By: Preston Shoemaker
AltoonaCurve.com
CURVE, Pa – With just 31 days until the Curve take the field in Akron, Opening Day is just around the corner. As players prepare down in Bradenton for the upcoming campaign, MLB Pipeline announced its newest batch of rankings in the Pirates Minor Leagues this morning.
The Top-30 list includes 10 former Altoona Curve stars, including six of the top 10 and headlined by big name pitchers Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, Anthony Solometo, and Bubba Chandler. Let’s dive into the rankings for the 2024 season.
Pitching Prominence
If there is one position that carries the brightest future for the Pirates, it comes from the mound. Out of the 30 prospects recognized on this list, 14 of them are pitchers, including six of the top seven and 10 of the top 15. In fact, the Pirates are the only team in baseball that has four arms in MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospects list, with only two other teams (the Reds and the Padres) having three on the list.
Skenes made headlines as the Pirates No. 1 overall selection last summer out of LSU. He made his Double-A debut on August 26 against Akron in front of a PNG Field record 10,164 fans and made two starts with the Curve at the end of the season. Skenes was seen as the best college pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg last summer, and he has a strong chance to make his Major League debut this summer. His high-velocity fastball that tops out at 102 mph and his sharp-breaking slider have proven to be his best offerings. He ranks as the top pitching prospect in all Minor League Baseball and is MLB Pipeline’s No. 3 overall prospect, behind Baltimore’s Jackson Holliday and Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio.
Jones opened the eyes of many evaluators last season after his strong showing with the Curve, leading to his No. 3 ranking. He earned Altoona’s Pitcher of the Year Award after holding his opponent to two runs or fewer in each of his 10 starts with the Curve to begin the season before a promotion to Triple-A Indianapolis. MLB Pipeline credits his maturity on the mound as the reason for his rise in the rankings over the past few seasons, and his added physicality should allow him to make his debut as a big-league starter this summer.
Behind Skenes and Jones are a pair of young pitching prospects who both pitched in Altoona last summer in Anthony Solometo and Bubba Chandler. Both prospects have been linked since they were drafted together in 2021, with Solometo going in the 2nd round and Chandler in the 3rd round. The pair began last season in Greensboro and ended the year in Altoona, although their paths to get here were not identical.
Solometo made his High-A debut as the Opening Day starter for the Greensboro Grasshoppers and exceeded expectations from the start. Across 12 starts in Greensboro, he struck out 68 batters in 58.2 innings and allowed just one unearned run across 22.0 innings in his last four starts at High-A. This led to a mid-season promotion that made him the Eastern League’s youngest pitcher at 20 years, 6 months, and 15 days when he made his debut on June 17. He struck out seven Somerset hitters that day and became the 13th player in Curve history to suit up for the Curve under the age of 21. He finished the season 7th among Pirates minor leaguers with 118 strikeouts and threw the third-most innings by a pitcher age-20 or younger at the Double-A level that season (50.1), walking just 6.5% of batters he’s faced. His strong season ranks him at the No. 4 prospect.
Chandler’s season did not start out as strong as Solometo’s. The former two-way player began the 2023 campaign focusing solely on pitching for the first time as a Pirates prospect. After struggling during the early stages of the season, Chandler adjusted his routine and preparation midseason that allowed him to improve. He went 6-1 with a 1.85 ERA (9 ER / 43.2 IP), and racked up 43 strikeouts holding opponents to a .173 BAA and a 0.89 WHIP in his last eight starts at High-A Greensboro. At the time of his call-up, he ranked T-2nd in W (9), 2nd in GS (24) and 10th in strikeouts (120) among all High-A Pitchers. He retired 13 straight batters to begin his Double-A career, allowing only a bloop single in his Double-A debut on 9/8 vs. Harrisburg. Chandler ranks as the No. 5 prospect, and both him and Solometo are likely candidates to open the season with the Curve.
Braxton Ashcraft made the largest leap of any Pirates prospect in this year’s rankings, going from unranked in 2023 to No. 7 in 2024. After missing the entire 2022 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, Ashcraft returned to the mound last season and pitched his was to Double-A for the first time, earning a spot of the Pirates 40-man roster after the season. His 63 strikeouts in 52.2 innings along with a 2.39 ERA helped him earn that spot.
Middle Infield Well Represented
With a Spring Training battle for the everyday second base spot in Pittsburgh currently ongoing in Bradenton, there are plenty of young middle infield prospects that are represented in the Top 30 list.
Termarr Johnson was the Pirates No. 4 overall selection in 2022 and has impressed this spring at Major League camp. After a slow start to his first full season last year due to a hamstring injury, Johnson settled in at Low-A Bradenton to hit 13 home runs in 75 games before a late-season call-up to Greensboro. Johnson’s most impressive tools are his hitting and power at the plate, and it is very likely that the No. 2 prospect gets his first taste of Double-A action this summer in Altoona.
Another well-versed infielder in the Top-10 is Mitch Jebb, the Pirates 2nd round selection last summer out of Michigan State. Ranked as the No. 8 prospect, Jebb was a three-time All-Big Ten honoree with the Spartans who put his name on the map with a strong showing in the Cape Cod League in 2022. The left-handed hitter has excellent bat control and great speed on the base paths. Jebb only played in 34 games with Bradenton last season after the draft, but he is another infield candidate who could play his way to Altoona this summer.
The remaining two Top-10 infielders include Tsung-Che Cheng (No. 9) and Jack Brannigan (No. 10) Cheng’s strong season at High-A Greensboro last season led to a postseason All-Star nod and a promotion to Altoona in July. After entering the year ranked No. 28 in the Pirates system, he finished the season 4th among PIT MiLB in runs scored (80) and ranked T-4th in 2B (23), 1st in 3B (10), T-7th in SB (26), and 9th in Batting Average (min. 250 PA) with a .278 mark. His 10 3B were T-3rd-most among all minor league players.
Brannigan split last season between Bradenton and Greensboro, hitting 19 home runs in 87 games with a .275 batting average and 24 stolen bases. A former college pitcher at Notre Dame, he fits in well at third base but played exclusively at shortstop at the Arizona Fall League last season. Brannigan will likely spend time with Altoona this summer.
Other Notable Nuggets:
Other Curve Alums: No. 11 Mike Burrows, No. 20 Jackson Wolf, No. 21 Jase Bowen, and No. 22 Kyle Nicolas are the four other Altoona Curve alums in the Top-30 list. Burrows made 12 starts with the Curve in 2022 and pitched to a solid 2.94 ERA with 69 strikeouts in 52.0 innings. He is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery after making just two starts last year in Indianapolis. Wolf joined the Curve last August after coming over from San Diego in the Rich Hill/Ji-Man Choi trade. Having already made his Major League debut with the Padres, Wolf is an intriguing left-handed arm to watch for this season.
Bowen earned a late-season promotion to Altoona last season and expects to be a large piece in the outfield for the Curve this year, while Nicolas spent parts of two seasons with the Curve in 2022-23 and could work out of the Pirates bullpen this summer.
Players who could play in Altoona this summer: Top-30 players who have yet to make their Double-A debut that could appear with the Curve this season include Johnson, Jebb, Thomas Harrington, Brannigan, and Tres Gonzalez. Players that could return to Altoona this season include Skenes, Solometo, Chandler, Ashcraft, Cheng, Wolf, and Bowen.
Breakdown: Here is a look at how the Top-30 prospects are made up:
Acquired: Draft – 18, International – 8, Trade – 4
Estimated Time of Arrival in Pittsburgh: 2024 – 6, 2025 – 8, 2026 – 10, 2027 – 5, 2029 – 1
Position: Catcher – 1, 1B – 1, 2B – 2, SS – 5, OF – 7, LHP – 4, RHP – 10
Best Tools: The following players were given the best tools by MLB Pipeline on a 20-80 scouting scale, with 20-30 being well below average, 40 being below average, 50 being average, 60 being above average, and 70-80 being well above average.
Hit: 60 – Mitch Jebb
Power: 55 – Termarr Johnson
Run: 70 – Lonnie White Jr.
Arm: 70 – Jack Brannigan
Defense: 60 – Tsung-Che Cheng, Lonnie White Jr., Jesus Castillo
Fastball: 80 – Paul Skenes
Curveball: 55 – Jared Jones, Mike Burrows, Jun-Seok Shim, Jackson Wolf
Slider: 70 – Paul Skenes
Changeup: 55 – Thomas Harrington, Paul Skenes, Mike Burrows, Hunter Barco
Control: 60 – Paul Skenes
Stay tuned to the Around the Curve Blog throughout the 2024 season for more exciting content!
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