Pittsburgh Pirates: Thoughts on the 2019 Draft Class

The Pittsburgh Pirates spent the beginning of this week drafting 42 prospects over 40 rounds over three days.  Did they find any talent?

The Pittsburgh Pirates had an opportunity to bring in some high upside players this year during the Major League Baseball Draft.  The team had four picks (two extra) on the first night of the draft.  The team had the 18th overall pick along with an overall draft bonus allotment of $9.94 million.  This allotment was the 11th highest amount in the league, so how did they make out in this year’s draft?

At the top, the Pittsburgh Pirates did what everyone seemed to think they would, they drafted prep right-hander Quinn Priester.  Priester was mocked to the Bucs by Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, and FanGraphs.  It seemed pretty obvious that the Bucs were very much connected to the young man from Illinois.

The Bucs made Priester the highest-drafted prep pitcher in this year’s draft.  He has the makeup to be a top of the rotation arm; the one real question mark here is whether the team should have taken a college arm or bat instead.  The team is young and should be competing in the future.  A college player could have impacted the team a lot quicker than a projectable prep pitcher.

The team also did a nice job of bringing in interesting players.  The team took four hitters that were at least 6’3” or taller, all out of college.  Could the Pittsburgh Pirates be trying to bring in more projectable power?  It would make sense with the direction the league is going and the lack of power the team currently has on their roster.

They also took multiple players who played multiple positions in college.  In the fourth round, they took Florida State reliever J.C. Flowers, who also played the outfield.  Then in the sixth round, they took Stanford outfielder Will Matthiessen, who they announced as a pitcher.  The last player came in the eighth round when they took USC catcher Blake Sabol and announced him as a right fielder. Is the team looking for athletic players who can play multiple roles?

The last note is that amount of outfielders the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted.  Having a strong outfield has been one of the most consistent things under Neal Huntington.  He made sure to bring in plenty of outfield talent to continue that trend in the future.  He brought in five new outfielders inside the top 11 rounds.  They only drafted two other offensive positions that were not outfielders; a shortstop, and a third baseman.

All in all, the Bucs had a decent draft.  They got a couple of interesting prep players in Quinn Priester and Sammy Siani.  They also added a lot of big and athletic college hitters and pitchers who could move through the system a little quicker.  What it comes down to is that they hit on a few of the picks and Priester becomes a top of the rotation type arm.