North Shore Nine

Welcome to the weekly Scouting Prospects; The New Additions series. Each week we will take a look at a different one of the newly added Pirates Top 30 prospects. These prospects will all be newly added as they were just drafted in the recent MLB Amateur draft. The format of these articles will highlight and discuss the following.

• Scouting Score
• Performance
• Expectations
• Projected Debut
  
  When it comes to scouting grades, the scale used is 20-80. So, a 20-30 grade would be considered well below average. A 40 is below average, 50 is average, 60 is above average (Also called Plus) and 70-80 is well above average (or Plus Plus). For prospects the overall grade is where scouts expect the player to perform once in the majors. For example, a 65 grade would be an All-Star caliber standout player, whereas a 50 would be an everyday player and a 40 would be a bench player.

Matt Ager:

Ager was taken in the 6th round by the Pittsburgh Pirates, cracking the updated Pipeline Top 30 for the Pirates coming in at 23rd. He also comes out of the same school that produced Shane Bieber and Michael McGreevy over the last decade. He has not had the most typical path in college, coming in as a reliever during his freshman season. He then worked his way into the rotation, before losing that spot over the last season due to poor results.

Ager comes to the Pirates with an Average fastball and changeup, a slightly below average curveball and a slightly above average slider. His control rates as average, even with his control issues his last year in college, and overall, he rates as below average pitcher. Ager has been able to throw all four of his pitches in a good mix when he is at his best. His fastball sits in the low 90’s and can top out in the mid 90’s. His slider is thrown as a low 80’s velocity pitch and is rated his best secondary pitch. His changeup is also rated as average and his curveball is not great and is a much slower speed, something that will need to be worked on. Scouts believe that his effortless delivery style could allow him to end up a successful starter down the road. His ability to throw strikes with all his pitches and the delivery give him good upside. There is also speculation that an oblique injury could be part of why his 2024 stats did not match up to his 2023 numbers.

Agers Junior year at Santa Barbara was his worst statistical year of the three in college.

Much like Josh Hartle, Ager did his best work in is sophomore year in college, for the apparent same reason. Both greatly limited walks in their sophomore seasons, which would make anyone pitch better. If his downturn Junior year was truly related to the injury, he had suffered, then it is possible the Pirates will be able to revert him to his sophomore form. Fan will get a look at him next year when the FCL opens their season. Ager might be a diamond in the rough even with a higher draft slot. If the Pirates can get him back on track then they be able to keep the pitcher factory going.