Pirates announce preliminary Minor League rosters
The Pittsburgh Pirates today announced the club’s minor league rosters for the 2022 season at their four affiliates: Triple-A Indianapolis Indians, Double-A Altoona Curve, High-A Greensboro Grasshoppers and Low-A Bradenton Marauders. The rosters are subject to change. Please note Indianapolis’ roster is from Triple-A’s Opening Day on Tuesday.
Indianapolis (AAA)
Pitchers
Cam Alldred, Osvaldo Bido, Cody Bolton, Brad Case, Roansy Contreras, Chase De Jong, Yerry De Los Santos, Matt Eckelman, Jerad Eickhoff, Eric Hanhold, Nathan Kirby, Trey McGough, Adonis Medina, Cristofer Melendez, John O’Reilly, Hunter Stratton, Beau Sulser, Cam Vieaux, Blake Weiman
Position Players
Ji-hwan Bae, Josh Bissonette, Rodolfo Castro, Brendt Citta, Oneil Cruz, Jason Delay, Hunter Owen, Connor Kaiser, Grant Koch, Mason Martin, Cal Mitchell, Jared Oliva, Canaan Smith-Njigba, Travis Swaggerty
Altoona (AA)
Pitchers
Bear Bellomy, Mike Burrows, Omar Cruz, J.C. Flowers, Oliver Garcia, Travis MacGregor, Zach Matson, Enmanuel Mejia, Carmen Mlodzinski, Kyle Nicolas, Luis Ortiz, Quinn Priester, Austin Roberts, Colin Selby, Aaron Shortridge, Tahnaj Thomas, Noe Toribio
Position Players
Andres Alvarez, Daniel Amaral, Carter Bins, Matt Fraizer, Nick Gonzale,s Fabricio Macias, Tucupita Marcano, Will Matthiessen, Liover Peguero, Blake Sabol, Lolo Sanchez, Connor Scott, Aaron Shackelford, Dylan Shockley, Jack Suwinski, Jared Triolo
Greensboro (A+)
Pitchers
Jack Carey, Ricky DeVito, Adrian Florencio, Santiago Florez, Grant Ford, Nick Garcia, Domingo Gonzalez, Logan Hofmann, Jared Jones, Cameron Junker, Garrett Leonard, Oliver Mateo, Michell Miliano, Wandi Montout, Tyler Samaniego, Sean Sullivan, Eddy Yean
Position Players
Francisco Acuna, Henry Davis, Maikol Escotto, Yoyner Fajardo, Claudio Finol, Jackson Glenn, Matt Gorski, Abrahan Gutierrez, Hudson Head, Jack Herman, Dariel Lopez, Ernny Ordonez, Endy Rodriguez, Sammy Siani, Eli Wilson
Bradenton (A)
Pitchers
Christian Charle, Po-Yu Chen, Xavier Concepcion, Joelvis Del Rosario, Nick Dombkowski, Darvin Garcia, Carlos Jimenez, Valentin Linarez, Carlos Lomeli, Justin Meis, Dante Mendoza Luis Peralta Wilkin Ramos Denny Roman Jake Sweeney Yunior Thibo
Position Players
Jase Bowen, Luke Brown, Sergio Campana, Tsung-Che Cheng, Brenden Dixon, Jakob Goldfarb, Jacob Gonzalez, Wyatt Hendrie, Mike Jarvis, Juan Jerez,Alexander Mojica, Rodolfo Nolasco, Geovanny Planchart, Randy Romero
Future’s So Bright: The Pirates enter the 2022 season rated by Baseball Prospectus with the No. 1 minor league system
in the game...Baseball America rated Pittsburgh’s system as the third-best overall coming into 2022 behind only Seattle and Tampa Bay (the same publication rated Pittsburgh’s system 15th entering 2021 and 24th in 2020)...ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranks Pittsburgh’s minor league system third in all of baseball coming into this season...Keith Law of The Athletic rated Pittsburgh’s system sixth-best in all of baseball, while MLB Pipeline has Pittsburgh’s minor league system as the seventh-best in baseball.
Looking Back At Last Year: Pittsburgh’s four full-season minor league affiliates produced a combined 264-220 record last year, which was the best winning percentage (.545) among all National League organizations and fifth-best in all of baseball, trailing only the Tampa Bay Rays (.645), New York Yankees (.604), Boston Red Sox (.579) and Seattle Mariners (.553).
Representing Among The Top 100: The Pirates have six of Baseball America’s top 100 ranked prospects entering the 2022 season...Oneil Cruz ranks 14th, followed by Henry Davis (41st), Nick Gonzales (49th), Liover Peguero (78th), Roansy Contreras (80th) and Quinn Priester (88th)...It’s the most top 100 prospects for the Pirates in Baseball America since 2014 when the organization had seven...The Diamondbacks are the only other organization with six top 100 prospects entering this season according to Baseball America.
We Are The World: Pittsburgh’s minor league system enters 2022 with players represented from a total of 16 different countries along with the territory of Puerto Rico...Those 16 countries are Aruba, Australia, the Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, San Marino, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States of America, and Venezuela.
Henry Davis And The Pittsburgh Kid: Catcher Henry Davis, who was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft, enters this season rated by Baseball America as Pittsburgh’s top prospect...Prior to this season, the last catcher to enter the year rated by Baseball America as Pittsburgh’s No. 1 prospect was Neil Walker in 2006.
Our Favorite Martin: First baseman Mason Martin has hit a total of 60 home runs since the beginning of 2019, which are the second-most in all of Minor League Baseball behind Matt Davidson (61)...Martin leads all of MiLB with a total of 210 RBI since the beginning of 2019 (Davidson ranks second with 182).
Second To One: 2020 first-round pick Nick Gonzales enters this season rated as the second-best prospect among second basemen according to Baseball America behind Boston’s Nick Yorke...Gonzales hit 16 of his 18 home runs as a second baseman in 2021, which was tied for the most by any player at that position in MiLB along with Justin Foscue (Rangers organization) and Michael Massey (Royals organization).
Golden Again At Third: Last season Jared Triolo took home the Rawlings Minor League Gold Glove Award for third basemen...It marked the fourth straight minor league season that a Pirates third baseman took home the award (Ke’Bryan Hayes did so from 2017-19)...Triolo enters this season rated by Baseball America as the “Best Defensive Infielder” in the Pirates minor league system.
Short Hops: Liover Peguero enters this season rated 38th overall among Baseball Prospectus’ top 101 prospects...Peguero also ranks 53rd overall among the top 100 prospects in the game according to ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel, 77th according to Keith Law of The Athletic and 78th overall by Baseball America...Baseball America also listed Peguero as the 19th-best shortstop among its top 30 prospects for that position entering this season.
23X15: 2021 Pirates Minor League Player-of-the-Year Matt Fraizer combined to hit 23 home runs and steal 15 bases last year between High-A Greensboro and Double-A Altoona...Fraizer was one of just 14 players in all of Minor League Baseball to hit at least 23 home runs and steal at least 15 bases during the 2021 campaign.
One Of A Kind: Last year Pirates 2019 first round pick Quinn Priester took home High-A East League Pitcher-of-the-Year honors while spending the entire season with Greensboro...One level lower, Bradenton’s Adrian Florencio was honored as the Low-A Southeast League Pitcher-of-the-Year, making the Pirates organization the only one among full-season affiliates to have two players take home minor league pitcher-of-the-year accolades.
Enmanuel’s ERA: Righthander Enmanuel Mejia took home the Pirates organization’s Kent Tekulve Minor League Reliever-
of-the-Year honors last season after posting a combined 0.42 ERA (42.2ip/2er) in 32 relief appearances between Bradenton and Greensboro...Since making his professional debut in 2019, Mejia has recorded a 0.85 ERA (63.1ip/6er) in 50 relief appearances, which is the second-lowest in all of Minor League Baseball among relievers with at least 60.0 innings of work in that time behind Blue Jays farmhand Jackson Reese (0.84 ERA in 64.1 innings).
About Our Affiliates: The 2022 campaign marks Pittsburgh’s 23rd season (1947-51 and 2005-present) to be affiliated with Indianapolis…Altoona begins its 23rd consecutive season as Pittsburgh’s Double-A affiliate…High-A Greensboro, which had the second-highest attendance last season in the High-A East League, beginsits fourth season as an affiliate of the Pirates…Single-A Bradenton, which won the Low-A Southeast League championship in 2021, will begin its 12th season as a Pirates affiliate.