Pittsburgh Pirates 2025 International Class Scouting Report
With the MLB international signing period opening today, teams can officially begin to sign players in their 2025 class.
For Baseball America subscribers, we have scouting reports and player notes on the classes for all 30 teams, providing information on the big names to know in each class, as well as deeper cut players to watch.
At the end of the 2024 season, the Pirates brought back Max Kwan—who had previously worked for the team in international scouting before leaving to work for the Boras Corporation—to run their international scouting.
This year’s Pirates class has a familiar name with Dominican shortstop Johan De Los Santos, who is signing for $2.4 million. De Los Santos is the younger brother of Yordany De Los Santos, who signed with the Pirates as a shortstop for $1.2 million in 2022. He’s an athletic, quick-twitch shortstop with a sound lefthanded swing and good contact skills. De Los Santos is 6 feet, 175 pounds and on the younger side of the class with a chance to get to double-digit home runs, but he doesn’t project to be a big power threat. He’s a plus runner who has the athleticism and quickness to give him a chance to stay at shortstop, but there are things he will need to clean up with his hands and actions to stick there.
Dominican shortstop Darell Morel was a late addition to Pittsburgh’s class. Set to sign with the Dodgers for a little under $1 million, Morel opted not to wait for the Dodgers to find out if they were going to sign Sasaki and is instead signing with the Pirates for a tick under $1.8 million. Morel hit a growth spurt and is now 6-foot-5, 190 pounds. It’s a long-limbed, lanky frame with impressive power already for his age and a chance to have plus to plus-plus raw power once he fills out. There was a split camp among scouts on his hitting ability, with some scouts seeing swing-and-miss risk given his long arms and their concerns about his ability to recognize offspeed stuff, though others thought he could keep his contact rate manageable. He’s athletic for his size, running above-average underway, but his size makes it unlikely he will remain a shortstop long term, with third base or the outfield both possibilities.
Venezuelan outfielder Gabriel Rodriguez has been an up-arrow player with his physical development as he has gained strength and improved his tools. He’s 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, a lean build with more projection remaining and a sound offensive approach for his age. Rodriguez has good bat-to-ball skills from the right side and is now starting to flash more power to go with his pure hitting ability. His athleticism and plus speed give him a chance to stay in center field.
Cuban lefthander Yoslaniel Hernandez is 6-foot-3 with the arm speed and physical upside to add to a fastball that has touched 93 mph, mixing in a curveball and changeup as well. Righthander Robinson Smith is signing for $400,000, which should be one of the highest bonuses this year for an Australian player. There’s some deeper projection involved with him, but he has good size at 6-foot-3 and is athletic with a four-pitch mix, working off a fastball that’s up to 90 mph with the arm speed pointing to more on the way. Hyun-Seung Lee is a South Korean infielder who is 6 feet, 170 pounds with good bat speed and strong hands with projectable power. The Pirates are also going back to Uganda to sign infielder Armstrong Muhoozi, who has more rawness to his game relative to his peers from Latin America, but he’s a strong, athletic 5-foot-10, 185 pounds with a mix of tools between his speed, arm strength and power potential.
