Bubba Chandler, Termarr Johnson to represent Pirates in MLB Futures Game

Congrats, Bubba and Termarr!

Major League Baseball unveiled its All-Star Futures Game rosters Tuesday morning and two of the Pirates’ top prospects will take part in this year’s game.

Bubba Chandler, the top prospect on the Bucs’ pipeline, was named as one of the pitchers for the National League, while No. 2 prospect Termarr Johnson was selected as an infielder.

Chandler has appeared in 14 games this season with Double-A Altoona, starting 12 of them, and has put together a 4-5 record with a 4.17 ERA with 68 strikeouts. After a rocky start to the year, the 21-year-old right-hander posted back-to-back dominant outings against Bowie and Akron at the end of June, striking out 21 hitters in 13.2 innings.

Chandler was also named Eastern League Pitcher of the Week for the first time on June 23 after collecting a then-career-high 10 strikeouts against Bowie. He surpassed that the following week with 11 strikeouts against the RubberDucks.

Opponents this year are hitting .202 against Chandler this season, the second-lowest average against in his young career.

Johnson also had a slow start to the year, hitting just .194 in the first month with High-A Greensboro, but quickly rebounding over the next few months to bring a .226/.379/.740 slash line into this week.

The former first-round pick also smacked seven home runs with 31 RBI and 13 stolen bases over the course of the season. The majority of those coming in June, where he hit four home runs, tallied 13 RBI and swiped six bags in 24 games.

This is the second straight year the Pirates will see two prospects in the Futures game, as Endy Rodriguez and J.P. Massey represented them in last year’s contest.