Pirates Announce Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year

The Pirates announced that outfielder Matt Fraizer has won the Honus Wagner player of the year and right-hander Adrian Florencio has been named the Bob Friend pitcher of the year.

Congrats to our Pitcher and Player of the Year! pic.twitter.com/eSPMqYd9nT

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) October 28, 2021

It was a breakout season for the 2019 third-round pick Frazier. He began the year with High-A Greensboro where he appeared in 75 games. With the Grasshoppers, Frazier slashed .314/.401/.578, blasted 20 long balls and swiped 14 bags. Fraizer led the league in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS. He was named the High-A East Most Valuable Player.

Thanks to what he did in Greensboro, Fraizer earned a promotion to Double-A Altoona where he continued his impressive showing at the plate. He hit .288 with an .848 OPS with the Curve in 37 games. The left-handed hitting Fraizer led all Pirates minor leaguers in average, on-base, slugging, hits total bases and runs. His 23 home runs and 55 extra-base hits were good for second most in the system.

Florencio spent the whole season at Low-A Bradenton, and the recently-turned 23-year-old emerged as one of the more impressive arms in the Pirates’ farm system. In 20 appearances (19 starts), Florencio went 6-4 with a 2.46 ERA and struck out 117 against just 30 walks. The right-hander led all Pirates’ prospects as well as the Low-A Southeast league in strikeouts and was named the league’s top pitcher earlier this month.

Both prospects rose up the ranks of the Pirates’ minor league system from to become two players to watch as they continue to work their way through the ranks. MLB Pipeline ranks Fraizer as the team’s 23rd-best prospect and Florencio could end up on the team’s top 30 as well in the future.

That concludes the minor league awards handed out by the Pirates in 2021 in the final day of a three day event. On Tuesday, coaches and teammates were recognized and on Wednesday, the team handed out four awards for individual performance.