{"id":107580,"date":"2025-09-22T22:13:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T02:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=107580"},"modified":"2025-09-22T22:14:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T02:14:35","slug":"pirates-to-call-up-no-4-prospect-hunter-barco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/09\/22\/pirates-to-call-up-no-4-prospect-hunter-barco\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates to Call Up No. 4 Prospect from Wealth of Pitching Prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates will call up left-handed pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=barco-000hun&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hunter Barco<\/a>, their No. 4 prospect, from Triple-A Indianapolis. First with the news was Brent Martineau of Action Sports Jax, as in Jacksonville, Florida, where the denizens have a special interest in the career of Barco, a former Florida Gator who was born in Jacksonville. The Pirates have not announced the move or the corresponding move. As Monday is an off day, no official moves will likely be made until Tuesday before they take on the Reds in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_107611\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107611\" style=\"width: 446px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-107611\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/USATSI_25790194_168400885_lowres-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"446\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/USATSI_25790194_168400885_lowres-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/USATSI_25790194_168400885_lowres-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/USATSI_25790194_168400885_lowres.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 446px) 100vw, 446px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-107611\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Feb 18, 2025; Bradenton, FL, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Hunter Barco (89) poses for a photo during media day at Pirate City. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Pirates to Call Up No. 4 Prospect Hunter Barco<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Word is former <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BollesBaseball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@BollesBaseball<\/a> star Hunter Barco got the call to the big leagues today for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Awesome for him. \ud83d\udc4f\ud83d\udc4f <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ActionSportsJax?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ActionSportsJax<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Brent Martineau (@BrentASJax) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BrentASJax\/status\/1969885539886133453?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Pirates drafted Barco out of the <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/baseball\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">University of Florida<\/a> in the second round of the 2022 June Amateur Draft. As a six-foot-four, 235-pound hard thrower, the 24-year-old fits the prototype for young pitchers drafted under general manager Ben Cherington. His sinking fastball sits at around 95-96 mph to go with a slider that generates good swing-and-miss and a splitter that serves as his off-speed pitch. He hides the ball well before an unorthodox delivery, making his fastball seem even faster.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[I] still have all the funkiness [in my delivery] that I\u2019ve always had,\u201d Barco told Dendrick Hendrix of <em>Baseball Prospect Journal<\/em>. \u201cBut in terms of moving better and direction down the mound, [I\u2019ve] definitely gotten better.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After not giving up an earned run in six outings at Double-A Altoona, Barco was promoted to Indianapolis in May. There, he was 3-1 with a 3.79 ERA and a 1.371 WHIP, while striking out 10 batters per nine innings. Overall, he\u2019s 4-1 with a 2.81 ERA and 1.198 WHIP across the two levels. In three September outings, he\u2019s given up two earned runs in 6 2\/3 innings while holding opponents to a .167 average. Barco wasn\u2019t scheduled to join the big time until 2026, but perhaps the Pirates were persuaded by these recent outings.<\/p>\n<h3>Rich in Young Arms<\/h3>\n<p>Barco is just the latest to join the Pirates from their pitching-rich farm system. No. 7 prospect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/ashcrbr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Braxton Ashcraft<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/26\/pirates-call-up-braxton-ashcraft\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">joined<\/a> the big club in May, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/20\/top-pitching-prospect-pirates\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">followed<\/a> by No. 2 prospect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/chandbu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bubba Chandler<\/a> last month. Both have pitched well. On Saturday, Chandler and Ashcraft combined to toss eight innings of one-hit, shutout ball against the Athletics. They\u2019ve given Barco a high standard to hold up to.<\/p>\n<p>How Barco will be used is unknown. This season, he\u2019s been used both as a starter and out of the bullpen. He\u2019s pitched 99 1\/3 innings so far. Judging by how the Pirates have handled Chandler and Ashcraft, don\u2019t expect the Pirates to extend Barco with long outings. A role as a starter or bulk reliever could be in the cards for Barco. Pirates fans have to be excited by what the future holds from the mound. Now if only they would sign some hitters. . .<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: \u00a9 Mark Zaleski\/ The Tennessean \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates will call up left-handed pitcher Hunter Barco, their No. 4 prospect, from Triple-A Indianapolis. First with the news was Brent Martineau of Action Sports Jax, as in Jacksonville, Florida, where the denizens have a special interest in the career of Barco, a former Florida Gator who was born in Jacksonville. The Pirates [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":107610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,926,1071,35],"tags":[3215,28972,4906,29156],"class_list":["post-107580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-milb","category-mlb","category-news","tag-ben-cherington","tag-braxton-ashcraft","tag-bubba-chandler","tag-hunter-barco"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107580"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107614,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107580\/revisions\/107614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}