Pittsburgh Pirates: Rule 5 Selections Among Top 30 Prospects

Both pitchers that the Pittsburgh Pirates added during Thursday’s Rule 5 Draft find themselves among the team’s top 30 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline

Thursday afternoon was a busy one for general manager Ben Cherington and the Pittsburgh Pirates. On the final day of MLB’s Winter Meetings, Cherington added a total of five players to the Pirate organization via the Rule 5 Draft.

These five players included two players who were added in the Major League portion of the draft. Both of these players are hard throwing right-handed pitchers. Those two players are Jose Soriano and Luis Oviedo.

Soriano came to the Pittsburgh Pirates from the Los Angeles Angels. The Bucs selected him with the top pick in the Rule 5 Draft. As for Oviedo, he was drafted by the New York Mets out of the Cleveland Indians organization. The Pirates then acquired Oviedo from the Mets in exchange for cash considerations.

Adding Soriano and Oviedo to the organization continued a theme that started shortly after Cherington was hired as general manager – adding high end pitching talent to the farm system. According to MLB Pipeline, both Soriano and Oviedo rank among the organization’s top 30 prospects. Oviedo ranks as the organization’s 20th best prospect and Soria is 21st.

As we said above, this continues Cherington’s trend of bringing high end pitching talent into the organization. Six of the top 21 prospects in the Pirate system, according to MLB Pipeline, are players Cherington has added since being hired.

In addition to Soriano and Oviedo, Brennan Malone, who the team added in the Starling Marte trade, checks in as their 7th best prospect. 2020 draft pick Carmen Mlodzinski is 8th, and fellow 2020 draft picks Jared Jones (13th) and Nick garcia (17th) are also in this group.

One of the best ways to rebuild a farm system is by adding high end pitching talent. This is something Cherington has done since coming to Pittsburgh, and continues to do. This is just one of the many reasons fans should be optimistic about the direciton in which Cherington is taking the organization.