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Season storyline: Quinn Priester rejoins Pirates

Quinn Priester makes MLB return Former top prospect called up to majors following injury to Marco Gonzales   The Pittsburgh Pirates’ rotation to start the year he been a welcome surprise. Between Martin Perez holding a 2.55 earned run average (ERA) and Jared Jones setting the baseball world on fire to start his career, the rotation has kept them in most games this season. After Marco Gonzales landed on the injured list because of a left forearm muscle strain, Quinn Priester will be the next man up to continue the success. Priester’s first major league stint was not what Pirates’ fans had been hoping for. The former top prospect had lost some of his velocity and his good breaking stuff was not enough to make up for a fastball that was too hittable. The strikeouts were also not enough to make up for how hard he was getting hit in 2023. Albeit in a small sample size, Priester may be on the verge of a resurgence after working on those problems. After being drafted at ...
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Prospect highlight: Jared Jones

The other flamethrower

Pirates' Jared Jones makes opening day roster after impressive spring training

By Aidan Treu

 

The Pirates have been criticized in recent years for their handling of prospects, namely bringing up top prospects too late for the fans’ liking. That will not be the case for Jared Jones.

With all eyes on Paul Skenes, Jones has somewhat quietly become a very fascinating fireballer himself.

Whether Jones would start the season with the Indianapolis Indians, the Pirates AAA affiliate, or the MLB team was up in the air heading into spring training. The righty forced his way onto the team by tossing 16 1/3 innings of scoreless ball and striking out 15 while allowing nine hits and eight walks in Grapefruit League play.

The 2020 44th overall pick has no shortage of flashy stuff on the mound.

Jones hit 98 mph with his fastball as early as his first spring training start this year, hitting that number five times out of eight fastballs during the short outing. Pairing that with a slider in the high-80s is an arsenal no batter wants to go up against.

For comparison, not taking fastball shape into account, his velocity is up there with the elites like Spencer Strider and Gerrit Cole.

His spin rates were also impressively high. He topped 2600 revolutions per minute (RPMs), also up there with the best in the league.

The slider was no different, coming in consistently at over 87 mph and 2500 RPMs, once again comparable to pitchers like Cole.

Jones’ 3.37 fielding independent pitching (FIP) during all of spring training is another sign of encouragement. He will allow a run at some point, but his FIP still confirms he was pitching well when considering luck.

That FIP over a full season would put him in the same tier Pablo Lopez and George Kirby were in last year.

The small sample size is important to take note of, but it is also important to remember not just anyone can put up this combination of numbers.

There is a lot more to consider, including concerns about command, but most of those statistics being where they are can only be encouraging.

Jones is very much still an unfinished product. As fun as comparisons to established and elite starting pitchers can be, he has much to prove before validating any of them. Baseball simply has too many variables to make generalizations about the future of players.

One thing is for certain though, watching Jared Jones utilize his arsenal at the MLB level is going to be fun.

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