1-9-2025 – By Corey Shrader – @CoreyShrader on X
With the Pirates being said to be pursuing several Outfield options on the free agent market,
something has occurred to me. Where does Billy Cook fit?
Billy Cook came over in exchange for talented pitcher Patrick Reilly at the 2024 trade deadline in a swap with the Baltimore Orioles. Given the depth of hitting talent in Baltimore, Cook found himself utterly blocked in the organization. Pittsburgh, with arms to spare, were glad to oblige the O’s in filling mutual needs. Cook, being slightly older (25) but very productive in 2023 (where he began to take off) & 2024, simply could not outshine his organizational peers. His final statistical MiLB output for 2024 was quite strong.
In his 493 PAs across two levels (AA/AAA) and two organizations (BAL/PIT) looked like this:
HR: 17
XBH: 45
RBI: 74
R: 71
Triple Slash: .275/.375/.474
ISO: .199
wOBA: .377
wRC+: 124
xDamage: .401
That is strong production from a lesser-heralded prospect. To that end, Cook did earn a 16-
game cup of coffee with the Bucs in September. Let’s look at the positives of this debut first and then move to the more questionable aspects after.
The Good
The most eyebrow raising part of Cook’s debut needs to come with a heavy small sample
disclaimer. He only had 49 PAs & 30 Batted Ball Events (BBEs). But don’t fret, we will get to
how I think this balances out with the negatives later. Here are the details that popped in my
view.
Avg EV: 92.6
90% EV: 106.8
MAX: 109
FB/LD EV: 97.1
Barrel%: 8.2%
xDamage: .459
Hard Hit%: 50%
I am a simple man. I see this kind of batted ball data and I begin to levitate slightly. Of course
the sample is quite limited, however, per Baseball Prospectus, exit velocities typically begin to stabilize around 40 BBEs. Please do not interpret this as he will be at this level in 2025. But Cook being in this neighborhood is also not totally unrealistic either.
His AAA EVs for comparison’s sake were:
Avg EV: 89.2
90th EV: 104.1
MAX: 111.2
Pretty clearly, he has some thump in the bat. The EVs on fly balls and line drives (FB/LD)
compared with his tendency to lift (45.5% MiLB) and pull the ball (46.1% in MiLB) tells me his
swing is naturally geared to inflict damage in the air and that is always exciting to see. In fact,
his small sample FB/LD EVs put him in the rare air of Vlad Jr. & Marcell Ozuna.
What’s more is his athletic prowess and defense popped more than expected too. Here I must come clean to this being totally Savant driven excitement, but again, it is exciting to see.
The Bad
In the negative department we’ve got the plate approach and swing decisions. The major league 0.0%/38% BB/K ratio is not good to say the least. And some of this might stem from one of two possible things; either he came up to the Majors looking to swing or he was overmatched and simply made more bad swing decisions in general.
To his credit, his Zone Swing% was well above MLB average at 79.4%. His Chase% was also
well above MLB average at 34.5%.
Billy also showed some L/R split disparity in AAA, and we did see them manifest in the majors to a significant degree. These need to be monitored as well and could limit his overall
usefulness on a club lacking in “complete” hitters.
Frankly, the biggest thing here is that there are obvious hit tool questions present. It will be up to the team and the player to identify some solutions here, but we should move to “The Interesting” to wrap things up.
The Interesting
I spent more time on “The Good” here because it is much more fun to focus on. But The Bad
has potential to be very bad. If the approach and hit tool issues are that bad in a larger sample, it is clear he is not an option for a real MLB role let alone there being much of a shot at ever being a regular. But The Interesting is that his approach has never been this poor at any other level. At AA & AAA his Z-Swing sat at around 66.5% with his Chase% coming in at a more tolerable 26.3% in AAA.
It would be my contention that the approach and swing decision woes in the Majors was largely due to the necessary adjustment period. Major League pitching is exceptionally good. Plain and simple.
Billy Cook did a lot of interesting things in 2024, and he did them at the highest level, small
sample size or not. He brings a profile that this club could use. He is fast, can hit the ball with
authority, plays solid defense in several OF slots & 1B, and is “controllable.” Another thing to
consider is that he just turned 26 this offseason. He is reaching the beginning of his physical
prime and, I think, deserves a good sized-chunk of playing time to see if he is a real part of this club going forward or not.
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