Pittsburgh Pirates: MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospects for 2017

Overview

The Pittsburgh Pirates have five prospects on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list.  This is a number that has dwindled over the last few seasons.  Five prospect is an impressive number to have, but this shows the Bucs are starting to graduate these prospects to the big league team.  Also, this number will be even smaller relatively quickly.  As mentioned earlier, Josh Bell will likely lose his prospect status after his first game this year, and definitely will after the first series.  Meanwhile, Tyler Glasnow will likely lose his prospect status by the end of April if he starts the year in the rotation.  With that, number nine overall third base prospect Ke’Bryan could slide into the back end of the top 100 once some of these prospects graduate from the list.

A Top Heavy System

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The list also shows how top heavy the current organization is.  Although they have a top five system in baseball, it is mainly because their top five prospects are all in the top 100, including three in the top 30.  The Pittsburgh Pirates system is likely to regress over the next year or two.  They have competed the last couple of years, and graduated a lot of their top prospects.  The Bucs simply have not had the top picks to acquire immediate top talent.

That will change this year.  As many fans know, Andrew McCutchen is likely to be dealt this calendar year, and he will likely grab at least two top 100 prospects, if not more, depending on how he rebounds this season.  Also, the Bucs have four draft picks in the top 72 picks in the 2017 draft.  The Bucs will also find themselves drafting at number 12 overall, which will allow them to grab a big time prospect.  Add that to the potential high-upside prep arms they took in the 2016 draft, and the Bucs could return to one of the more prominent systems rather quickly.

Next: Top 10 Outfield Prospects

Conclusion

The Pittsburgh Pirates have five total players on this list. This is the fifth most in the league.  Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington has invested in building through the farm system since he took over in September of 2007.  The GM has had a lot of success doing this, and it looks like they have a lot more impact prospects who will be helping this team in the near term future. Spring Training is almost here!