BRADENTON, Fla. -- It may be a bit of an oversimplification, but the Pirates’ first four picks in the 2021 Draft really defined their class. First overall pick Henry Davis was willing to sign for under the slot value of his pick, allowing the team to allocate more bonus money to their next three picks -- all high school players with high upside.

In the second round, the team took lefty Anthony Solometo. In the third, they chose Bubba Chandler. Both pitchers are on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospects list and should start the season with Double-A Altoona. Their journey to the Majors is still ongoing, but there’s plenty of reason for optimism for both.

Then there was Lonnie White Jr., the Competitive Balance Round B pick who was taken between Solometo and Chandler. He batted third and started in right field in the Pirates’ Spring Breakout game on Thursday, an indicator of how highly the team thinks of him. In a showcase of the team’s top players, they put him in a premier spot.

However, three years into his professional career, White has only 72 games under his belt due to injuries, which might be why he isn’t on that Top 100 list alongside Chandler and Solometo.

“It’s very frustrating,” White said before the Spring Breakout game. “I’ve never dealt with injuries before in my life until I got into pro ball… It feels like you’re never going to get back on the field.”

White stands at 6-foot-3, weighs 212 pounds and looks every bit the part of a ballplayer. He had to decommit from the Penn State University football program to sign with the Pirates in 2021, but he looks like he could still put on the pads if he wanted to. His conditioning certainly wasn't the reason why he was sidelined with injuries.

He was limited to just two games in 2022 due to elbow and hamstring injuries. Some of that was chalked up to a young athlete adjusting to a baseball-only schedule. Last season, he looked primed for a full year, but then needed surgery on his left thumb after sliding into second base in March. It sidelined him for two months.

“It plays with your mind a little bit,” White said. “Once I got going, started figuring things out, it sort of came back naturally. Still not where I want to be right now, but I think it’s starting to come back.”

In a case like this, it would be understandable if White thought going back to football might be the right move. But he still felt happy being around the game and wasn’t ready to give baseball up.

When he returned, his love of the game was rewarded. After needing time to get his timing back, White slashed .259/.395/.488 with 20 extra-base hits and 12 stolen bases in 44 games for Single-A Bradenton.

“I didn’t want the season to end,” White said with a smile. “I wanted to keep going.”

In the Spring Breakout game, White went 1-for-3 with a stolen base and a base hit against Cade Povich, the Orioles’ top lefty prospect. MLB Pipeline has White listed as the Pirates’ No. 12 prospect and the top-ranked outfielder in the system.

There’s room for him to continue to rise if he is able to achieve his main goal for this season: Finally be healthy for a full year.

“I learned a ton in the second half of the season last year just by playing every day,” White said. “I’m hoping to be learning more and more. One of my goals this year is to finish in Double-A, or somewhere around there.” 

If White is able to reach Double-A Altoona, it would put him closer to Chandler and Solometo for a potential promotion to the Majors. The Pirates made a big bet on those first three rounds of the 2021 Draft, and if White stays healthy and takes that next step, it could pay off.

Paul Skenes’ fastball maxed out at 101.7 mph in the Spring Breakout game on Thursday. Who is the only Pirates right-hander to throw a pitch harder than that in a regular-season game (since pitch tracking started in 2008)?

A) Colin Holderman
B) Gerrit Cole
C) David Bednar
D) Arquimedes Caminero

One of the highest-rated international prospects in the Pirates’ Spring Breakout game was shortstop Yordany De Los Santos. He currently ranks as the Pirates’ No. 17 prospect and was their biggest signing in the international free agency market in 2022, inking a deal for $1.2 million.

Last year, De Los Santos made the leap stateside, where he dominated in the Florida Complex League before slowing down at Single-A Bradenton. That’s hardly a setback -- few 18-year-olds get the chance to play at that level -- and he learned how to push through the first slump of his career.

“I learned right away that not everything is going to go your way,” De Los Santos said, via coach and interpreter Stephen Morales. “But you have to be mentally tough to go out there and fight through it.”

Leading up to the Spring Breakout game, a league source said that De Los Santos is someone to watch as a potential breakout prospect in the Pirates’ system. Now 19 years old and preparing for what should be a full year of affiliated ball, De Los Santos was flattered.

“I’ll take that as a motivator to continue to work and get better,” De Los Santos said.

D) Arquimedes Caminero

You can get partial credit if you guessed Cole, who hit exactly 101.7 mph on June 21, 2013, but Caminero is the only one to top it, throwing a pitch at least 101 mph 72 times in his two years with the Pirates from 2015-16. Holderman hit 101 mph twice last May, while Bednar’s best is 99.6 mph in 2021.

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