Endy Rodriguez, Quinn Priester Take Home Pirates’ Top Minor League Awards

The Pittsburgh Pirates have announced their final two minor league awards for the 2022 season and a pair of top prospects have received recognition.

Endy Rodriguez was named the Honus Wagner Player-of-the-Year while Quinn Priester won the Bob Friend Pitcher-of-the-Year Award for their efforts this season.

Rodriguez was an obvious selection after leading all Pirates’ prospects in average (.323), on-base percentage (.407), slugging (.590), OPS (.997), hits (148), doubles (39), extra-base hits (68) and total bases (270).

The 22-year-old split time between High-A Greensboro, Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis and consistently performed at all three levels.

Rodriguez was named the 2022 South Atlantic League MVP after hitting .302 with a .936 OPS, 23 doubles and 16 home runs in 88 games with the Greensboro Grasshoppers.

Rodriguez ranks as the Pirates’ sixth-best prospect and the 97th prospect overall by MLB Pipeline.

For Priester, he led Pirates’ minor leaguers with a 3.29 ERA while spending the bulk of the season with Double-A Altoona.

The 2019 first-rounder went 4-4 with a 2.87 ERA with Altoona and punched out 75 batters in 75.1 innings.

The right-hander earned a late-season promotion to Triple-A Indianapolis where he posted a 3.86 ERA and struck out 10 batters in 9.1 innings across two starts.

Priester is considered the Bucs’ top pitching prospect according to Pipeline. He is considered to be the Pirates’ third-best prospect and checks in at No. 44 overall by the outlet.