Pirates 1st-rounder Travis Swaggerty to start in Triple-A Indy

When the Pittsburgh Pirates announced the rosters for their minor league affiliates, Travis Swaggerty’s name was missing from the Altoona Curve for a good reason.

The Pirates decided to have the 23-year-old outfielder skip Double-A and report directly to Triple-A Indianapolis, where he will compete for playing time with Anthony Alford, Dustin Fowler and Troy Stokes Jr.

The front office, coaching staff and player development staff were impressed with how the No. 10 overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft performed in spring training and their alternate training site last month.

“Most of that’s about Travis,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said Saturday. “Despite the missed year, he got a good amount of time on the field and at-bats and exposure, and we just see improvement. …

“He’s been one of our most consistent hitters in that group, in terms of the at-bats he’s had in the alt-site games in April, hitting the ball hard, playing good defense. So we feel like he’s ready to take the challenge of playing Triple-A and are excited to see him do that. Credit to him for working hard at it.”

After slashing .265/.347/381 with 20 doubles, three triples, nine home runs and 40 RBIs in 121 games in High A in 2019, Swaggerty spent last summer at the alternate training site in Altoona.

Pirates manager Derek Shelton said Swaggerty did “a nice job” with the Pirates during spring training, and conversations with farm director John Baker and the coaching staff from the alternate training site indicated Swaggerty was ready to test Triple-A pitching.

“He really performed well there and, they felt, deserved, you know, the ability to do that,” Shelton said. “And it’s one of the challenges we have with not having a season last year. Some guys are going to make jumps. But, he’s got a good future ahead of him.”

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Swaggerty is one of several former first-round picks who will start the minor league season at Triple-A Indianapolis Indians, along with first baseman Will Craig and Cole Tucker, who spent last month working on his offense in Bradenton after losing in the three-way battle for the starting shortstop job.

“There are things that he really wanted to tighten up in terms of his movement patterns in his swing,” Cherington said. “I think once we got out of big league camp and sort of got out of the competitive situation where you have games and you’re trying to get on base, you’re trying to win a job. Once we got past that, we just felt like, in talking to Cole, that it was an opportunity for him to dive back into some work just to tighten that up. To his credit, he really worked hard at it.”

The High-A Greensboro Grasshoppers also have a roster that features the Pirates’ past two first-round picks in infielder Nick Gonzales (2020) and right-handed pitcher Quinn Priester (2019), along with top-10 prospects in shortstop Liover Peguero, outfielder Hudson Head and right-hander Tahnaj Thomas.

The Pirates announced the rosters Saturday for their four affiliates, although they are not finalized until the start of the minor league season. One notable name that was missing is veteran outfielder Brian Goodwin, who signed a minor league deal as a nonroster invitee to spring training.

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The Indians roster also includes outfielders Anthony Alford, Dustin Fowler and Troy Stokes Jr.; catchers Jason Delay, Joe Hudson and Andrew Susac; and pitchers Chase DeJong, Cody Ponce, Steven Wright, Shea Spitzbarth and Miguel Yajure.

The Double-A Curve announced its roster Friday, featuring infielders Mason Martin, Ji-Hwan Bae, Oneil Cruz and Rodolfo Castro; outfielders Cal Mitchell and Canaan Smith-Njigba; and pitchers Cody Bolton, Max Kranick and Roansy Contreras.

The High-A Grasshoppers kept the double-play tandem of Gonzales and Liover Peguero together, along with right-handed prospects in Priester, Thomas, Braxton Ashcraft, Carmen Mlodzinski and lefty Omar Cruz.

The Low-A Bradenton Marauders are headlined by a top-10 prospect in right-hander Brennan Malone, who was acquired from Arizona along with Peguero in the Starling Marte trade, and a handful of newcomers: The Pirates drafted right-handers Nick Garcia and Logan Hofmann last June, selected infielder Claudio Finol in the Rule 5 Draft and traded for infielder Maikol Escotto (New York Yankees), outfielder Hudson Head (San Diego), catcher Endy Rodriguez (New York Mets) and right-hander Eddy Yean (Washington).