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Pirates Prospects Daily: Baseball Development Isn’t Linear

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Quinn Priester was sent down to the minors yesterday, after making six starts with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Priester had a 9.10 ERA in 28.2 innings of work.

Priester has one of the best curveballs in the system. That resulted in a .733 OPS and a 12.9% whiff rate in the big leagues. The downside to the pitch isn’t the actual pitch. It’s what Priester pairs with the curveball. His four-seam fastball has been crushed to the tune of a 1.397 OPS, with a 5.9% whiff rate. That pitch sets up the high/low split on the curve, and Priester is missing with the setup.

He’s added a cut slider, which has generated a 16.9% whiff rate, but a 1.190 OPS against. His sinker is the better fastball, but still had an .860 OPS. He also struggles with control with this pitch. The sinker/slider combo led to a lot of his control issues in the big leagues, leading to a 12.9% walk rate.

On the bright side, his changeup led to a .538 OPS against.

It’s not great to see a former first round pick arrive and struggle in the majors. The answer for Priester is to make his four-seam fastball more difficult to hit, which has been a challenge his entire career. An alternate approach would be finding control with the sinker/slider mix, which really reduces the impact of his elite curveball. He could also look for a replacement pitch for the four-seam to incorporate that curveball more effectively.

Baseball development isn’t linear. Everyone wants to see a player arrive in the majors and easily adjust with performance that can be counted on for years. The reality is that most players struggle when they first arrive, and not all of them adjust. Priester is only 22-years-old. There’s no guarantee that he will improve on his stuff, but he’s got the type of work ethic that you’d bet on.

The alarming thing here is that Priester reached the big leagues without a pitch mix that could get outs. He’s still mostly relying on tools, with questions of how those tools will play in the majors. This is shown with the curveball — his best pitch, of which he lacks a setup offering.

The Pirates saw something similar with Mitch Keller. It took him a few years to adjust, though Keller has struggled as well. He’s got a 4.27 ERA in 149.2 innings this year, which is an improvement over his 7.13 ERA in his debut in 2019. Hopefully it won’t take until 2025-26 for Priester to improve his game enough to be a consistent MLB starter.

QUICK PIRATES RECAP

PIRATES (54-66) AT Mets

Score: Pirates 7, Mets 4
Pittsburgh Starter: Bailey Falter, LHP (4.86)
–Line: 5.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR
Player of the Game: Liover Peguero, SS (2-for-4, HR [5], BB, RBI)
Attendance: 35,439

Notable Performers

  • Connor Joe, 1B (2-for-3, 2B, 2 BB)
  • Jason Delay, C (1-for-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI)
  • Colin Holderman, RHP (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K)
  • David Bednar, RHP (1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K)

One Sentence Recap: The Pirates exploded for a six run top of the seventh inning, after Bailey Falter — acquired for Rodolfo Castro at the trade deadline — worked for 5.1 innings to keep the Mets off the board.

DAILY VIDEO RUNDOWN

Greensboro showed off some power last night. The first home run came from Josiah Sightler in the first inning, his fifth of the year.

The next one added insurance in the top of the eighth, although there was a question of whether the ball stayed fair. It was ruled fair, though.

There was absolutely no doubt about this next one, with Termarr Johnson crushing a pitch for his third homer in three games.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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