Demilio: My Pittsburgh Pirates Top 30 Prospects List

On Monday, we at Pittsburgh Baseball Now released our comprehensive Top 30 Pittsburgh Pirates prospects list. Now, our three-man staff will each be releasing our individual lists, starting with my own.

Sitting atop the list, I have each of the Pirates’ last two first-round draft picks in Henry Davis (2021, first overall) and Termarr Johnson (2022, fourth overall).

To round out the top five, I have three Altoona Curve players in right-hander Quinn Priester, catcher Endy Rodriguez and second baseman Nick Gonzales.

Priester is the Bucs’ top pitching prospect, in my view, and Rodriguez has emerged this season into what I believe is a Top 100 prospect in the sport. Though there are concerns regarding Gonzales’ high strikeout rate (nearly 30% for his career), I still view him as one of the better prospects in the system.

I have a number of players in my Top 30 who weren’t there at the start of the season. This is because either they are new to the organization (Johnson, Thomas Harrington, Malcom Nunez, Colin Holderman), or because of strong play (Dariel Lopez, Abrahan Gutierrez).

I found it quite difficult to narrow this list to just 30 players and was forced to leave several deserving candidates off the list. Among some of the prospects who just missed included catcher Blake Sabol, outfielder Matt Gorski and right-hander Brennan Malone, as well as 2022 draftees in left-hander Michael Kennedy and two-way player Jack Brannigan.

Below is my full list:

1. C Henry Davis
2. 2B/SS Termarr Johnson
3. RHP Quinn Priester
4. C Endy Rodriguez
5. 2B Nick Gonzales
6. SS Liover Peguero
7. RHP Michael Burrows
8. RHP/INF Bubba Chandler
9. LHP Anthony Solometo
10. INF/OF Ji-hwan Bae
11. OF Matt Fraizer
12. OF Travis Swaggerty
13. RHP Jared Jones
14. OF Canaan Smith-Njigba
15. RHP Thomas Harrington
16. RHP Carmen Mlodzinski
17. OF Hudson Head
18. 2B/SS Miakol Escotto
19. RHP Kyle Nicolas
20. RHP Colin Holderman
21. RHP Cody Bolton
22. RHP Tahnaj Thomas
23. 1B/3B Maclom Nunez
24. OF Rodolfo Nolasco
25. OF Lonnie White Jr.
26. SS Yordany De Los Santos
27. INF Dariel Lopez
28. 3B Jared Triolo
29. OF Connor Scott
30. C Abrahan Gutierrez