Pirates pluck 4 pitchers in Rule 5 draft

Cherington says run on righties not intentional

Ben Cherington continues to insist that it’s not intentional.

The Pirates aren’t purposefully trying to obtain as many players as possible who can walk, talk and throw a baseball with their right arm, he says.

But it’s hard to ignore the push the Pirates have made for pitching, most notably what occurred Thursday at atop the Rule 5 draft, where they plucked two project pitching prospects within the first nine picks.

The Pirates’ recent run on right-handed hurlers actually began with five consecutive picks on pitchers to close June’s MLB draft. It continued Thursday with the addition of Jose Soriano from the Angels and Luis Oviedo of the Indians, whom the Pirates got via trade with the Mets for cash.

“We just want to find the best talent we can,” Cherington said. “It worked out that way at the draft. We felt like those were the best guys on the board at the time. Coming into Rule 5, we wanted to be active with the first pick. We wanted to take advantage of that. Spent a lot of time on a group of players, including some position players. Went back and forth on a lot. Did as much research and due diligence as we could, and it just ended up where we had pitchers at the top of our list.

“So, I don’t think there’s a specific run toward pitching. I think it’s more that we’re looking to add the best talent anyway we can.”

They certainly added some talent, although the arrival time for Soriano is still up in the air because he had Tommy John surgery in February 2020. The Pirates see Oviedo as a future starter, though Cherington believes he can function as a multi-inning reliever in 2021.

Soriano and Oviedo are actually fairly similar in that they throw hard, have solid secondary offerings and they’re not completely sure where any of those pitches are going.

What the Pirates really liked about Soriano started with Class A Burlington in the Midwest League a couple of years ago, when he really started showing a heavy fastball and a curveball that possessed a lot of spin.

Soriano had a 4.47 ERA and a 1.489 WHIP but sliced those to 2.51 and 1.32 across two levels the following season. At the time of his injury, Soriano, 22, was considered the Angels’ 13th-best prospect, according to MLB Pipeline.

“This is an exciting guy,” Cherington said. “Physical, really fast arm, high velocity, power breaking ball. He performed well in the Midwest League as a pretty young guy. Like with every young pitcher, there’s improvement to be made, working on control and command and that kind of thing.

“First thing is just to make sure he’s back in a good spot health-wise. All the reports were really positive in terms of his character, too.”

Since signing out of the Dominican Republic in March 2016 for $70,000, Soriano has a 2.76 ERA with 218 strikeouts in 238 innings, a .210 batting average against and 5.07 walks per nine innings.

One interesting nugget on Soriano involves how much his body has changed since leaving the Dominican Republic.

Previously, he was listed at 168 pounds. Now, he’s closer to 210, which has pushed his average fastball velocity to 96 mph.

In Oviedo’s case, Cherington was content to chalk his 2019 performance up to a lower-back issue that disrupted his performance. That might explain his ERA spiking from 2.05 in 2018 to 5.38 in the most recent minor league season played.

Oviedo is a 21-year-old with similar fastball numbers to Soriano, though he also likes to incorporate a two-seamer with sink. Cherington said he recently has seen Oviedo turn his 11-to-5 curveball into more of a slurve, the pitch featuring more hard, horizontal break.

After signing for $375,000 out of Venezuela in 2015, Oviedo has a 4.66 ERA and 1.33 WHIP in 51 minor league starts covering 258⅔ innings.

“The stuff has picked back up,” Cherington said. “He’s in the high-90s and throwing the harder breaking ball. Looks really healthy.”

The trade actually gave the Pirates two Rule 5 pitchers within the top 10 picks, though they’ll get a break with Soriano since he’s expected to start the season on the injured list. Oviedo will have to stay, or the Pirates risk losing him.

With the first pick of the Class AAA portion of the Rule 5 draft, the Pirates selected another right-handed pitcher — 26-year-old Shea Spitzbarth, who had been in the Dodgers organization.

They later added Claudio Finol, a shortstop from the Reds, in the second round of the minor league portion, and former Cubs righthander Jeffrey Passantino in the third round.

“Intrigued by the contact ability, the athleticism and defensive tools, and what we learned about the character and makeup was really good,” Cherington said of Finol. “Don’t know yet where he’ll slot in and what role it will be. We just saw some interesting ingredients to work with and seemingly a really good kid and good teammate.”

The only Pirates prospect taken was right- handed pitcher Samuel Reyes, selected by the Cubs in the second round of the minor league portion.