Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Goals For 2021

Keep adding young talent

Cherington was hired as general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates in November 2019. Since being hired Cherington has done an excellent job adding young talent to the Pirate farm system. In fact, in Cherington’s first year on the job the Pirates are among the top five teams in baseball in terms of talent added to their farm system.

These additions started last February when Cherington traded center fielder Starling Marte to the Arizona Diamondbacks. In return for Marte, the Pittsburgh Pirates received shortstop Liover Peguero and pitcher Brennan Malone. Both Peguero and Maone are now top 10 prospects in the Pirate farm system and Peguero, who has a very high ceiling, is a top 100 prospect.

The Pittsburgh Pirates then had an excellent draft. They added high end talents in infielder Nick Gonzales, pitcher Carmen Moldzinski, and pitchers Jared Jones and Nick Garcia, among others. Now, the Pirates have a great opportunity with the 2021 draft to keep adding talent to their farm system. They can also continue to add to their young talent pool if, or more likely when, they trade Joe Musgrove and Adam Frazier.

Over the course of the next two seasons the Pirates should see a lot of their top prospects start to graduate, joining players such as Ke’Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds as part of the team’s new young core. In 2023, many of their young, highly touted pitching prospects should start to graduate. As the Pirates continue to build toward their next window of competing, it is vital to continue to add young talent to the organization in 2021.