The Pittsburgh Pirates hope to see progress from their former first-round pick.
The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Termarr Johnson with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, and he has gone through the motions in the minors in hopes of joining the big league club someday.
Johnson was able to dip his toes in AA with the Altoona Curve last season, but spent most of the season in High-A with the Greensboro Grasshoppers.
The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked the top 100 prospects in Major League Baseball, where Johnson slotted in at No. 92, which is 68 spots lower than he was a year ago.
“This is the, uh, get off the pot year for Johnson, as it is for several of his classmates from the 2022 draft (Druw Jones, Cam Collier),” Law writes.
“He’s entering his age-21 season and still hasn’t shown the plus hit tool everyone seemed to think he had as an amateur. Johnson failed to post a .250 batting average for the second year in a row and hit for even less power in 2024 than he had in 2023, again drawing a ton of walks while hitting too many groundballs and pop-ups.
“Johnson has excellent bat speed and clearly knows the strike zone, and he showed real progress during the season as the Pirates worked with him on his swing decisions to get him to do more damage on pitches on the inner half. He also moved further back in the box, and as a result of those adjustments, he cut down on his whiff and chase rates after the All-Star break and pulled the ball more often. Unfortunately, none of it translated into more hits or more power. A .237/.367/.386 season line isn’t going to make him more than an extra guy in the majors. He has too good of a swing and too much plate discipline to not hit at least in the high .200s.”
Johnson isn’t on pace to be with the Pirates for a few years, but a good season in 2025 should get him back on track to be a key player in Pittsburgh down the line.