Double-A Notebook: Pirates Scouting Reports from Opening Week

For those unfamiliar with my background, I’ve been a season ticket holder at the Altoona Curve (the Double-A of the Pittsburgh Pirates) for about nine seasons now, and scouting my favorite prospects up close and personal each season has been a highlight of this experience for me.

Last season, once every few homestands, I would put together notebooks with some of my takeaways and the smaller things I noticed when watching these players for a week at a time. This season will be no different, as I’ll be putting together a piece every so often, following last year’s pattern once again.

Although the Harrisburg Senators (Double-A Affiliate of the Washington Nationals) didn’t have much to offer during the opening series, the Curve had a lot of positive takeaways. Even though it might be early, some of the Pirates’ stars of tomorrow are looking quite comfortable in Altoona.

Let’s examine the biggest takeaways from the first series of the year and some other smaller things I noticed throughout this stretch of games.

Khristian Curtis, RHP

Ever since general manager Ben Cherington took over the position back in the late months of the 2019 season, the Pirates have become a pitching factory. They haven’t just developed superstars like Paul Skenes, but they’ve also had huge player-development wins with arms like Braxton Ashcraft.

Of all the intriguing arms in the system, no arm has stood out more to me over the last few months than right-hander Khristian Curtis. He’s truly looked like the next can’t-miss prospect in the organization, and his first start in Altoona showed exactly why this is the case.

Curtis allowed one run over five innings while striking out nine, only surrendering two hits on the night. Curtis was tied for the lead in whiffs across every level of the minors on the day of his outing with 19.

It was a spectacular showcase from the 24-year-old, as he showed off his truly electric arsenal throughout the entirety of his start. It’s an arsenal that’s deep and built for success, something that will certainly help him begin to make the Double-A adjustment.

At the top of his mix is an eye-catching fastball that grades out among the top in the system. Sitting in the mid to high 90s, Curtis has surpassed the 20 IVB threshold with ease in the few outings he’s had in front of Statcast systems.

Because of the sheer amount of ride it gets, his heater often has a hovering effect while on its way to the plate, which makes it a tough offering to even make contact with. Especially at the top of the zone, his heater is a lethal offering that he’s able to locate well.

Khristian Curtis’ first start of the season went as advertised. He looked incredibly sharp all night long, striking out nine and walking zero.

At this point, I feel pretty confident in saying he’s the second-best non-debuted pitching prospect in the organization. pic.twitter.com/45LmTvTn1b

— Jay Staph (@jmstaph24) April 3, 2026

In addition to his fastball, Curtis’ low-80s changeup really showed out during this outing, as the pitch is already likely another plus pitch. Getting upwards of 18 inches of horizontal break, Curtis’ changeup almost has sinker-adjacent movement, which makes it a good offering when he needs a whiff, regardless of the handedness of the opposing hitter.

It tunneled extremely well off his fastball during this outing, which was one of my biggest takeaways from his Opening Night start.

Curtis played around with the rest of his arsenal during this outing, and he was effective while doing so. Although he’s toyed with both a more cutter-like slider and a sweeper-like slider, his cutter variation really impressed me during this outing. He was able to run it in on lefties, providing numerous uncomfortable swings when the pitch came in on their hands. Curtis managed to rack up some whiffs with his sweeper as well.

Curtis’ curveball was definitely the one pitch that stood out in my mind as being more of a work in progress. Its loopier, 12-6 movement can make it effective when tunneled well off his fastball in the bottom of the zone, but when he doesn’t locate it effectively, it becomes the definition of a hanger. The sole run he gave up during this start was on a homer where he didn’t get the curveball down in the zone.

Over the course of the offseason, I’ve said a few times that Curtis looks to be following a similar development pipeline to Bubba Chandler, and I stand by that. When both starters arrived in Altoona, their mixes were quite similar.

For Chandler, this is where he really started to catch the eyes of prospect evaluators across the industry. If Curtis continues to look this sharp all offseason long, he could continue following this track, quickly becoming the second-best arm in the system behind only Seth Hernandez.

Connor Wietgrefe, LHP

Khristian Curtis wasn’t the only starting pitcher who stood out to me during this opening series, though. Left-hander Connor Wietgrefe looked nothing shy of commanding during his start in game two. If this trend continues, he could be the second starting pitcher in Altoona who makes waves this year, which would be another huge win for the Pirates’ pitching development.

Wietgrefe went 4.2 innings of two-run baseball, striking out three and walking three along the way. Admittedly, the final line is less impressive than Curtis’ by a good margin, but the underlying takeaways from his outing are really what caught my eye.

Wietgrefe’s mix differs from most arms in the Pirates system. Rather than being a power pitcher who relies on a triple-digit heater and bigger breaking balls, he’s more of a finesse-first left-hander who’s able to locate the ball from one side of the plate to the other. This makes him tough to face later in at-bats, as he’s able to put the ball right on the black.

In fact, Wietgrefe is regarded as possessing the strongest ability to locate in the Pirates’ system, which makes sense considering he’s never walked more than 25 batters across a full season.

Another day, another impressive outing from an @AltoonaCurve starting pitcher.

Connor Wietgrefe’s repeatable, easy mechanics will really allow him to take off this season. Changeup got up to 93 while generating plenty of whiffs, and his slider was a disgusting offering. pic.twitter.com/2ebSBHoVL2

— Jay Staph (@jmstaph24) April 4, 2026

Wietgrefe’s delivery is very repeatable and smooth, which gives him less of a chance for mechanical changes from pitch to pitch. His primary pitch is a sinker that often sits in the low-90s with a ton of arm-side run. During his first outing in Altoona, his sinker regularly touched 93 MPH, and it clearly made batters uncomfortable with the swings that they took.

When throwing in front of pitch-tracking systems in the past, Wietgrefe’s slider has appeared to have more gyro movement than sweep. However, during his outing in Altoona, Wietgrefe’s slider appeared to dance more like a sweeper, getting enough horizontal movement to buckle both righties and lefties.

Where his arsenal really becomes captivating is with his changeup, which is often thrown very similarly to his sinker. It has about the same amount of arm-side run, just slower, and it kills spin. It got a decent amount of swings and misses against Harrisburg, and it induced plenty of weak contact in the field.

Despite not being a super flashy arm, Wietgrefe’s simplicity is what makes him so interesting. It’s an arsenal that I feel confident could get outs in the big leagues one day, potentially even in a long-relief role if the big-league rotation is too crowded. Currently, Wietgrefe leads the Curve starters in ERA by nearly 0.50, showing his strength early in the year.

Omar Alfonzo, C

After a successful year in the minors last season, catcher Omar Alfonzo finished up his 2025 campaign poorly in Double-A Altoona. During the offseason, Alfonzo took matters into his own hands, made adjustments at the dish, and came into Spring Training looking like a more athletic, more in-shape version of himself.

The changes Alfonzo made at the plate were evident during the first series of the year, as his new offensive approach was one of the main things that jumped out to me.

Beginning with his setup, Alfonzo is a little less open than he was last year, while also standing far more upright. There were moments last season where it felt like Alfonzo was almost too grounded, which caused him to be less mobile. This resulted in some issues with higher velocity arms, as he couldn’t seem to get going consistently.

Also, Alfonzo adjusted his hand position a noticeable amount. His hands are far closer to his body and less upright, which has since created a simpler path to the baseball and a less noisy movement overall. Once again, this will help him catch up to more velocity than in the past, as his swing is more optimized for adjustability.

Alfonzo’s new swing didn’t stop there, either, as his load also underwent some significant changes.

For starters, the difference in Alfonzo’s bat position is a lot clearer here. He now has a little bit of a barrel tip, which serves as another move that improves how well he’s able to stay on plane with the baseball. It results in a cleaner path overall when done correctly, helping him stay inside the baseball as well.

Something else to note here is that Alfonzo’s load is similar, but different. At times last season, it seemed like he could load too much to try to overcorrect from being so open, which was another root of his timing issues. Now, he’s able to coil into his back hip more effectively without coiling too much.

While these changes haven’t directly correlated to more production on the field just yet, these are things to monitor as the season continues. Once Alfonzo begins to find himself even more at the plate, watch out, because few hitters in the Pirates’ system possess his pop.

Mitch Jebb, CF

Another returning player with a very noticeable swing change this season is Mitch Jebb, a former second-rounder out of Michigan State.

Ever since he was drafted, Jebb has had a more chaotic swing that’s been in desperate need of an adjustment. Rather than introducing it all at once, the Pirates have really been taking their time with these changes in order to keep him from being fully uncomfortable.

Early on this season, Jebb’s seen arguably the most beneficial swing adjustment of his career, as he finally appears to be showing signs that he’s driving the ball with more authority than ever before. For someone who hasn’t homered since the 2024 season, an influx of power could be game-changing.

Starting with Jebb’s stance, he’s made a ton of adjustments. The most noticeable of these changes is likely his more upright approach, which will help keep him from being too grounded, a change that’s similar to Omar Alfonzo’s. This is an issue Jebb had throughout his minor league career, too, and it’s looked much better early on this year.

Next, Jebb has also followed Alfonzo by closing off his stance a little more, which has already had a tremendous impact on his swing itself. In the past, Jebb’s biggest problem was that he had essentially been swinging towards first base, completely pulling himself off the baseball. This produced a lot of weak rollovers to the pullside, because without a strong foundation and smooth bat-path, there’s simply no juice in the swing.

Finally, his hands are ever so slightly raised compared to last year, which could impact his power. This type of setup has helped hitters produce optimal launch angles, which is something Jebb has always struggled to do.

While these are already huge adjustments for one offseason, Jebb’s load evolved, too.

The biggest change made during Jebb’s load is that he’s completely overhauled his load. In the past, Jebb had gathered to the point where 70% of his weight was over his back leg, which produced poor results as he got stuck on the backside. His small stride forward didn’t help correct this move, either, which really hurt him.

In 2026, Jebb has completely ditched this load for a very sizable leg kick, which has dramatically improved his power. With a leg kick like this, Jebb is no longer able to shift all of his weight on his back leg, and instead correctly coils into his back hip. This coil move is something we see most hitters make, as it allows for more energy and power to be stored up in the hips, something Jebb has never done at any time during his career — even back to his college days.

Also, you can see here how last year, Jebb’s first instinct was to move towards first base, as he began to pull towards right field from the very beginning of his stride. Now, with such a sizable leg kick, Jebb is no longer able to pull off the baseball as easily, which has helped him retain a lot of that potential energy he builds from his load.

This is even more evident with the swing itself.

This part of the swing really begins to show why the adjustments Jebb made matter so much, as the moving pieces he’s worked to refine are put to the test.

Earlier, I discussed Jebb pulling off the baseball and moving towards first base during his swing. In the 2025 version of his hack, you can clearly see this. He’s almost begun to sprint towards first base, and he’s throwing his hands at the ball to try and counter this movement.

In 2026, Jebb can stay through the baseball and actually use the energy he built up during his load. You can see that he’s much more square at the dish, swinging from the ground up rather than throwing his hands at the baseball. Also, there’s a lot more space in his swing, which allows him to drive the ball with more authority and pop.

Notice too that throughout the images I’ve shown, Jebb’s head is staying almost completely still in 2026 despite the added movement in his swing. This is the complete opposite of 2025, as Jebb’s head was constantly moving, helping to leave him without a strong foundation.

Just like Alfonzo, the results haven’t come on the field for Jebb just yet, but this is a very good start. Seeing the improvements he’s made makes me feel confident that he’ll slug his first long-ball since 2024 at some point this season.

After all, he’s reached the warning track multiple times this year, something that was a rare feat in 2025, and he’s posted encouraging exit velocities this season, such as a 109.5 MPH triple during the spring breakout game.

The post Double-A Notebook: Pirates Scouting Reports from Opening Week appeared first on Just Baseball.