Pittsburgh Pirates Prospect Keeps Incredible, Historic Streak Going For High-A Affiliate

Keiner Delgado, the No. 26 prospect in the organization, hit three homers on Wednesday for High-A Greensboro.
Pittsburgh Pirates hats and gloves in the dugout against the New York Yankees during the sixth inning at PNC Park in 2023.
Pittsburgh Pirates hats and gloves in the dugout against the New York Yankees during the sixth inning at PNC Park in 2023. | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

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At the major-league level, things haven't gone so well this season for the Pittsburgh Pirates. They enter play on Thursday at 17-33 and in last place in the National League Central. They've already fired manager Derek Shelton and are seen as wasting the early years of Paul Skenes's career.

However, things are going better on the minor league front, as top prospect Keiner Delgado registered three homers on Wednesday for High-A Greensboro in a win over Asheville. According to Minor League Baseball, it's the sixth straight season that a Grasshoppers player has had a three-homer game.

It should be noted that there was no season in 2020, so the streak goes back further than that. Delgado is ranked as the No. 26 prospect in the organization, according to MLB Pipeline.

The 21-year-old infielder was signed in 2021 by the New York Yankees and later traded to Pittsburgh. He's projected to make his major league debut in 2028 and the following comes from a portion of his MLB.com prospect profile:

Delgado is a switch-hitter who showed off a very disciplined approach over his first two summers as a pro, rarely swinging or missing or chasing out of the zone. But in his first go-round with the Pirates, he tried to get to more impact, and it didn't work as his strikeout rate soared to 21.5 percent from the 12.4 percent he posted in 2022 and 2023 combined. He still makes good swing decisions and has a strong sense of the strike zone but needs to get back to being a contact-first type of hitter.

He's hitting .264 thus far in 2025.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is the senior writer for “Minor League Baseball on SI’’ and the host of “The Payoff Pitch’’ podcast, which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. Follow Brady on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.