North Shore Tavern Mound Visit: Don't forget Smith-Njigba in outfield mix

The Pirates have a bit of an outfield logjam at the moment. Bryan Reynolds, Andrew McCutchen and Jack Suwinski are a good trio with some upside by themselves, but there are plenty of other young outfielders on the roster too. Cal Mitchell, Travis Swaggerty, Ryan Vilade, Connor Joe and utility players like Ji Hwan Bae and Jared Triolo could all get a look in the outfield as well.

With that setup, it's understandable if Canaan Smith-Njigba is off your radar after he broke his right wrist in just his third major-league game last year. Yes, it's a crowded group of outfielders, but don't overlook him.

Of course, this comes with the caveat that an injury like a broken bone in a wrist can still have an impact the following year. Smith-Njigba says he's "fully healed and ready to go," but even though he was cleared for baseball activities in October, it wasn't until late December that the injury felt better.

"I couldn't throw for a couple months," Smith-Njigba said at PNC Park Friday. "I couldn't pick up a bat. For a couple of months I just couldn't do a lot of anything, skills-wise. It was tough. I worked out, stayed in shape and got ahead there. But I just couldn't really use my skills."

But if he's healthy and can replicate the results and maturity he showed at the plate last year, he can be a plus hitter.

Last year, Smith-Njigba slashed .277/.387/.408 over 218 plate appearances with Class AAA Indianapolis. That included a 15.1% walk rate, the third-highest of any player in the Pirates' farm system (Ewry Espinal walked in 30% of his PA in the Dominican Summer League, and Brendan Dixon walked 15.4% of the time in Class Low-A Bradenton). That walk rate also ranked 27th among the 376 players who had at least 200 PA in Class AAA last season.

He was being more selective at the plate, which showed up in a low swinging strike rate (10%) and in the quality of his contact. His max exit velocity last year was 115.6 mph -- a clip only Oneil Cruz could reach for the major-league team last year. His average exit velocity was 89.6 mph and he made hard contact on 47% of his batted balls.

There's obviously a huge difference between major-league and AAA pitching, but there were only two hitters in the majors in 2022 who walked at least 15% of the time and a hard hit rate of at least 47%: Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.

It doesn't mean he will duplicate those peripherals in the majors, but if you're looking at guys who can make the leap to that highest level, a guy who knows the zone, makes consistent contact and consistent hard contact is a good candidate. We could have seen that potentially play out at the majors, had it not been for the injury.

"I was rolling," Smith-Njigba said. "I was getting on base every day. I was helping the team and I was just really good [mentally] and very comfortable."

And even if his time in the majors was short, he did give a quick preview of what he brings to the table, ripping a 107.1 mph double in his first big-league at-bat:

It was a solid year, even if it ended early. He had some great peripherals. So why did he only hit one home run with Indianapolis?

Smith-Njigba has true raw power -- I mean, you can't hit a ball 115 mph without raw power -- but it didn't translate to his slugging percentage. He did have 15 doubles and three triples, but his .408 slugging percentage was pretty pedestrian and far less than his potential. Average launch angle can be a misleading stat because pop ups can inflate the total, but when his average was just 5 degrees, it shows he just wasn't elevating the ball enough.

Talking with a National League analyst, they said the issue is a flat bat path. He hits the ball incredibly hard, but the swing path isn't creating lift. A lot of that hard contact is staying on the ground or as low line drives. That can create a lot of base hits and doubles, but not home runs.

This creates an interesting development and coaching question for Smith-Njigba. How much do you want to tinker with that swing? Changing that swing path could tap into those high exit velocities and creating more extra-base hits. It could also mess with what he does at the plate and hurt his high on-base percentage. A lot of his success comes from being able to control the zone and pounce on mistake pitches, especially fastballs. Just focusing on that yielded a .387 on-base percentage. If he could do that at the majors, he would be a consistent contributor on offense. But with the power, he's a middle of the order bat.

And it should go without saying that the right field porch of PNC Park was made to beckon to left-handed hitters who crush the ball.

Smith-Njigba is going to have to hit his way to the majors because he's not going to get a ton of bonus value defensively. That's fine, but this is a big year for him. There are plenty of outfielders on the roster right now, but it will surely have to be trimmed down to accommodate all of the prospects who will need to be between now and next year.

"Adversity ain't nothing new to me," Smith-Njigba said. "So I look at it and make the most of it. I’ll be ready for spring training to compete for a job."