North Shore Nine

Our Sophomore Series continues our look at Pirates’ sophomores, specifically the ones who are the most likely to be contributing to the club moving forward. Each player’s profile will look at the following:

• Where they came from (draft, FA, trade, etc.)
• How they played in their minor league seasons
• How they performed in their first taste of major league experience
• How each player is projected to play this year based on ZIPS projection, Steamer projection, and the Baseball Reference projection
• Some insight/speculation on what can affect the player entering the season

A few quick notes for the armchair quarterbacks: one of the players that is being spotlighted still holds his rookie status for this season, and another is technically entering his junior season, albeit only his second with the Pirates.  Furthermore, one of these players is sadly injured and will be missing the season due to said injury, but as he remains an important piece of the future, he will be covered in this series as a bonus profile in this initial offering.  These profiles will be released weekly, so stay tuned.

Liover Peguero:

Peguero came over in the 2020 offseason trade that sent Starling Marte to the D-backs. He initially signed with Arizona in 2017 as a non-drafted free agent. In 2021, he debuted at 5th on the Pirates Top 10 prospect list from MLB.com, slipping to 6^th in the 2022 rankings. Nationally, he was only ranked in the 2022 rankings at #78 by Baseball America and at #38 by Baseball Prospectus. He played one game on June 18^th of 2022, before seeing more regular MLB playing time during the 2023 campaign.  Peguero started 2023 in Altoona with a .260/.333/.453 triple slash and a .786 OPS. During his time at AA, he had 20 doubles, 1 triple, and 11 home runs over a 69-game stretch. He then went to AAA where he played just seven games with a .259/.333/.556 a .889 OPS with 1 triple and 2 home runs. Getting the call back to the big-league squad on July 17^th starting that night at SS.

Peguero played in 59 games after his midseason call-up, starting 33 games at SS and 23 at 2B. He had a solid start offensively, hitting .237/.280/.374 and a .653 OPS with 4 doubles, 1 triple, and 7 home runs. According to Baseball Savant, he was above the league average for the rate of hard-hit balls, though he was under on exit velocity. More importantly, he was over on strikeout percentage and under on walk percentage. He did not play enough to qualify for the overall Savant rankings, had he, the only categories he would have ranked as average would have been, average exit velocity, hard-hit percentage, and chase percentage. Though he would have ranked great with his sprint speed and above average with his arm strength in the field, defensively, he was better at 2B than at SS on standard metrics, with 5 errors at SS over 284 1/3 innings and 0 errors over 208 2/3 innings at 2B. Peguero’s defensive Range Factor was also higher per 9 and per game at 2B than it was at SS. However, compared to the league average, only his Range Factor per 9 at 2B was higher than the league average: 4.83 compared to 4.26. Nevertheless, when it came to defensive runs saved above average (Rdrs) at 2B he was at -4, compared to Hayes at 3B who had 21.  So, as a just below-average 2B for the league, will Peguero grab the starting reigns at second base moving forward? His projections might give insight into that question.

His projections across ZIPS, Steamer, and Baseball Reference show two different players this upcoming season. ZIPS projects him to be very similar this year to last season, with the biggest differences being trading the HR power he showed for 2B power, though on the flip side it also projects he will strike out less and possibly walk a bit more. Now, the Steamer projection is what the fans would love to see out of Peguero: a higher projected triple slash, more power, and a better ISO. Regardless, like almost all young major leaguers, the biggest challenge for Peguero will be cutting down his strikeout rate, and increasing his walks.

Peguero starts the 2024 campaign with a lot of the same questions that plague the bevy of sophomore second basemen in the Pirates organization. That all being said, at 23, he should be able to progress in the various aspects of his game. If he can get better defensively at 2B, it would go a long way to him cementing him as an everyday player at the MLB level.  This is not a make-or-break season for Peguero as he has an option that can be used if needed; however, out of the three to four people vying for the full-time job at 2B, Peguero might be in the best position to lock it down. His range factor per 9 innings is the highest of the group unless you want to count the small Triolo sample size. When you add that to his hitting potential, one could argue he has a leg up. If he can continue to put it together at the plate and grow into the plus hitter scouts regarded him as and develop more of the plus runner he was also tabbed with, he can easily become the full-time second baseman. As with most young players, he will need to learn more patience at the plate and cut down his strikeouts as well as not get fooled by bad pitches. If he can even put a few of these pieces together, this could be a very fun year to watch him grow, hopefully in increasingly meaningful games at PNC Park.