Pirates

Pirates Prospect Watch: Travis Swaggerty Pushing For 26-Man Roster Spot

Published

1 year ago

March 11, 2023

Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Travis Swaggerty entered camp fighting for a spot in the outfield on the club’s Opening Day roster.

Based off of his performance so far, Swaggerty is no lock to crack the roster, but he is certainly making a strong case to head to Cincinnati for Opening Day.

In the Pirates’ loss to the Phillies on Friday, Swaggerty recorded a pair of hits including a two-run home run off of Phillies starter Zack Wheeler. The blast was Swaggerty’s second round-tripper of the spring.

A very Swaggy home run. pic.twitter.com/UEhfEaWJ2U

— Young Bucs (@YoungBucsPIT) March 10, 2023

Thanks to the performance, Swaggerty is now slashing an impressive .286/.333/.714 through his first nine contests. In addition to his two homers, the Pirates’ prospect has driven in five runs and scored five times.

Swaggerty had but a brief stint with the big league club in 2022, appearing in five games in the black and gold. The stint was still long enough for Swaggerty to get his first career big league hit against the Braves in Atlanta in June.

Heading into this season, Swaggerty is surely looking to carve out a more significant role with the Pirates and based off of his performance so far, it could be trending that way.

The 2018 first-round pick of the Pirates spent most of last season with Triple-A Indianapolis where he hit .254 with a .747 OPS and 20 steals in 107 games with the Indians.

In Other News…

Another former first-rounder of the Bucs continued his impressive spring. Pirates’ prospect Nick Gonzales singled in his only at-bat of the game against Detroit, giving him three hits in his last three at bats. The 23-year-old is now hitting .400 (6 for 15) on the spring.

Catcher Carter Bins maintained his .500 batting average by going 1 for 2 with a base hit. Bins is now 3 for 6 with a pair of walks in five games.

Switching gears, Pirates’ prospect Tsung-Che Cheng had another impactful game for Chinese Taipei in the World Baseball Classic.

After going 3 for 5 with a triple and an RBI in their last game, Cheng went 1 for 4 with an RBI as Chinese Taipei defeated Italy 11-7 for their first win of the tournament. Cheng is hitting .444 for Chinese Taipei while serving as the team’s leadoff hitter for each of their first two games.