Four under-the-radar prospects to watch in Indianapolis in 2022

This offseason, I have been able to make two trips to the Pirates’ Florida complexes in Bradenton to talk to a variety of prospects. That, paired with conversations with team and industry sources who evaluate prospects, has offered insight into the team’s minor leagues.

This is the final entry in a five part series where we will take a look at 20 under-the-radar players in the Pirates’ farm system that are not ranked on Baseball America or MLB Pipeline’s top 30 prospect list, but could still make an impact in the future. They will be organized based on projecting what level they will likely play in during the 2022 season.

Of all the entries in this series, this one was the most difficult. A good chunk of Class AAA rosters consist of minor-league veterans who bounce around the league, hoping to get another call up to the majors. Another big chunk of those rosters consist of players who are considered top prospects because they excelled in their rise up to the minors. Travis Swaggerty, Canaan Smith-Njigba, Jack Suwinski and Diego Castillo were all added to the 40 man roster this offseason. Mason Martin and Cal Mitchell were considered but ultimately didn’t have their contracts selected. Oneil Cruz and Roansy Contreras have made their debuts in the majors. 

As a result, this is admittedly the weakest list of the bunch, featuring a pair of soft-tossing lefties and a couple hitters who add some insurance at a couple of positions. While earlier entries featured some more boom-or-bust players, this grouping will focus more on who could provide depth.

LHP Cam Alldred 

Last year, there were 38 pitchers in the Pirates organization – ranging from the majors to Class Low-A – who threw at least 60 innings. Of them, Alldred had the lowest ERA, 2.18, spending most of the year in Altoona before earning a late-season promotion to Indianapolis. His 4.71 FIP, mostly a product of a below-average strikeout rate (21.5%) and high walk rate (10.9%), paints a grimmer picture, but he was able to navigate when there were runners on base.

Alldred’s major-league dreams are going to be tied to his fastball. He made a change to his mechanics during the shutdown to get rid of a crossfire he had in his delivery and instead go more directly towards the plate. Usually, that results in more velocity, but Alldred saw his fastball drop to 87-90 mph. 

“I definitely felt like I worked harder, not smarter, because my velocity was down, but I was still able to get people out,” Alldred said at the pitcher development camp in December.

He does have some good spin, mainly with a slider that gets about 2,500 RPM and is potentially major-league average. He also mixes in a changeup, but a lot of his offspeed and breaking stuff sits in the low-80s, if not dipping a hair into the 70s.

Without some extra velocity (or at least his original velocity) or a noticeable drop in walks, Alldred is probably organizational depth as a lefty. Someone who could come up and fill out a bullpen if there are some injuries. If he has a breakthrough in either one of those two areas, the bullpen doesn’t have an established lefty and there could be playing time up for grabs.

OF/1B Brendt Citta

First base could be a problem position for the Pirates next season. Martin is eligible for the Rule 5 draft, Colin Moran has been let go and Yoshi Tsutsugo has a mixed major-league track record. If the Pirates lose Martin and Tsutsugo struggles or gets hurt, there’s not a lot of depth there.

Citta could potentially be the next man up if that happens. Injuries slowed him down last year for the Curve, but he still had a solid .294/.347/.413 slash line while making a noticeable jump from Altoona, skipping Class High-A entirely. 

That jump in level was something Citta requested from Pirates brass, wanting to know if he was talented enough to make that jump or if he should get out of baseball. The unusual request left an impression, and the team agreed. 

“I had faced some younger guys in spring training,” Citta explained at the “Get Better at Baseball” camp in November. “I'm having good ABs. What is this going to prove to anybody? I was like, 'I need to face older guys so I can show you what I can do.' They were like, let's do it. They didn't mind it at all. I wouldn't say it's normal, and I was definitely nervous to do it, but it worked out.”

At 25, Citta is probably just organizational depth, but he took a step last year to get to that point. If he can make another step like that, then maybe he can be a bench bat or platoon.

LHP Omar Cruz

Cruz was one of the first players in the Pirates’ system to earn a promotion last season, going from Class High-A Greensboro to Altoona in June. I would predict a similar scenario next year: Start with the Curve, get the promotion to Indianapolis midseason. Depending on how much pitching the Pirates need, a promotion to the majors could be in the card too.

Cruz was one of five players the Pirates got back in the Joe Musgrove trade, and while that package of players they received mostly consisted of younger, high ceiling/low floor players, Cruz was a safer bet. The trade off is he is probably a fifth starter or bullpen arm.

Fastball velocity is a big reason why, sitting in the high-80s, low-90s. He does pair that with a big looping curve and a changeup with sink, both of which look major-league average if not a little above. As long as he keeps throwing strikes, he should be able to challenge major-league hitters.

He also has another tool that he can use to get hitters out: A funky delivery that can mess with timing.

While there are a lot of moving parts to that delivery, there’s some uniformity too. Greensboro pitching coach Matt Ford challenged him to find a way to find a better rhythm on the mound, at that was the result.

“I started playing around with my mechanics, and I got with that one,” Cruz said at the pitcher development camp. “My next outing, doing that delivery, I threw four innings, 10 strikeouts, so I said, ‘I’m going to stick with this.’”

OF Bligh Madris

The Pirates have plenty of young outfield depth at the moment, especially after Swaggerty, Smith-Njigba and Suwinski were added to the 40-man roster this winter, so Madris might be too far down the depth chart to reach the majors with the team that drafted him. He doesn’t have the ceiling of some of the guys ahead of him, but he’s shown some good hitting traits in his time with the minors, particularly a good eye at the plate. 

He reworked his mechanics playing in Australia in 2020, straightening out his stance and adding a leg kick. It didn’t result in a big jump in his power, but his .434 slugging percentage in Indianapolis was a career-high despite facing tougher competition.

There are a couple players who could have taken this last spot. Jared Oliva has reworked his swing mechanics in winter ball. Yerry De Los Santos and Hunter Stratton look like potential major-league relievers (consider these two honorable mentions because I wanted to keep the list as 10 hitters and 10 pitchers). And of course there’s the whole lot of players on the cusp of the majors. But there’s something about how Madris has steadily risen within the organization. I see him cracking the majors as a corner outfielder somewhere, if not with the Pirates.

Other players of note: Most of the players to keep an eye have already been listed. Cruz, Contreras, Swaggerty, Castro, Smith-Njigba, Martin, Suwinski, Mitchell, De Los Santos, Stratton. Max Kranick did a lot of bouncing between the majors and minors last year and could be in that spot again in 2022. He’s not a prospect anymore, but Luis Oviedo will almost certainly pitch here or in Altoona. Castillo came over in the Clay Holmes trade. After several middling seasons, the Pirates are banking that his 2021 minor-league breakout will continue. De Los Santos and Stratton both get good spin, with the former ramping it up the upper-90s.