Baseball continues to see more home runs and more strikeouts than ever. However, there are players who buck the trend. Guys like Jacob Wilson, Xavier Edwards, Steven Kwan, and Nico Hoerner take a much different approach, hitting for a ton of contact, and rarely striking out. Many of them are also good runners who play solid defense at a premium position. The Pittsburgh Pirates could add a name to that list of players. Mitch Jebb is an under-the-radar name that could be in for a breakout 2026 campaign.
Jebb spent the entire 2025 season at Double-A Altoona. He turned in a .265/.350/.317 triple-slash over 513 plate appearances. On the plus side, he rarely struck out and made a ton of contact. Jebb struck out just 10.5% of the time with an 87.7% contact rate. For reference, only 18 qualified hitters had a contact rate over 85% in MLB last season. It was also a sizable step forward from his 79.9% contact rate and 19.9% K% from 2024. He used his speed and solid OBP to his advantage, and went 33-for-38 in stolen base attempts. Overall, Jebb owned a 97 wRC+.
The obvious downside is Jebb has little power. He did not hit a single home run all of 2025. While Jebb isn’t known for his power and played in a very pitcher-friendly environment, extra base hits as a whole were hard to come by for him. Jebb only had eight doubles and six triples. His isolated slugging percentage came in at a meager .052.
But Jebb draws plenty of walks. His BB% came in at 11.3%. Plus, there could be more batting average in his stick. He batted .289 with a 109 wRC+ throughout his final 192 plate appearances of the year. His batting average on balls in play on the season was only .300, which is low for a batter of his archetype. He could benefit from hitting more line-drives, as his LD% went from 24.3% in 2024 to only 20.7% in 2025.
Jebb is also quite versatile. He primarily played center field in 2025, but was drafted as a middle infielder. He has over 400 innings at shortstop, and over 800 frames at the keystone. Jebb also saw a handful of games at third base as a college player in the Cape Cod League. He is very versatile and can play wherever the Pirates need him to.
Jebb is certainly one of the most interesting prospects in the Pirates’ system. The former second round pick has one of the best hit tools of any of their prospects. He is also versatile and has great speed. He also walks more frequently than you typically see from a hitter like him. Jebb may have bottom-of-the-barrel power, but he makes so much contact it’s hard to imagine him not figuring something out. He is someone worth watching in 2026. If Jebb can start hitting more liners and raise his batting average to .280, he may factor into the Pirates’ bench later into the season.
