Canaan Smith-Njigba

Smith-Njigba was among a number of young outfielders to make their big-league debut for the Pirates in 2022, as he was called up on June 13. Unfortunately, a broken wrist ended his campaign after only seven plate appearances with the club. He's since been fully cleared, which puts him in line to compete for a roster spot in spring training. That's where Smith-Njigba's defensive limitations will come into play, as he's strictly a corner outfielder, and both Cal Mitchell and Jack Suwinski are likely to get the first shot at locking down those roles. Unfortunately, even if Smith-Njigba steps into more playing time, it's unclear what he'd offer in a fantasy context. Scouting reports suggest that he has the potential to hit for above-average power, though he's never surpassed a .158 ISO at any level of the minor leagues. Entering his age-24 season, it's possible that Smith-Njigba can take a step forward, but for now his intrigue is primarily limited to very deep formats such as dynasty leagues, draft-and-hold, or NL-only leagues.

Smith won't be found highly ranked on any real-life prospect lists, as he is 20 years old and is already limited to left field and designated hitter. However, if we were just ranking prospects based on future hit and power grades, Smith would be a top-100 prospect. He has a knack for putting barrel to ball, lacing line drives (26.0 LD%) to all fields (36.2 Pull%) while walking a lot and striking out at a manageable clip (20.5 K%). Among qualified Sally League hitters, he ranked first in BB% (14.0), second in OBP (.405) and fifth in doubles (32). At 6-foot and at least 215 pounds, he fills out a uniform like a young Molina brother, so while he stole 16 bases, that was simply a product of him being on base a ton and having some savviness to his game. Smith will need to continue to rake in order to profile at the bottom of the defensive spectrum.