Phillies Prospect Spotlight: Right-Handed Pitcher Ricardo Pinto

Phillies prospect Ricardo Pinto was lost in the flurry of new pitchers joining the system in the last year. With the graduation of numerous pitchers, Pinto may be the best pitching prospect in the upper minors.

The Phillies have made it a point to acquire pitching prospects since Andy MacPhail and Matt Klentak took over the front office. Jerad Eickhoff, Jake Thompson, Nick Pivetta, Mark Appel, Thomas Eshelman, and Alberto Tirado all came to the Phillies in various trades.

Meanwhile, Ricardo Pinto has been around long before most other Phillies pitching prospects. The team signed Pinto in December of 2011, and he finally came stateside in 2014. After an impressive debut with short-season Williamsport, Baseball America ranked Pinto as the No. 14 prospect in the system.

According to Kiley McDaniels of Fangraphs, Pinto had no fear on the mound. Scouts McDaniels asked said Pinto was “mean as s***” and has “huge balls.”

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Pinto only continued to succeed in 2015. He started the year in Low-A Lakewood, striking out 8.06 batters per nine with a 3.09 ERA in 11 starts. The team promoted him to Clearwater in June of that year, where his strikeouts lowered but so too did his walk rate and ERA.

After the 2015 season, Pinto received the Paul Owens Award for the top pitcher in the Phillies farm system.

Philadelphia fans, including myself, got their first look at Pinto in the Phillies Futures game before the 2016 season started. He put together three shutout innings in the game before the “real” Phils finally tagged him for three runs in the ninth.

In his Futures Game appearance, Pinto’s fastball maxed out at 95 and averaged 93 according to Brooks Baseball. As for his secondary pitches, Brooks said the following:

"His change (take this with a grain of salt because he’s only thrown 18 of them in 2016) results in more flyballs compared to other pitchers’ changeups and has a lot of backspin. His slider (take this with a grain of salt because he’s only thrown 12 of them in 2016) is basically never swung at and missed compared to other pitchers’ sliders, has below average velo and has primarily 12-6 movement."

Pinto hit a snag when he joined Double-A Reading this year, starting the year with a 5.48 ERA in April. However, Pinto slowly got better as he progressed through the year. His best month was in August, where he allowed a 0.85 WHIP and 2.84 ERA in five starts.

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Pinto understood that Double-A hitters are a step above the competition he faced in 2015. He told Evan Webeck of MLB.com, “I’ve noticed the hitters are more mature. If you throw a mistake, they’re going to make you pay…Sometimes I could get away with those mistakes in High A ball, but here I don’t get outs with the mistake pitches.”

Despite his poor start the year, Pinto got to represent the Phillies in the All-Star Futures Game in San Diego this year. Pinto retired two batters for the World Team with the help of San Diego’s Manuel Margot, who saved a ball from going for a home run.

Dan Farnsworth of Fangraphs said “Pinto could pitch in a big-league bullpen right now” before this season started. While that gives Pinto a solid floor, his ceiling could easily be much higher. The main thing to watch in Pinto’s development is his slider. If he can get it to at least a fringe-average pitch, he has all the makings of a mid-rotation starter.

MLB.com ranks just Mark Appel above Pinto as the best pitcher in the upper level of the Phillies minor-league system. When the next set of rankings come out this offseason, Pinto could easily move above Appel after his poor season and surgery.

Next: Phillies Lower-Minors Prospects Ranked by BA

The hope for Pinto going into 2016 was that he could reach Triple-A by the end of the year for a mid-2017 MLB debut. Instead, Pinto’s debut will likely be towards the end of next season, perhaps during September call-ups. Knowing the volatility of Phillies pitchers, Pinto will likely reach the majors due to an opening in the rotation.