Players You Probably Didn’t Know the Pittsburgh Pirates Drafted

The Pittsburgh Pirates have drafted hundreds of players in the franchise’s history. But you probably didn’t know they selected these players at one point.

The MLB Draft is where most teams acquire their top minor league talents. While the Pittsburgh Pirates have had a handful of misses over the years, such as in the 2011 draft which had the potential to be one of the best in MLB history but did not come to fruition, or the 2009 draft that, well, flat out sucked. All in all, they’ve drafted many players over the years. Some of these players are ones you probably did not even know were a player in the Pirates organization at some point.

So, today, let’s walk down the list of Pittsburgh Pirates draft picks that stand out when you look back at their draft history. Some of these players never even played for the Pirates at the Major League level. In fact, some of them never even signed with the club. Meanwhile, some blossomed later in their careers, but with other teams.

With all of that said, let’s dive into our list of players you probably did not know were drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

INF/OF/DH Jose Bautista

Long time Toronto Blue Jays slugger and MVP candidate, Jose Bautista, was once a middling corner infielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates. That you likely remember. What you may not remember is the Bucs drafting Bautista.

Bautista was taken in the 20th round of the 2000 draft. Bautista had one, very convoluted rookie season. Bautista made the Majors in 2004 at the age of 23, but not with the Pirates. He made it to the MLB level with the Baltimore Orioles who had selected him from the Pirates in the Rule 5 Draft the previous off season.

Bautista didn’t last long in Baltimore, playing just 16 games with the O’s, and was selected off waivers by the Tampa Bay Rays on June 3rd. Bautista lasted only 12 games and 28 days in Florida when the Kansas City Royals purchased his contract off of the Rays.

In Kansas, Bautista didn’t make it much longer than he did with the Devil Rays. On July 30th, he was shipped to the New York Mets for Justin Huber. Bautista never even got a chance to suit up for the Mets, as only hours later he was traded back to the Pittsburgh Pirates with Matt Peterson and Ty Wiggington for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger.

In the span of one week, Bautista was part of four different Major League Baseball organizations, and played at least one game for three of them. He is also the only player to play with five different organizations in one season.

Joey Bats finally got regular playing time in 2006 and 2007, but the numbers he put up weren’t pretty, especially in the field. He batted just .246/.337/.416, which resulted in a 96 OPS+. Defensively, he was a mess, being responsible for -10 defensive runs saved and a -13.8 UZR in the outfield in 2006 and -18 DRS and a -8.9 UZR at third base in 2007. Overall, he had a -3.5 defensive WAR.

After putting up similar numbers half way through the 2008 season, he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for Robinzon Diaz, and we all know how well that turned out. Bautista broke out in 2010, cranking 54 home runs, the most in baseball by a fair margin, and posted a strong line consisting of a .260 batting average, .378 OBP and .617 slugging percentage. He finished the year with a 164 OPS+. Bautista would continue his reign over pitchers through 2016. From 2010-2016, Bautista hit .264/.387/.524 with a 151 OPS+. No other player had more home runs than him in this time stretch with 249, and his 16% walk rate was the 2nd best in baseball. Among outfielders, his 152 wRC+ is only eclipsed by arguably the best player baseball has ever seen, Mike Trout.

Pitcher Chris Young

In the same draft as Bautista, the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted right handed pitcher Chris Young. Selected in the 3rd round out of Princeton University, the lanky starter never appeared in a Major League game for the Bucs. Instead, he was traded to the Montreal Expos in the 2002-2003 off-season with minor leaguer Jon Searles for Matt Herges.

The Expos also would never get to see Young pitch in the majors for them as he was sent to the Texas Rangers with Josh McKinley for Justin Echols and Einar Diaz. Young finally made it to the Majors in 2004, and was given a rotation job in 2005 where he posted a 4.26 ERA, 3.80 FIP, and a 1.26 WHIP in 164.2 innings. But Young was traded yet again. This time in a very lopsided trade that got the Padres not just Young, but also slugging first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

In his first season in San Diego, Young pitched to the tune of a 3.46 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP in 179.1 innings, but saw his FIP increase to 4.60. This was because of a spike in home runs. On average, he gave up 1.4 HR/9 in 2006 compared to just 1.0 in 2005. However, he did lead the league in hits/9 at 6.7.

Young had his best season in 2007 when he threw 173 innings of 3.12 ERA, 3.43 FIP, and 1.09 WHIP. Chris had cut down his home run rate by nearly triple, down to just 0.5 per 9, and increased his strikeout rate to 8.7 per 9, both being career bests. For the second straight year in a row, he led the league in hits/9 at 6.1.

After 2007, Young did not play all that much, mainly due to injuries. He tossed just 337 innings across 60 games from 2008 to 2012, and missed all of 2013. However, he did come back during the 2014 season, but struggled.

Despite his 3.65 ERA and 1.23 WHIP with the Seattle Mariners, Young had a 5.02 FIP, 6.95 DRA(!), 5.23 SIERA, and gave up 26 home runs in 165 innings of work. He posted a K/BB ratio of just 1.8, which was his lowest mark in at least 100 innings.

The following season, the World Series Champion Kansas City Royals used Young as a swingman, as he started 18 of his 34 games played. He posted better results with a 3.05 ERA, 4.52 FIP, and 5.15 SIERA, but still far from someone you would want to rely on. However, he was solid in the team’s post season run for the Wold Series trophy. His over performance finally caught up to him in his final two MLB seasons when his ERA and FIP skyrocketed to 6.52 in both 2016 and 2017. However, his DRA and xFIP remained very similar to his 2014-2015 levels.

Catcher Jeff Banister

Jeff Banister is best known for his role as the Pittsburgh Pirates bench coach from mid-2010 to 2014. As well as for being the Texas Rangers’ manager from 2015 to 2018. In his time with the Rangers, he won the 2015 AL Manager of the Year. However, at one point, the now special assistant in baseball operations for the Pirates was once drafted by the organization.

Banister was drafted in the 25th round of the 1986 MLB Draft. Banister made his way through the minors as a light hitting catcher/first baseman. He has a career minor league OPS of only .665 in 1,781 plate appearances. But, despite this, Banister played in the Majors. He has all of one game to his name.

In 1991 at the age of 27, Banister managed to get one plate appearance on July 23rd against the Atlanta Braves. With the Pirates leading 10 to 3, Banister pinch hit for former Pirates’ ace Doug Drabek. Banister managed a single in the bottom of the 8th. At the very least he can say that he has a career 1.000 batting average. Obviously, this is something that very few players, at any level of baseball, can say.

Shortstop Trea Turner

If you read my “2011 Pittsburgh Pirates Draft had the Potential to be the Best in Franchise History” article, then you’ll know that the Pittsburgh Pirates had drafted World Series winning shortstop Trea Turner in the 20th round of that draft. However, it’s still a fairly unknown fact that the Bucs once tried to get the talented middle infielder.

The Pirates were unable to sign Turner, and he was re-drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 1st round of the 2014 draft. Despite being the team’s 1st round pick, and posting very good numbers at the Low-A level for the Friars, Turner was a player to be named later in a complicated three team trade involving the Padres, Washington Nationals and Tampa Bay Rays on December 19th, 2014 where Turner was sent to the Nats on June 14th, 2015. What made it so complicated is that Turner was ineligible for trade. Regardless, Turner was sent to the Nation’s capital, and has become a top 10 shortstop in the MLB.

In his 2016 rookie season, Turner mainly played center field. However, the temporary position change did not have an impact on his offensive output, not one bit. In 324 plate appearances, the speedy infielder batted for a strong .342/.370/.567 line, including 13 long balls, and 33 stolen bases. He had a 146 wRC+ and 142 OPS+. His wRC+ led all rookies with at least 300 plate appearances. Although he had sub-par defense in the outfield (-2 DRS, -3.9 UZR, 0.3 range runs), he was a middle infielder by trade.

Moving back to shortstop, Turner saw a downturn in offensive production. Through 2017 and 2018, Trea batted just .276/.342/.429 with 89 stolen bases and 30 home runs across 1,187 plate appearances. Overall, he had an OPS+ of 100, putting him at league average. However he did see his defense go in the right direction at shortstop with +3 DRS, 2.5 range runs, and a 2.2 UZR.

In 2019, he returned to being high-level production with the bat, posting a slash line of .298/.353/.497 with 19 home runs and 35 stolen bases. His 117 wRC+ ranked 6th among players with at least 100 games played at shortstop in 2019. But in an odd turn of events, his defense saw a massive down turn. Turner had -1 DRS, -7 UZR, and -5.5 range runs.