BRADENTON, Fla. – Henry Davis can do a lot of things well on the baseball field, but there’s been one moment in particular, not between the white lines, that the Pirates feel perhaps speaks the loudest about who last year’s No. 1 overall pick in the Draft is.

He and fellow catching prospect Endy Rodriguez were stretching. Taking care of their bodies isn’t the key takeaway here. And it’s not what the two backstops were talking about; it’s what language they were using.

“They’re sitting on the ground, on their foam rollers, and you see Henry just grinding through speaking Spanish,” Pirates farm director John Baker said. “He’s elite in a lot of different ways.”

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Few doubt Davis’ bat will be big league ready in the not-too-distant future, even if he didn’t get to show it off for too long during his debut after signing, with an oblique injury cutting that short after six games with High-A Greensboro. And Davis’ desire to prove critics wrong and stick behind the plate defensively -- the Pirates see no issues with his work back there so far, by the way -- has been well documented. While no one knows for certain how his skills will play over the course of a full professional season just yet, one thing they can bank on is that the Louisville product seems to eat challenges for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“You give Henry an obstacle and every obstacle is a carrot for Henry Davis,” Baker said. “Henry is like a self-improvement robot. So basically you point him in a direction. I thought a lot about how maybe we could make up things that we think he’s bad at and tell him to do that.

“One of the things that was said about Henry when he got to pro ball was that he’s not flexible enough. And we were laughing today in the weight room as he was talking about his girlfriend, who is a dancer, and her stretching program and how she helped him get more flexible… as he’s basically sitting in a split on the ground.”

Whether Davis develops into the All-Star-caliber player teams hope a No. 1 overall pick will be remains to be seen. And not everyone can handle the spotlight that comes with being the top pick. Henry Davis is not one of those people.

“When you think about what it means to have to be the first pick of the Draft, we’re very happy with the person we got in that position,” Baker said. “He has all the skills necessary to be a Major League player. But he also has all the inherent skills necessary to be a continuously improving Major League player, and somebody that sets a great example for the organization and for his team.”

Camp standout: Ji-hwan Bae
When you come to a camp like this one, it can be awfully hard to whittle down standouts to one player. This is one of the better farm systems in baseball, with many candidates for this category. There’s 2021 breakout Matt Fraizer, continuing what he did with the bat last year. There’s Jared Triolo, Minor League Gold Glove winner at third, continuing to get some reps at shortstop and even playing around in the outfield a bit, given the Ke’Bryan Hayes-sized obstacle at the hot corner in the big leagues. Baker brought up 2019 second-rounder Matt Gorski as someone who has impressed early on.

But Ji-hwan Bae is one who is particularly intriguing as his profile on both sides of the ball continues to evolve. Signed back in 2018 after his 2017 deal with the Braves was nullified in the wake of their international signing violations, Bae has been a middle infielder and slap hitter with good speed for much of the first portion of his pro career. There were questions about his ability to drive the ball, and he didn’t have a single home run over the first 120 or so games of his pro career. He’s never going to be a huge power guy, but he started to show that the bat wasn’t going to get knocked out of his hands in 2021, hitting eight homers (all but one with Double-A Altoona) and then driving the ball at times during his Arizona Fall League stint. It’s a trend that’s continued this spring.

“Offensively, he looks like he’s going to have a little more impact this year,” Baker said. “It’s exciting to see that. He obviously put some hard work into the weight room to be able to hit the ball harder.”

That’s not the only change. The Pirates had shifted him from shortstop to second during the 2021 season and then he started using his 70-grade speed in center field in the AFL. That seems to be a good fit, while he keeps up his versatility by still getting reps on the dirt.

“He’s worked really hard at it. Kieran Mattison, our outfield instructor, spent some time with him in Arizona,” Baker said. “He’s taken to the outfield really naturally. We’re not moving him from the infield by any means, but adding a facet to his game that hadn’t been added yet.”

 “I give him a hard time and tell him now that he plays the outfield, he’s a power-hitting outfielder,” said Baker, adding that their real challenge to Bae is for him to steal 40 bases in 2022, after he swiped 51 in 2019 and 2021 combined.

Prospects we’ll be talking about in 2023: The Bradenton pitching staff
The group of arms that led the High-A Greensboro club to the playoffs tends to get the bulk of the prospect attention, and for good reason. Quinn Priester, Michael Burrows and Carmen Mlodzinski have the chance to be really good. But they might want to keep an eye over their shoulders for the group a level behind them.

So far in camp, Jared Jones and Luis Ortiz from that group have particularly looked good. Ortiz was touching 98-99 mph with ease in a recent bullpen session and the changeup he’s been working on has improved by leaps and bounds. There’s buzz around Adrian Florencio and Santiago Florez, who made it up to Greensboro in 2021, as well.

“If you watch that group from Bradenton, I’m most excited to watch them pitch this year,” Baker said. “That group that was in Greensboro, those are the ones everyone knows. But there's a layer behind those guys that are pushing them, that want to say ‘I'm the best pitcher in the Pirates organization.’”

Something to prove: Brennan Malone
Just 21 for this season, Malone isn't old enough to have 2022 be considered a make-or-break year for the high-ceilinged right-hander the Pirates got from the D-backs as part of the trade for Starling Marte. So maybe rather than him having “something to prove,” he’s a good candidate to have a bounce-back year.

The stuff -- a four-pitch mix that includes a plus fastball and slider -- is still very much real, but it’s also still very much raw. And since being the No. 33 overall pick in 2019, he’s thrown a grand total of just 22 competitive innings, with the pandemic wiping out his 2020 season and a lat injury limiting him to just 14 innings in 2021. There’s a lot of work to be done still for him to evolve from athletic thrower to pitcher, but the Pirates think he’s on the right track.

“Brennan went as part of our group that went down to the Dominican Republic to get some more games last year,” Baker said. “I think he learned a lot from that experience. I think he's adjusting to our environment pretty well. And we're excited to see him get back out on the field and pitch. He ran into some injury stuff last year that was kind of unexpected, but nothing concerning about his arm.”