On Wednesday morning, Baseball America continued their rankings of the top prospects by each position. They covered right-handed pitchers on this day and Mitch Keller was ranked ninth overall.
The Pirates have a lot of right-handed pitching prospects in the system, but only Keller is considered among the best in the game. BA also had Luis Escobar on their list, though they went 75 deep at the position and he was ranked 71st. Our own rankings have Escobar rated just below JT Brubaker, and a total of eight right-handed pitchers among the top 20 prospects in the system.
Ninth overall at the position might not sound like much, but it’s actually a very strong group this year. MLB Pipeline ranked Keller fourth overall among right-handed pitchers, but they had him just seven spots ahead of where BA ranked him in the top 100 (19th vs 26th). So there is a large group of right-handed pitchers who are ranked among the top 30 prospects in the game.
The only position left for BA to cover is left-handed pitchers and I don’t expect any Pirates on that list. Here are the other positions:
Catchers (at the bottom of the article)