The Pirates have turned Joe Musgrove into five prospects.
They sent the right-hander to the San Diego Padres in a three-team deal that included the New York Mets on Monday.
In return, the Pirates received outfielder Hudson Head (the Padres’ No. 7-ranked prospect on MLB Pipeline), left-handed pitcher Omar Cruz (No. 17), right-handed reliever and Mars High School alumnus David Bednar (No. 20), the Padres’ sixth-round pick in the 2019 MLB draft, right-hander Drake Fellows and the Mets’ No. 14-ranked prospect, catcher Endy Rodriguez.
Got that down?
Head is, well, the headliner. The 19-year-old outfielder was drafted by the Padres in the third round of that 2019 draft out of Winston Churchill High School in San Antonio, and was promptly given the largest signing bonus a third-round draft pick has ever been given ($3 million).
He is a five-tool player. Fangraphs projects him to be above average in hitting, power, running, fielding and throwing. What’s most fascinating about Head is that he wasn’t really on teams’ radars until his senior of high school, when he hit a staggering .615.
Head followed that up in rookie ball with the Padres by slashing .283/.383/.417, with one home run and 15 walks in 141 plate appearances.
Basically, he’s an extremely athletic, albeit a little raw, prospect. His speed is his main tool, but reports are that he has some of the best bat speed in the Padres’ loaded farm system. The more he continues to develop, he could turn into an everyday outfielder. That could take a couple years, though, as MLB Pipeline projects him to reach the majors in 2023, if he stays on his current track.
While Head is likely the best prospect coming to Pittsburgh, the sentimental favorite may be Bednar, a Pittsburgh native.
His story is truly an unlikely one. Bednar was a 35th-round draft pick of the Padres in 2016, taken out of Lafayette College in Easton. For context, that means Bednar was taken four rounds after Florida Gators quarterback Feleipe Franks.
And yet, in 2019, Bednar became just the eighth player in MLB history to reach the majors after being selected in the 35th round. The 26-year-old has only pitched 17 1/3 big-league innings combined in 2019 and 2020, with a 6.75 ERA to show for it, but the tools are better than the results in this case.
The righty throws out of a three-quarters arm slot with an upper-90s fastball, and a curveball rated at 60 by Fangraphs on the 20-80 scouting scale. Plus, the results aren’t nearly as bad as they seem on the surface. Over his major-league stints, Bednar has struck out more than a batter per inning.
Additionally, in his four minor-league seasons, he never had an ERA above 2.95. All that is to say that Bednar will almost certainly be competing for a spot in the Pirates’ opening day bullpen during spring training.
Cruz is in a similar boat to Bednar, in that he has yet to post an ERA above 2.73 in the majors. He is, however, much younger at 21 years old and is a left-handed starter at this point.
MLB Pipeline reports that Cruz relies mostly on his control and fills up the strike zone. His fastball sits in the low 90s, with a loopy curveball and a changeup as its main complements. The strike-throwing attack has led to a ton of punch outs in the minors, as Cruz averages more than 12 strikeouts per nine innings.
If Cruz can add some velocity, while maintaining his control and feel for pitching, his potential would likely skyrocket. Like Head, MLB Pipeline projects him to reach the majors in 2023.
The other highly ranked prospect in the deal is Rodriguez, who comes over from the Mets. Rodriguez was a bit of a diamond in the rough for the Mets, as he signed with them out of the Dominican Republic for just a $10,000 bonus.
At the very least, the switch-hitting Rodriguez adds a much-needed bit of catching depth to the Pirates’ farm system. Fangraphs projects his hitting and fielding tools as a 60. What’s more, Rodriguez is capable of playing the corner outfield spots or even first base.
As of right now, though, he has shown a certain athleticism behind the plate and possesses solid throwing skills as well, throwing out 42% of potential base stealers in the Dominican Summer League and rookie ball in the Mets’ minors.
At the plate, Rodriguez, is more of a gap-to-gap hitter than a true power hitter. In 89 rookie-ball plate appearances in 2019, he slashed .293/.393/.453 with 10 doubles and one triple but no home runs.
Time will ultimately tell, but if the 21-year-old can maintain something resembling those numbers and can develop into a good defensive catcher, he could become a valuable piece down the line.
The final piece is right-hander Drake Fellows, who is a bit harder to project simply because he hasn’t thrown in a professional setting yet. After pitching three seasons at Vanderbilt, the Padres drafted him in the sixth round in 2019.
In college, Fellows featured a fastball in the low-90s and a strong slider, to boot, finishing his career with a 4.31 ERA over 275.2 innings and 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings. After the 2019 draft, Fangraphs projected Fellows as a middle reliever with “a power mentality.”
Mike Persak: mpersak@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDPersak
First Published: January 19, 2021, 1:25 a.m.
