1-3-2025 – By Corey Shrader – @CoreyShrader on X
One of the prospects I will be keeping close tabs on as the 2025 Minor League Baseball season opens is 1B/DH prospect Nick Cimillo.
Cimillo was selected in the 16th round of the 2022 MLB Entry Draft out of Rutgers University. In his redshirt Junior season with the Scarlet Knights Cimillo led the Big Ten in batting average
(.385), slugging percentage (.707), and OPS (1.199). Before transferring to the Big Ten Cimillo
was the 2019 Freshman of the Year and then a two time Preseason Player of the Year in the
MAAC for the Manhattan Jaspers.
Post-draft Cimillo had a ho-hum small sample size debut across the Complex and A ball levels.
2023 saw Cimillo begin to adjust to pro-ball where his final MiLB line was quite compelling.
However, much of this intriguing output was accumulated at the A level as a 22-23 year old.
Admittedly, this does not usually bode well as a player his age is often considered “too
advanced” for the level. After acknowledging this caveat as being a real thing to take note of, it is always better to see a player succeed.
In 2024 Cimillo continued to cook, but this time in A+ Greensboro. Here again we must take this with a slight grain of salt. Greensboro is one of the more hitter friendly environments AND he was also nearly 2 years older than the bulk of his competition in the South Atlantic League.
Nonetheless, what Cimillo did across his 223 PAs in A+ & his 185 PAs for AA Altoona was
eyebrow raising. The signifier stats that I would note are:
HR: 21
ISO: .240
BA/OBP/SLG: .260/.376/.500
OPS: .876
wRC+: 146
wOBA: .398
xDamage: .445
To temper this slightly the split between A+/AA is somewhat stark. Just as his promotion in 2023 saw his performance dip upon arriving in the higher level, we saw it again last season.
Obviously it would be preferred to see that type of play continue immediately, this is not terribly uncommon either. Despite his production being somewhat stifled at Altoona there were some interesting developments that came with it.
Most notably, Cimillo’s plate approach and swing decisions actually improved at the higher
level. To state it simply, he began to swing more often at pitches in the zone. It is entirely
possible that his lower BABIP, .333 in A+ versus .256 in AA, could help to explain this in part.
Most likely not the whole story but I am inclined to believe it to be part of the reason. Park
factors also likely to have played a part in this given his profile is that of a lift & pull one and Altoona’s more pitching friendly confines probably killed some production where he would have benefited in A+ Greensboro.
So what exactly do the Pirates have in Cimillo? Right now, it is difficult to say. At the very least I see an interesting, albeit older 1B prospect that checks several boxes in a positive manner.
Namely; good swing decisions, good quality of contact, good power, and an approach that is
geared to do damage in the air. 2025 will be crucial to find out what exactly Cimillo can do.
Given that there is no public batted ball data for A+ or AA, we won’t get a fully fleshed out
picture of the bat until he reaches AAA (hopefully in 2025). What I will be watching closely is if Cimillo can continue his trend of producing at a high clip in his second stint at the level.
Should that happen, the team might just have something at a position of need.
Oftentimes it is easy to dismiss “older” prospects that do not develop quickly. Nick Cimillo is not a finished product yet but there is enough meat on the bone here for me to have become a big fan of his. If he begins the season clubbing away, I think we will see a little more hype build here.
Steel City Pirates 