and is easily hit. He’s got an elite curveball, grading as one of the best in the system. He has added a slider in the last few years, to pair off the two-seam version of his fastball.
Priester hasn’t been a dominant pitcher in the form of strikeouts, making him susceptible to bad outings. He’s had a bad outing every other start since the end of May. On June 24th, he struck out 11 in six shutout innings. The start prior to that, he allowed six runs in 5.1 innings. The start after it was four runs in five innings. That 11-strikeout appearance has been the outlier of his season.
The Guardians, his opponent on Monday, rank 22nd in OBP and 27th in slugging, so this will be a good debut opponent for Priester.
