Pittsburgh Pirates: What You Need to Know for the 2019 Draft

The 2019 Major League Baseball will take place tonight.  What will the Pittsburgh Pirates do in this year’s draft?  Here is everything you need to know.

It is that time of the year again for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Major League Baseball; the MLB Draft begins tonight.  While the Major League Baseball Draft is not as promoted as the other major sports’ drafts, it is just as integral to the teams in the league.

The event has gotten bigger over recent years.  This is mainly because there is more information available than there has ever been.  Sites such as Baseball America and MLB Pipeline do a fantastic job of giving a lot of articles and updates on draft prospects.  What has really helped it get bigger is that it has been nationally televised on MLB Network for about a decade now, giving more exposure to the event.

The MLB Draft is one of the most important events for Major League Baseball.  Teams get a chance to bring in their next superstar and other potential big league players.  This is especially true for smaller market teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates who have to find their premium talent through the draft system.

Well, the Pittsburgh Pirates will have a good chance to do so tonight.  The Bucs have four picks tonight on day one of the MLB Draft.  The first two rounds and compensation rounds will be done tonight, tomorrow rounds three through ten, and Wednesday will be the last day with rounds 11-40.

As stated earlier, the Pittsburgh Pirates have an opportunity to add some premium talent tonight.  They will be very active with four picks tonight.  The team has the 18th overall pick in the first round, the 37th overall pick, the 57th overall pick, and the 72nd pick.  The 37th pick was granted to them for their failure to sign Gunnar Hoglund last year, and the 72nd pick was given to them through the Competitive Balance lottery.

The team has been given the 11th biggest draft bonus pool this year.  They have $9,944,000 to use to sign their draft picks.  This is pretty sizeable considering the team finished in the top half of the league last year.  The reason they have so much is because of the two extra picks they have this year.  This will give them plenty of flexibility to sign some prospects who may slide down the board on day two and day three.

If there is one thing that has been made clear for who the Pittsburgh Pirates will take tonight, it has been that they will take a pitcher and a shortstop.  All reports have suggested this, and basically every mock draft has had the team taking one of the two positions over the last few months.

The Baseball America update this morning has the team drafting Clemson shortstop Logan Davidson.  They had him mocked to the Bucs about a month ago. However, Jonathan Mayo at MLB Pipeline continues to push that the team will take Illinois high school right-handed pitcher Quinn Priester.  Priester is who we have the team taking in our mock draft as well.

The Draft will kick off tonight at 8:00 PM eastern and will be shown live and nationally on MLB Network with the guys from Baseball America and MLB Pipeline analyzing each pick.  The MLB Network will start coverage at 6:00 PM eastern.  With the Bucs picking at number 18, I expect their first pick to be around 9:30.  Be sure to check back throughout the night to see our thoughts on all of their picks tonight.