Pittsburgh Pirates Minors: Three Offseason Tasks to Focus On

The Pittsburgh Pirates will have plenty of work to do this offseason.  One of those will be to fix the current state of their minor league system.

No matter who the Pittsburgh Pirates team president, general manager, manager, or other front office personnel are, one thing will always remain the same, they are a small market team.  In baseball, the small market teams need to find ways to compete with the big market teams.

For instance, this offseason there are two elite starting pitchers available by the names of Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg.  A team like the Bucs cannot, and will not, be able to sign either of those pitchers.  All jokes aside about Gerrit Cole, this is the way of the current MLB; big market teams can continue to sign the “elite” free agents while smaller market teams continue to look for new ways to gain an edge.

One thing that will always remain certain for small market teams is that they have to build through their own minor league system.  Having a strong farm system is an important key in building a successful team.  During the Bucs playoff run from 2013-2015 they had one of the top five farm systems in baseball.  However, they have seen their farm grow thinner and thinner between promotions, trades, and just players not panning out.  While the team looks to build a contender for the coming season, they also need to spend some time to improve the minors.

The biggest position of weakness in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system is catcher.  This is clear as the team has lacked it at the big league level for several years now.  Yes, they had Russell Martin and Francisco Cervelli, but the team had to acquire those players.  Other than Jacob Stallings having a positive impact last season, the Bucs have not really developed a productive catcher in years.

This has partially been because of the previous regime.  In 2009, the team spent the fourth overall pick on Boston College product Tony Sanchez.  At the time it was considered a reach, but still Sanchez was considered to be the top catching prospect the draft.  Then, in 2013, the team used one of their first round picks on prep catcher Reese McGuire, who was also projected as the top catcher in his draft class.  Neither developed to come close to that upside.

Other than those two, the team has not really invested much into their catching prospect depth.  They draft players every year, but they have not really acquired a high upside catcher.  According to MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 Pittsburgh Pirates prospects list, there is not one catching prospect in the system that is worthy of top 30 distinction.

With the Pittsburgh Pirates needing a solid second catching option for 2020, they need to look to acquire that this offseason.  However, they have done patch work behind the dish for several years now, the Bucs need to figure out a way to bring in an upside catching prospect as well.

The last thing the team is missing is a premier prospect.  Through the early Huntington years the team always had that one prospect to get really excited about, whether that was Starling Marte, Gregory Polanco, Jameson Taillon, or Gerrit Cole.  They were not only top only top prospects in the Pittsburgh Pirates system, but also in baseball.  In fact, they were not viewed as just top prospects but also as potential franchise corner stones.

The team currently does not have that prospect that seems like the future star.  Mitch Keller and Ke’Bryan Hayes are highly touted, but both had tough years last year that showed they are not in the elite category.  Keller improved and he has the stuff to be a front of the rotation type arm, but he also looked overmatched at the big league level.  Meanwhile, Hayes looks like a defensive third baseman with what remains a projectable bat.

It is hard to find and acquire elite prospect talent, more and more teams are becoming less willing to trade them.  Also to blame is the previous regime.  The elite prospects they did have, Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow, they sold low on and watched them flourish elsewhere. Furthermore, former General Manager Neal Huntington aimed for quantity of quality in a lot of his trades.  Many fans were underwhelmed with the return they got for Gerrit Cole as the Pirates did not receive one of their top prospect.

This team needs that future prospect who people are excited about.  With Starling Marte potentially being on the trading block, he is likely their best chip to bring in a top prospect.  With a new front office coming in, they likely will look to trade away aging veterans on expiring or close to expiring contracts.

The Pittsburgh Pirates always seem like they are entering a crucial offseason.  However, this one is especially crucial.  The team is going to through a big time change and likely will have a very different looking roster by the start of next year.  Whether the team is better or worse remains to be seen based on the moves they will make.

One thing is for certain, the Pittsburgh Pirates need to bring in as much talent as possible.  That seems obvious, teams should always look to bring in talent, but the Bucs farm system is not what it once was or needs to be.  If a new General Manager wants to last longer than a couple of years, they are going to have to bring in more talent into the minor league system.

The team does not need to completely start over.  They have plenty of young talent on the roster in Josh Bell, Bryan Reynolds, Kevin Newman, Mitch Keller, and others. The team needs to find more players and prospects that will fit into the time frame of competing going forward.  If they can pull of a couple deals and build up their young pitching, as well as get a future stud player, then the new front office will put the franchise in a better position for success going forward.