Pirates Quinn Priester to debut against Cleveland

The Pittsburgh Pirates are calling up pitcher Quinn Priester to start in a home contest against the Cleveland Guardians on Monday, in what will be his pro debut. Priester was pulled from Friday night’s contest after pitching one scoreless inning in preparation for next week.

2023 marked Priester’s first full year with triple-a Indianapolis, where he did not disappoint. As the season was moving along he was finding ways to dissect opposing batters, picking and choosing from his four pitch bag to defeat them both at the plate and mentally. His late June performance against Columbus saw him strike out 11 batters, in which he was mixing in the off-speed pitches to perfection.

Priester was drafted in the first round of the 2019 MLB draft, and has enjoyed a spot in the top 100 prospects rankings by MLB Pipeline over the past three years. Pipeline graded his fastball at 60, noting that while not 100% polished, shows signs that he can improve upon it. Nonetheless, he is incredibly athletic on the mound and has shown the ability to adapt to the competition at every level.

This promotion is coming at the perfect time as injuries have plagued the entire team, with the starting rotation being affected significantly. This could also be a sign that veteran Rich Hill could be moved during the second half of the season.

While still likely several steps away, this rotation is starting to take shape into one that could be able to compete in the NL Central. The promotion of Priester and drafting Paul Skenes are all positive signs moving forward, as the Pirates continue to go younger and actually invest in their pitching group.

At triple-a this season, Priester went 7-3, striking out 84 batters and pitching for 4.31 with an ERA as low as 1.13 in the month of May.