Pirates infield prospect Jared Triolo underwent surgery to repair a hamate bone injury late last month, the club’s director of sports medicine Todd Tomcyzk informed reporters this morning (relayed by Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). He’ll be shut down for four-to-six weeks before potentially beginning baseball activities, meaning his absence from game action is likely to cost multiple months.
Triolo, 25, was selected by Pittsburgh with the 72nd overall pick in the 2019 draft. A right-handed hitter, Triolo put up a solid .282/.376/.419 line over 495 plate appearances for Double-A Altoona last season. He only connected on nine home runs but demonstrated strong strike zone awareness, walking at an excellent 12.7% clip against a 17.6% strikeout rate. He also swiped 24 bases in 29 attempts.
The University of Houston product is primarily a third baseman, where he draws strong defensive reviews from scouts. Pittsburgh gave him 19 starts at shortstop in Double-A as well, demonstrating they believe his glove can translate (at least on occasion) to the infield’s most demanding position.
Pittsburgh added Triolo to the 40-man roster last winter to ensure they wouldn’t lose him in the Rule 5 draft. He’s yet to play a single game in Triple-A and would presumably have been ticketed for the Bucs’ top affiliate in Indianapolis to start the season. Triolo could factor into the MLB mix at some point later in the year, particularly if there’s an injury to either of Oneil Cruz or Ke’Bryan Hayes, but he’ll first have to get healthy himself. Given his recovery timetable, it’s possible the Pirates place him on the major league 60-day injured list at some point. Doing so would require paying him at the MLB minimum rate while he rehabs but would clear a spot on the 40-man roster should Pittsburgh require one for another transaction.
NOOOOOOOOOO
At least he isn’t out long term, though that sucks to lose a guy who could be a decent utility man. He’s posted a wRC+ of 110 in each of his minor league seasons and has a K% below 20% in each year as well.
Dude looks like a future Reynolds if we can’t resign him.
There is a huge difference between resign and re-sign.
My bad.
25 years old and still haven’t been promoted to the majors is pretty sad
Speaking of sad, Castro deserves a demotion to Indy. His pitch selection is anything thrown in his direction and is costing the Pirates the opportunity to score runs
What sad is your comment.
What is really sad is being ignorant of the facts
No doubt you’re a Fox viewer
I don’t know that life ends at 25 for a minor leaguer. The guy looked pretty solid in spring training. Hope he recovers quickly
As for Castro, agreed. Another young guy with no plate discipline. The Pirates seem to have a lot of these kinds of young players
I wasn’t suggesting that life in baseball ends at 25, but if he was that promising, he’d have been promoted by now.
Swaggerty is 25 and in my opinion deserves to be in the majors over Suwinski or even Choi.
The announcers don’t let Suwinski’s 19 homers as a rookie be forgotten but conveniently ignore his 104 strikeouts vs 64 hits also as a rookie
Yep. Swaggerty. Gonzalez. A couple catchers and a couple pitchers. But isn’t it great to know the Pirates are more concerned with financial control than winning?
I’m thrilled about their start. Really. And yeah, I hope guys like Choi, Santana, Joe, Hill and Velasquez can contribute this season
But history tells me otherwise where “castoffs” are concerned
As for Triolo, he seemed to have been jammed up as someone whose positions are largely behind “franchise cornerstones”.
He’s the same age as Judge and a year younger than deGrom when they won ROY. Not every player is Juan Soto, making the majors after just turning 19, especially considering that Triolo lost his first chance at playing a full season in the major leagues in 2020.
Used to watch him in college all the time. Hope he gets healthy and gets the call soon.