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MLB

Pittsburgh to Select Top Pitching Prospect Quinn Priester

Priester will be Pittsburgh’s fourth first-round draft selection since 2019 to debut this season
By Anna Kayser
July 16, 2023

INDIANAPOLIS – The Pittsburgh Pirates today added right-handed starting pitcher Quinn Priester, their No. 4 prospect and the No. 54 rated prospect in Minor League Baseball by MLB Pipeline, to the taxi squad. Priester is expected to have his contract selected tomorrow ahead of his major league debut vs. Cleveland.

INDIANAPOLIS – The Pittsburgh Pirates today added right-handed starting pitcher Quinn Priester, their No. 4 prospect and the No. 54 rated prospect in Minor League Baseball by MLB Pipeline, to the taxi squad. Priester is expected to have his contract selected tomorrow ahead of his major league debut vs. Cleveland. He will become the seventh player from the 2023 Indianapolis Indians to make his big league debut this season, following right-handers Osvaldo Bido, Cody Bolton, Carmen Mlodzinski, outfielder Henry Davis and infielders Nick Gonzales and Jared Triolo.

Priester, 22, has recorded seven of Indy’s 18 total quality starts and is riding a career-high six-game winning streak over his last 13 outings. Since May 4 he has registered a 3.31 ERA (25er/68.0ip), the third-best mark among International League pitchers with at least 60.0 innings. That stretch was highlighted by an 11-strikeout performance on June 24 vs. Columbus ­­– his first double-digit strikeout game since fanning a career-high 13 on Aug. 27, 2021, with High-A Greensboro at Asheville – and a career-high 7.1-inning outing on July 6 vs. Memphis.

This season, coming off a campaign in which he was named Pittsburgh’s Bob Friend Pitcher of the Year as the organization’s best pitcher in the minor leagues, Priester is 7-3 with a 4.31 ERA (42er/87.2ip) and 84 strikeouts in 18 starts. He currently ranks among league qualifiers in wins (T-1st), games started (T-1st), innings pitched (4th) and strikeouts (T-4th).

Priester was selected by Pittsburgh as the 18th overall pick in the 2019 First-Year Player Draft out of Cary-Grove (Cary, Ill.) High School. He will be the fourth Pirates first-round draft pick to make his major league debut this season, joining Gonzales (7th, 2020), Mlodzinski (31st, 2020) and Davis (1st, 2021). In Indianapolis’ current affiliation with Pittsburgh since 2005, 21 total Pirates first-round draft picks have come through the Circle City prior to making their big-league debuts in the Black and Gold.

Indianapolis’ first-time callups are presented by Franciscan Health