As we wind down to the end of 2022, I wanted to thank everyone who read our new Roundtable series this year.
This has been a fun exercise, as each week I email a question to our writers, and have them submit their answers blindly. What has been shown over time is how rarely everyone is in agreement. In fact, with some Roundtables, we end up covering every angle of a topic.
To wrap up the year, we’re looking one more time at what happened during the 2022 season. The question will probably make you think there’s only one answer. However, the Roundtable came through again with a few surprises.
Who was your favorite prospect story in 2022?
JOHN DREKER: Endy Rodriguez
The continued development of Endy Rodriguez was my favorite prospect story of 2022. I considered him to be just outside the top 100 prospects in baseball coming into the 2022 season, so I was already as high on him as most people. Shortly after the draft in July of 2022, I still had him as the sixth ranked prospect in the system, though I noted the important fact that I thought Rodriguez was a no doubt top 100 prospect, while no one in the system had a top 20 prospect feel. So there wasn’t a huge separation between first and sixth. They could have all easily been in the 25-75 range for me.
By the end of the 2022 season, I had Endy as my top prospect in the system. As the numbers show, that’s not a huge jump. Guys move up and down top 100 lists all year. What is huge is that he passed five other Pirates players in my mind to get there. All players who I was high on.
I kept waiting for Rodriguez to hit that adjustment period at a new level, where the better pitchers adjust to him and he hits an inevitable slump. I got to see a lot more of him at Altoona than I did at Greensboro thanks to the magic of MiLB.tv. I already liked what I saw before that point, but what I was seeing was more consistent quality at-bats and a better defensive player as well. Then he went to Indianapolis at the end of the year and the change in the level had no effect on him.
I’m looking forward to his 2023 season. It would be nice to see him get off to a fast start at Indianapolis and carry over that success from late last year. That didn’t happen in 2022 at Greensboro, which is one of the reasons I think they’re making the right decision by announcing early that he’s slated for Indianapolis. The other more obvious reason is that he doesn’t even have a half season above A-Ball yet. A fast start would put him in a spot to be called up earlier in the season.
WILBUR MILLER: Javier Rivas
The too-easy answer is Endy Rodriguez. He was possibly the biggest breakout prospect in the minors. Not only was he the best hitter in the minors in the second half, over three levels no less, he’s a potential plus defender at a premium position. And the intangibles are great. And it was especially good after seeing so much of Rodriguez at Bradenton in 2021, and being thoroughly impressed.
But I’ll go with Javier Rivas. Considering where he started from, he probably made even bigger strides than Rodriguez. His 2021 debut in the DSL couldn’t have been worse — .133/.214/.173. When I saw him at the beginning of the 2022 FCL season, he just didn’t look like the basket case his 2021 stats suggested.
Among other things, Rivas looked like he had the bat speed and leverage to hit for some power, which his debut didn’t suggest at all. He started off 2022 going 2-for-21, but then started to hit and finished at .265/.337/.419 in a league that hit .232/.342/.350. He has quite a ways to go, as he does chase a good deal, which is reflected in a poor BB:K ratio.
Best of all, like Rodriguez, Rivas is potentially a plus defender at a premium position. He has the range, hands and actions to make it in the majors at short. I’m looking forward to seeing him at Bradenton in 2023.
ANTHONY MURPHY: Endy Rodriguez
Back in 2021, I watched a lot of the Bradenton Marauders, way more than any other team in the system. From the get go you can tell it was a special group of players, as they eventually went on to win the division championship.
A lot of that had to do with Endy Rodriguez, who at the time was just added to the system as a ‘throw-in’ to complete a three team trade that included Joe Musgrove.
He quickly rose to be not only one of the best hitters on the team, but also in the Florida State League.
So, watching him jump all the way from Greensboro, all the way to Indianapolis was the best story to follow during the 2022 season. Not only did he jump a couple of levels, he rose to where his name is mentioned with some of the best catching prospects in all of baseball.
It’s easy to get lost when looking at his near-video-game-type production offensively, that he is still a legitimate catching prospect. For every stride he took with the bat, he did as well with the glove.
While seeing Endy succeed isn’t a surprise, the next level that he found offensively was amazing to watch and at the same time, a huge win for the front office when it comes to their development.
JEFF REED: Matt Gorski
Favorite prospect story of 2022 feels as it mostly comes down to two players: Matt Gorski or Endy Rodriguez. Since we all love a good underdog story, I have to go with Gorski.
This story for me begins in the off-season leading up to 2022. Cody Potanko, Anthony Murphy, and I had the opportunity to interview Altoona Curve manager Kieran Mattison for a podcast. One of the questions I had for Mattison was who he thought had a chance to break out, with the caveat that Blake Sabol was the only correct answer.
Going into the question, I honestly expected that he would answer with a broader generalization of how there were a handful of promising prospects in camp, but he settled on Matt Gorski.
Gorski is the perfect encapsulation of a “tooled-up prospect” who had yet to put those tools on full display in the box score. He was reminiscent of a John Dreker former favorite prospect, Casey Hughston (IIRC, John would still say he was surprised they gave up on Hughston and thought he may have actually had a HIGHER ceiling).
2022 would be the season Gorski put it together. He began back in Greensboro where he was considered old for the league, so his page-jumping numbers still gave pause. Through 37 games, he had a 1.131 OPS and 17 homeruns, before finally receiving his bus ticket to Altoona.
The jump to Double-A and more age-appropriate competition, Gorski did not slow down. In a total of 38 games, he carried an .843 OPS while hitting another six homeruns. The numbers don’t jump off the page as much, but he went from one of the minor’s friendliest hitter parks, to a much more pitcher friendly park in Altoona.
Unfortunately, as things were going amazing for Gorski, he had an abrupt hamstring injury. He actually managed to work his way back to make his Triple-A debut, but then reaggravated his hamstring, ending his season for good.
Luckily for Pittsburgh Pirates fans, he wasn’t selected in the Rule-5 draft, so we can continue to sing his praise going into the 2023 season. The thing to keep an eye on will be if he can parlay his 2022 season into a big league opportunity. Questions will hang of whether his breakout was true, or whether he’ll fall back down the depth chart as Matt Fraizer did after a huge 2021 season.
TIM WILLIAMS: Endy Rodriguez
I had a chance to see Endy Rodriguez play in Altoona in August. Coming away from that trip, I saw Rodriguez as the best prospect in the Pirates’ system. At the time, that seemed a bit aggressive, as was predicting that he would be the future starting catcher over Henry Davis. It seems that Rodriguez has converted a lot of other people into this belief.
Rodriguez ended up hitting .356/.442/.678 in 138 plate appearances across 31 games with Altoona. He went to Indianapolis at the end of the year and hit .455/.435/.773 in six games.
The upper-level success from Rodriguez comes across 37 games, so you don’t want to extrapolate too much of this success for your 2023 expectations. That said, Rodriguez looks as safe as prospects come, with the tools and the work ethic needed to succeed. What stands out to me is his 15% strikeout rate and 13% walk rate in Altoona.
Rodriguez tracks the ball better than anyone on the field. Watching him live, it’s like the game is moving in slow motion for him. He can do more things in a smaller amount of time than other people, and the best way to display this is watching his effortless transition from receiving a pitch to firing a perfect strike down to second.
It’s difficult to imagine any team making a contending run without a solid starting catcher. Rodriguez looks like the type of guy who can fit in behind the plate for a future contender, while providing leadership for that team on and off the field.
