Bucs prospect Meadows leaves AFL squad

PITTSBURGH -- Pirates center field prospect Austin Meadows was removed from his Arizona Fall League team's roster on Thursday morning for "personal reasons," according to a Pirates official.

Meadows -- the Pirates' No. 2 prospect, according to MLBPipeline.com -- hit .169 with a .502 on-base plus slugging percentage in 65 at-bats over 16 games for the Glendale Desert Dogs. Meadows also hit a home run in the Arizona Fall League's annual Fall Stars Game on Saturday night.

The 20-year-old center fielder hit .307/.357/.407 with seven home runs and 20 stolen bases for Class A Advanced Bradenton this year. He went 9-for-25 with five extra-base hits in six games after a late-season callup to Double-A Altoona.

The ninth overall pick in the 2013 Draft, Meadows is the No. 22 prospect in baseball, as ranked by MLBPipeline. In the Pirates' system, he is ranked behind only right-hander Tyler Glasnow.

With a little more than a week before the Arizona Fall League's championship game, the Pirates have six prospects still playing for the Desert Dogs: catcher Reese McGuire and pitchers Steven Brault, Cody Dickson, Tyler Eppler, Brett McKinney and Trevor Williams.