Reinold Navarro doesn’t have to search for the headline tool. It jumps out the second he lets the ball go.
The Pirates’ 20-year-old left-hander has a four-seam fastball that has already earned rave reviews from MLB Pipeline, Baseball America and just about every evaluator who has seen him. Navarro, a native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, summed it up simply through Juan Guerra: “It’s natural,” Navarro said of his unhittable heater, with Juan Guerra translating. “It’s something God gave me.”
That pitch has become the defining feature of Navarro’s profile, and it’s easy to see why. He worked 24 games for Low-A Bradenton and High-A Greensboro this past season, making 17 starts, and finished 6-2 with a 2.96 ERA over 79 innings.
His 135 strikeouts led all Pirates farmhands. The flip side was just as dramatic: 70 walks.
The stuff is obvious. The command, not nearly as much.
Navarro’s strikeout rate of 39.5% was among the best in Minor League Baseball, while his 20.5% walk rate was among the worst for pitchers with at least 70 innings pitched in 2026. That blend of overpowering and erratic is exactly what has made him such a fascinating name in the system.
“It’s outlier, elite stuff,” said Pirates director of coaching and player development Michael Chernow. “The traits on his fastball are at the top of all of professional baseball. The amount of miss he gets with his secondary pitches, despite lacking command, it’s outlier traits from a left-handed starter that are exceptional.”
The Pirates have made the strike-throwing piece a major focus, and Chernow said Navarro showed “real, objective signal that his ability to throw strikes is improving,” even if there’s still a long way to go.
“There’s still a ton more to go, and we all know that,” Chernow said. “We’re going to continue to emphasize being over the plate with him because with the quality of stuff he has, the steadier the zone presence is, his numbers will be more ridiculous than they’ve already been to this point."
The fastball has been clocked as high as 99 mph, with scouts pointing to its riding life and Navarro’s ability to hide the ball. Aroldis Chapman has been used as a comparison.
Opponents have had a hard time squaring him up, and his 43.6% miss rate ranked fifth in MiLB. He held hitters to a .157 average, though that was up from the .098 mark he posted in the Florida Complex League and during a brief stint with the Marauders in 2025.
The challenge has been keeping that dominance from getting buried under the walks. Navarro has issued 131 free passes in 135 innings across his Minor League career, a rate that has sometimes undercut all the swing-and-miss he creates.
That’s part of what made the Forge High Performance Camp at Pirate City such a fit. The Pirates blended on-field work with preparation, mindfulness, breathing techniques, body care and off-field habits designed to support performance.
Navarro said the mental side stood out most.
“It wasn’t the first time I talked to mental performance coaches, but it was the time I took it seriously,” Navarro said. “It’s been helpful in this camp because we have time to work on it.
“During the season it’s harder because we have our routines, then pitching in games. It’s helpful here because we have time to work on it.”
There’s plenty more reason to keep tabs on him. Navarro is expected back with High-A Greensboro in 2027, and the Pirates believe the raw material is there for him to dominate if the strike-throwing comes around. His slider and changeup have also missed bats more than half the time, but the wildness remains impossible to ignore.
If the Forge experience helps him reset mentally, sharpen his mechanics in games and keep building his 6-foot, 178-pound frame, the ceiling could get awfully interesting.
“I’ve been working on trying to control my mind and controlling what I can control,” Navarro said. “I’m also focused on being more athletic and getting stronger. Just working on my body so I can throw a lot of innings next year and eventually make it to the big leagues.”
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