Easton Carmichael Is Thriving in His First Season with the Pirates
The Pirates have desperately needed catching help for years now. So far, so good for Easton Carmichael, who's looking to change that trend.
Over the past few years, if there’s one thing the Pittsburgh Pirates have lacked, it’s been legitimate catching depth in their system. In 2026, this hasn’t been the case, as the club has seemingly developed multiple very good catching prospects in its farm system.
When the Pirates entered the 2025 MLB Draft, this was a theme that was undoubtedly at the forefront of their strategy. Their biggest get on the catching front was Oklahoma backstop Easton Carmichael, a talented prospect from the offensive and defensive side of the game, a tricky thing to balance in the modern age of catchers.
Since entering professional baseball, Carmichael has blossomed into one of the most prized offensive prospects in the organization, and it’s for good reason. He’s routinely impressed regardless of the caliber of talent he was going up against, and it all started with the Pirates believing in him and taking a shot at the raw talent he had displayed throughout his time in college.
The Pirates haven’t shied away from testing Carmichael to this point, and he’s routinely thrived in some difficult situations. Most players would struggle to find their footing, but the same cannot be said for Carmichael, as he’s gone above and beyond to become a key piece of this farm system barely a year into his career.
Through this entire process, Carmichael has had the belief of the whole organization behind him, and this isn’t changing anytime soon. Now in Double-A, Carmichael has handled yet another challenge with grace, and it’s a testament to what the future may hold for the 22-year-old.
The Transition to Professional Baseball
Heading into the 2025 MLB Draft, it was abundantly clear that the Pirates were searching for the player they identified as the best player available with each of their selections. Despite a present need for more offensive help in the lower minors, they were able to land Seth Hernandez in the first round, a slam-dunk pick considering he was anticipated to go within the top five picks at the absolute latest.
This continued later on in the class, as they’d select Angel Cervantes and Murf Gray with their next two picks. Although Cervantes didn’t end up signing, he was likely the best prep arm on the board at this pick, showing this idea even further. In Gray’s case, the Pirates reached slightly on him, but it worked out, as he’s blossomed into a top-100 caliber prospect.
With their next pick in the draft, the Pirates looked to the University of Oklahoma, where Easton Carmichael had just wrapped up a fantastic season and was standing out strongly on their draft boards. During his final collegiate season, Carmichael posted an OPS over 1.000 with 17 homers while playing strong defense, giving the Pirates plenty of reason to buy in.
They’d end up selecting the then-21-year-old at pick No. 82 — an 11-selection under-slot pick. In other words, the Pirates loved what they saw from him, and they wanted to ensure they could grab him by any means necessary.
“Yeah, I mean, anytime a team wants to take a chance on somebody, it’s always a blessing, and just the ability to play professional baseball is not something that everybody gets to do,” Carmichael said. “So, I don’t take that for granted. And I just kind of show up to the field every day and be a professional, go about my business the right way.”
The idea of showing up every day and acting like a professional is something Carmichael learned very early, as the Pirates immediately tested him by tossing him straight into High-A with his first pro assignment. Once again, this is a testament to how much the club believed in him, as the jump straight to High-A is something that few prospects can handle — even the most polished collegiate prospects.
“It is an adjustment, a little bit, just playing every day,” Carmichael said regarding immediately being placed in High-A following the draft. “But ultimately, I mean, it was good, I mean, to just get a lot of firsts out of the way in that short season was good, because I felt really kind of prepared going into spring this year.”
In the 14-game taste of the level Carmichael got in 2026, he’d record a plethora of professional firsts. He’d slug his first pro home run, drive in his first runs, steal his first bag, and catch his first runners stealing. Although he didn’t finish with the slash line he would have liked, it was important to get acclimated and learn what being a pro actually looked like.
Moving On Up in ’26
As Carmichael said, his performance at the tail end of the 2025 season tremendously helped prepare him for what to expect in year two. This all began in spring training, where he first began to put his name on the map.
During the 2026 Spring Breakout Game — a contest that’s often produced many memorable moments and plenty of hype around upcoming prospects — Carmichael played his heart out. He went 2-for-2 with a base hit and a 408-foot homer to deep left-center field, which fired up fans and prospect evaluators alike.
Carmichael was then able to ride this high into the regular season, as he returned to High-A to begin his first full pro season.
He’d go on to slug his way through High-A with ease, slashing .305/.350/.518 with 16 homers, 11 stolen bases, and a 113 wRC+ in just 74 games. On top of this, Carmichael played electric defense, throwing out 25 runners in this span.
Of the 16 homers he hit at High-A Greensboro, few were cheap shots. Carmichael often used the whole field, avoiding selling out for pull-side pop and instead hitting deep drives over the right-center wall. It was a night-and-day difference compared to his short stint at the level last season, as Carmichael was looking like an established pro more and more by the day.
“It’s probably mostly just in mindset,” Carmichael said regarding his biggest adjustment this season. “Regardless if you had a really good game or a really bad game, you’re showing up the next day, and you’re doing it again from the first inning. So, just to stay present in kind of what I’m doing and never get too high, never get too low.”
For many players, one of the biggest challenges that’s often glossed over is the sheer number of games they’re expected to play in pro baseball as opposed to the collegiate or prep side of things. For Carmichael, this hasn’t been a difficult task.
“I mean, in college, you play probably about a 60-, 65-game schedule, and then you go into summer baseball; I mean, you’re playing 100, probably 100-plus games in a year if you’re playing a full season and then playing summer ball,” Carmichael said. “So, not every day to this extent, but I mean, it’s just baseball. It doesn’t change.”
Following this exciting showing in High-A, the Pirates knew Carmichael was prepared to handle the next challenge of his pro journey: The transition to Double-A.
The transition to Double-A is often praised as being one of the most difficult jumps to make in the minor leagues, as the opposing pitchers become sharper, mistakes become rarer, and the talent pool overall just gets better. For Carmichael, some of these challenges have been faced early on in his Double-A career.
“I mean, it’s probably just the little things; fastball command is probably a little better. But it’s nothing you haven’t seen. It’s just the consistency of things,” Carmichael said about the transition to Double-A. “It’s like anything; it’s not the stuff, and it’s never going to be the stuff. It’s just the consistency of stuff. I mean, you’re not going to get as many mistakes, and so that’s your job: to do the damage on the mistakes that you do get.”
Through his first 16 games at the level, Carmichael has experienced his fair share of ups and downs. While his numbers on the surface may not be up to the same caliber as they were in High-A, there have been positive takeaways from this stint. For example, he’s still not striking out more and has put the ball in play hard and often. Unfortunately, a lot of these batted balls have been caught, which is some of the reason for his dip in surface-level production.
Despite this, Carmichael is still adding to the game on both sides of the ball. He’s slugged his first two Double-A homers and has caught five runners stealing to this point. Defensively, the main thing that’s stood out to me is his tremendous ability to block balls behind the plate, which is evident by the number of marks on his black chest plate from these blocked pitches. In a way, they serve as his “battle scars” and evidence of the value he’s created behind the dish.
For a catcher, the challenges when advancing between levels are even more vast than most, as they have to learn how to communicate with a whole new pitching staff. This is something that Carmichael has tackled successfully head-on, which isn’t something to take lightly.
“That’s ultimately what spring training is for. I mean, you want to learn these guys, you want to get to know these guys. Thankfully, a lot of these guys were in Greensboro with me last year, and I got to catch some of them in spring,” Carmichael said about learning new groups midseason. “You know what works with the opponents in terms of where the holes are at, and so you call kind of games to that, but you also call it through the strengths, and that’s why you talk to those guys.”
Maintaining Success
As Carmichael’s first full pro season begins to come to an end, he has plenty of positive things to reflect on. From slugging his way through High-A to holding his own at Double-A and climbing prospect lists around the industry, it’s been an exciting season for the 22-year-old.
However, the next key for him will be maintaining this success as he moves forward.
If there’s one thing that we’ve learned from Carmichael’s professional career to this point, it’s that with more experience at a level, he’ll conquer it. From everything I’ve seen from him at Double-A to this point, I do not doubt that this will be the case yet again. His plate appearances are competitive, his contact has been solid, and he’s been able to grind through every at-bat.
As Carmichael begins to build even more momentum at the end of the season and continues focusing forward, he’s going to have quite the successful career. His first full pro season has been tremendous, and it’s only a taste of what’s to come as he moves up the chain.
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Written by
Jay Staph, a huge baseball fan and stat nerd, founded and ran his own baseball writing website, BSBWrites, at just 16-years-old. With focal points around prospects,…