Juan Pie

JUAN PIE, CORNER OUTFIELDER
Born: April 1, 2001
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 170
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
Signed: Int’l Free Agent, 2017, Pittsburgh Pirates
How Acquired: International Free Agent
Country: Dominican Republic
Agent: N/A

WTM’s PLAYER PROFILE

Pie got the biggest bonus among the Pirates’ 2017-18 signees.  He offers good size and a strong bat that, at this point, mainly produces line drives.  The size, though, may give him the potential to add power as he gets older.  He’s probably limited to an outfield corner due to speed that’s at best average.  His arm also is average or maybe below.

2018
DSL:  258/382/421, 209 AB, 12 2B, 8 3B, 2 HR, 36 BB, 47 K, 7-16 SB

Pie had a variable debut.  He started off very strongly, with an OPS of 1.019 in 20 June games.  His OPS in July and August, though, was .683 and .663, respectively.  He showed good gap power and drew a lot of walks, and struck out at a high but not alarming rate.  He hit LHPs better than RHPs in a small sample size.  Pie divided his time between all three outfield positions and had problems defensively, committing eight errors in 42 games.

2019
R:  231/314/347, 121 AB, 2 2B, 3 3B, 2 HR, 13 BB, 27 K, 6-11 SB
A-:  357/438/571, 14 AB, 3 2B, 2 BB, 5 K, 1-2 SB

The Pirates sent Pie to West Virginia at the beginning of the season, before the draftees reported there, and then moved him to the GCL.  He split his time at the latter stop between left and right, but actually appeared as DH even more than he did in the outfield.  The very limited time in the outfield — just 14 starts — resulted from the severe logjam of outfielders in the GCL.  Considering that Pie is one of the team’s more promising, lower-level outfield prospects, the situation didn’t seem very advisable.  Pie didn’t have a good season at the plate, although he picked things up in August (267/318/433) after a very bad July.

Pie showed some signs of coming around late in the year.  He’ll likely be at Bristol in 2020.

CONTRACT INFORMATION
2020: Minor League Contract
PLAYER INFORMATION
Signing Bonus: $500,000
MiLB Debut: 2018
MLB Debut: N/A
MiLB FA Eligible: 2024
MLB FA Eligible: N/A
Rule 5 Eligible: 2021
Added to 40-Man: N/A
Options Remaining: 3
MLB Service Time: 0.000
TRANSACTIONS
July 3, 2017: Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an international free agent.