{"id":97344,"date":"2025-03-12T23:01:57","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T03:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=97344"},"modified":"2025-03-12T23:01:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T03:01:57","slug":"pirates-spring-training-camp-impressions-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/12\/pirates-spring-training-camp-impressions-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Impressions From Pirates Spring Training: Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the Pittsburgh Pirates spring training camp in Bradenton, interesting stories emerge faster than a guy can write about them. Thus, I present Part Three of my \u201cImpressions\u201d series that has gripped the baseball-following public, although as an Impressionist I don\u2019t put myself in the same category as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.claude-monet.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Claude Monet<\/a>, for example.<\/p>\n<h2>Latest Stories from Pirates Spring Training Camp<\/h2>\n<h3>The Bae of Pittsburgh, Seen from L\u2019Bradenton<\/h3>\n<p>What\u2019s gotten into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/baeji01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ji Hwan Bae<\/a>? Bae, a 25-year-old left-handed-hitting outfielder\/second baseman, seemed to have an uphill climb to make the team. However, he remains in the major league camp with a legitimate chance to go north with the Pirates.<\/p>\n<p>Bae\u2019s biggest assets are his speed and ability to get on base. In six minor league seasons at all levels, he\u2019s hit a combined .304\/.386\/.437 while stealing 107 bases in 141 tries. But after an encouraging cameo with the Pirates in 2022, when he went 11-for-33 at the plate, longer looks in 2023 and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/21\/ji-hwan-bae-call-up-pirates-offense\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">2024<\/a> haven\u2019t gone as well. In those major league trials, he\u2019s flashed his speed on the bases and in center field, where he\u2019s made his share of highlight-reel catches, but hasn\u2019t reached base often enough. During 2023-24, he stole 30 bases while being caught 11 times, but produced an unacceptable slash line of .223\/.287\/.294. He\u2019s been \u201cworth\u201d -0.08 WAR during that time.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">This catch by Ji Hwan Bae left Devers SPEECHLESS! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CujRe9wn4P\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/CujRe9wn4P<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB (@MLB) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLB\/status\/1643431890601361408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 5, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>What\u2019s Gotten Into Bae?<\/h3>\n<p>Bae has looked like a new player in the Pirates&#8217; spring camp. As of Wednesday\u2019s off-day, he\u2019s 10-for-22 with three doubles, a home run, and two steals in four attempts. He\u2019s seen most of his action in the outfield, where he\u2019ll likely play in the majors. He\u2019s not needed at second base. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/15\/pirates-second-base-competition\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">number of second basemen in camp<\/a> is approximately equal to half the population of Fargo, North Dakota. In the regular season, Bae\u2019s been worth five Fielding Runs Above Average in the outfield for his major league career.<\/p>\n<p>So, back to the original question: What\u2019s gotten into Bae? Seems <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/phamth01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tommy Pham<\/a> has gotten into Bae. A <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/07\/pirates-tommy-pham-pros-cons\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">new addition<\/a> to the Pirates, the veteran Pham is on record as intending to push his younger teammates to get the most of their talents, and Bae has been one of the Pirates on the top of his list. As a result, Bae\u2019s game looks different. After striking out in 29.6 percent of plate appearances in 2024, he\u2019s not chasing pitches in the spring games. He continues to play spectacular outfield defense. Time will tell whether he\u2019s done enough to make the big squad. So far, he\u2019s still in the Pirates major league spring camp. Another left-handed-hitting center fielder, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/suwinja01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jack Suwinski<\/a>, who has less speed but more power, is also <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/10\/pirates-spring-training-impressions-part-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">making a strong play<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Will a Young Prospect Pitcher Make the Team After All?<\/h3>\n<p>And will that pitcher be right-handed starter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=harrin000tho&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tom Harrington<\/a>? The Pirates have several top pitching prospects projected to reach the majors in 2025. It was anticipated (at least by me, if nobody else) that another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=jonesja09,jones-013jar&amp;search=Jared+Jones&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jared Jones<\/a> would emerge from the Pirates spring camp and surprise the baseball world by making the team, as Jones did last year. It was further anticipated (at least by me) that that pitcher would be the Pirates&#8217; No. 1 prospect, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=chandl002roy&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bubba Chandler<\/a>. Alas, after being named to Friday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/06\/pirates-spring-breakout-roster\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Spring Breakout Team<\/a>, Chandler was reassigned to the minor league camp.<\/p>\n<p>Two other right-handed pitching prospects, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=ashcra000bra&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Braxton Ashcraft<\/a> and Harrington, were left off the Spring Breakout roster. For good reason, it was thought, that reason being they still had a shot at breaking camp with the Pirates. Ashcraft was since sent to the minor league camp. Harrington remains in the Pirates&#8217; spring training camp.<\/p>\n<h3>Thomas Who?<\/h3>\n<p>Harrington (first name Tom on Baseball Reference, Thomas elsewhere) doesn\u2019t have electric stuff like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/skenepa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul Skenes<\/a>, Jones, Chandler, or Ashcraft. Nor does he throw as hard. All he does is get batters out. Previously, he was discussed as a potential back-end starter in the bigs. Now he\u2019s the Pirates&#8217; No. 3 prospect, having jumped over highly regarded <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/07\/14\/termarr-johnson-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">2022 No. 1 draft pick<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=johnso008ter&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Termarr Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what happens when a guy has a year like Harrington had in 2024. Harrington started the season at Single-A Bradenton and leaped to Double-A Altoona and then Triple-A Indianapolis. At the three levels combined, he was 7-3 with a 2.61 ERA. A couple of figures cause one\u2019s jaw to drop: his 0.963 WHIP and 1.5 walks per nine innings.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Thomas Harrington looked sharp in 3 innings of work in the Pirates AAA\/AA intersquad game today. 5 strikeouts and his stuff looked good. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/X26TeNt0DA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/X26TeNt0DA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chris Clegg (@ChrisCleggMiLB) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChrisCleggMiLB\/status\/1899896407902876049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 12, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s because he knows how to pitch. His fastball averages just 92.5 mph, but he keeps hitters off balance by mixing in a curveball, sweeper, splitter, and cutter. According to his prospect report at MLB.com, he was \u201cone of the best in minors in strike percentage in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harrington has pitched in only two spring exhibition games thus far, both times in relief. He\u2019s given up one run on two hits and two walks in three innings while recording two strikeouts. He doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s going to go north with the team. Yet, he\u2019s still in the Pirates major league spring training camp. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Pittsburgh Pirates spring training camp in Bradenton, interesting stories emerge faster than a guy can write about them. Thus, I present Part Three of my \u201cImpressions\u201d series that has gripped the baseball-following public, although as an Impressionist I don\u2019t put myself in the same category as Claude Monet, for example. Latest Stories from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":97366,"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":[26,1071],"tags":[4906,5720,3718,6221,6371,5779,28921,1087],"class_list":["post-97344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","tag-bubba-chandler","tag-jack-suwinski","tag-jared-jones","tag-ji-hwan-bae","tag-paul-skenes","tag-termarr-johnson","tag-thomas-harrington","tag-tommy-pham"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97344","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=97344"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97367,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97344\/revisions\/97367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}