Travis Swaggerty

WTM’s PLAYER PROFILE

Swaggerty got off to a hot start at the plate in his junior year with South Alabama, with a 1.316 OPS in the first few weeks, but cooled off and finished with a .296/.455/.526 line by the end of the season.  He drew a lot of walks, with a 20.9% walk rate, and struck out in just 13.95% of his plate appearances.  He was, though, facing weak competition, which adds perspective to the rest of his numbers, and the scouting reports suggest that he has some swing and miss.  He showed some good power, with 13 homers and a .230 ISO, but the poor competition disclaimer comes into play, and he might not carry that same power rate over to pro ball.  Swaggerty signed shortly after the draft for $156,200 below the slot amount.

2018
A-:  288/365/453, 139 AB, 9 2B, 1 3B, 4 HR, 15 BB, 40 K, 9-12 SB
A:  129/225/226, 62 AB, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 7 BB, 18 K

Swaggerty went initially to Morgantown and hit well without dominating.  His slugging average was good when you consider that the league average was .346.  In mid-August, the Pirates moved Swaggerty up to West Virginia and he got into 16 games there.  Things didn’t go well at all, obviously.  Overall, he hit LHPs much better than RHPs, with an .887 OPS vs. .643.  He showed range and arm in line with his reputation, although he had some error issues, with seven total.

2019
A+:  265/347/381, 457 AB, 20 2B, 3 3B, 9 HR, 57 BB, 116 K, 23-31 SB

Swaggerty had a decent first two months at Bradenton before slumping badly in June.  He finally got hot in July and hit well the rest of the season.  His monthly OPS:

April:  .701
May:  .701
June:  .489
July:  .822
August:  .906

Overall, Swaggerty’s line was comfortably above the anemic Florida State League norm of 242/313/353.  For some reason, he had a large reverse platoon split, with an OPS of .845 against LHPs and .699 against RHPs.  Swaggerty made much better contact after those first three months:  he struck out in 25% of his plate appearances through June and 18% afterward.  He showed very good range in center and had seven outfield assists.

2020
DNP

Swaggerty would have opened 2020 in AA, but he spent the pandemic season at the Pirates’ alternate training site at Altoona.

2021
AAA:  220/333/439, 41 AB, 3 HR, 6 BB, 8 K, 3-3 SB

Swaggerty started off as the center fielder at Indianapolis but, in his third game, separated his shoulder running into an outfield wall.  He missed the rest of the season.  The injury was a minor disaster for the Pirates.  Apart from Bryan Reynolds, the major league outfield was horrendous, so Swaggerty would have had an opportunity.  The Pirates added him to the 40-man roster after the season.

2022
AAA:  254/348/400, 398 AB, 15 2B, 8 3B, 9 HR, 57 BB, 117 K, 20-25 SB
MLB:  111/111/111, 9 AB, 4 K

Swaggerty got off to a terrible start, with a .506 OPS in April, but he improved to .895 in May and .887 in June.  He got a callup in June that netted him five games and nine plate appearances, then the Pirates sent him back to AAA and seemingly forgot about him.  He didn’t hit as well over the last three months, with OPS figures hovering around .700.  That left him with an OPS on the season that was almost exactly league average.  Some of that may have resulted from Swaggerty dealing with a difficult family situation.  Still, given the large amount of playing time the Pirates were wasting on players with zero short- or long-term upside, he seemed an obvious choice to get a callup at some point, but he didn’t.  He had a fairly large platoon split, with an OPS of .774 against RHPs and .641 against LHPs.  In the field, he played the majority of his time in center, but also saw time in both corners.

Swaggerty went into 2022 spring training ostensibly competing for a job on the major league roster and he was the team’s best position player in camp, but he got optioned to AAA anyway, with Derek Shelton resorting to the pat explanation for not keeping a rookie:  he “needed to play” because of the time he’s missed.  The Pirates kept Canaan Smith-Njigba, who played far less than Swaggerty in 2022 and also missed nearly half the 2021 season.  It’s obvious that the Pirates have little interest in Swaggerty, who was acquired by the previous front office, as compared to Jack Suwinski, Smith-Njigba and Connor Joe, who were acquired by the current one.  The lack of interest is especially puzzling considering that the team has been plagued by bad outfield defense and Swaggerty is the best defensive outfielder on the 40-man roster by a huge margin.