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Austin Meadows: Will the Pirates call him up?

By Brad Berreman

Mar 6, 2017; Bradenton, FL, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Austin Meadows (77) at bat against the New York Yankees at Lecom Park. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 6, 2017; Bradenton, FL, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Austin Meadows (77) at bat against the New York Yankees at Lecom Park. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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Now that Starling Marte is suspended for 80 games, with the Pittsburgh Pirates call up top prospect Austin Meadows?

Some surprising news came out of the MLB office on Tuesday, with the announcement of an 80-game suspension for Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Starling Marte. Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported Marte tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug Nandrolone. Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe points out Nandrolone is an injected steroid, while citing Marte’s quote about a “lack of knowledge” leading to a positive test.

Leaving aside Marte’s bad judgement, naivety or outright lack of regard for the rules, the Pirates now have to move forward with a plan to replace him for almost half the season. Gregory Polanco could shift to center field, with Adam Frazier taking over in left field, but the Pirates have an option in Triple-A who could be called up.

Since being drafted ninth overall in 2013, Austin Meadow has been ranked as a top-50 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America and MLB.com. Before this season, the aforementioned two outlets and Baseball Prospectus had Meadows at No. 6, No. 10 and No. 6 respectively among baseball’s top prospects.

Meadow is hitting just .162 (6-for-37) with one home run and five RBI over 10 games for Triple-A Indianapolis so far this season. Combined with his time there last year, Meadows has a .202/.280/.417 slash-line, seven home runs, 29 RBI and nine steals over 186 Triple-A plate appearances. He has conquered Double-A though, with a .318/.373/.620 slash-line over a similar sample (218 plate appearances).

Meadows has mostly played center field during his minor league career. But he did start 13 games in left field last season, with three starts there already this season along with one start in right field.

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Based on his Triple-A results, Meadows does not appear to be major league-ready as a hitter. But being able to play all three outfield spots, theoretically, stands to be valuable to the Pirates while Marte is out of the picture. Being a fourth outfielder is not the long term outlook anyone has in mind for Meadows, but right now he can help the Pirates in that role. But the Pirates have already called up someone to replace Marte on the roster, with first baseman/outfielder Jose Osuna on the way from Indianapolis.

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