Pittsburgh Pirates: Potential Future Good Problem

The Pittsburgh Pirates have accumulated a lot of highly touted and talented young arms, this could cause a good problem in the future

The Pittsburgh Pirates have brought in a wealth of talent this offseason. Between just their trades of Josh Bell, Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon alone, they brought in 11 prospects. Not to mention international signings such as Shalin Polanco and having the first overall pick in this summer’s draft.

This is all adding to a farm system that already had a notable amount of talent. With so many young and upcoming players, there is a problem the Pittsburgh Pirates could face in the next few years. But this isn’t a bad problem to have. It’s one that many general managers probably wish they had. That good problem is an overabundance of good, young and talented starting pitching.

When the Pittsburgh Pirates entered the 2020 season, they had notable young arms like Mitch Keller, Quinn Priester, Brennan Malone, Tahnaj Thomas and Cody Bolton in the organization. All five are very talented arms and could easily be part of the long term picture. Not to mention JT Brubaker who was solid in 2020. Then at the draft, Ben Cherington picked up a handful more pitching prospects.

Carmen Mlodzinski was picked with the 31st overall pick in the draft. Then in the second round, they picked up high school arm Jared Jones. In the third round, they selected right-hander Nick Garcia who pitched well both as a closer and starter in college. Jack Hartman was picked in the 4th round, but is a reliever, however the 5th round pick was Logan Hofmann, another college starter who had ended his college career with 28 straight innings without allowing a single earned run.

That added four more potential starting pitching prospects to the organization. Three of them ended up in the Pirates top 25 prospects list on FanGraphs by the end of 2020 and top 25 by MLB Pipeline even after all the trades.

Speaking of all the trades, six of the Pirates’ 11 prospect acquisitions were for starting pitching prospects. Of the six, Miguel Yajure is the best. Recently, Yajure was ranked as the 116th best prospect in baseball by FanGraphs’ new list. He was part of the Taillon trade. Another part of the Taillon trade was right-hander Roasny Contreras who ranks as the team’s 19th best prospect per Pipeline.

Then there’s Eddy Yean. Yean was the headliner of the Josh Bell trade and ranks as the Pirates’ 8th best prospect according to MLB Pipeline. The other part of the Bell trade, Wil Crowe, is another prospect who Pipeline ranks in their top 30.

The Musgrove trade brought back two more starting pitching prospects. Left-hander Omar Cruz has so far been excellent throughout the minors despite only projecting as a back of the rotation arm. Drake Fellows was the San Diego Padres’ sixth-round pick out of Vanderbilt in 2019. Notably, he ranked as the 152nd best draft prospect available by MLB Pipeline despite being picked with the 163rd pick.

One major story that developed this off season is how good Quinn Priester was at instructionals. While Priester was seen as one of the best arms in the 2019 draft, his overall stock seems to have skyrocketed as of recently. Some evaluators think that he could be one of, if not the best pitching prospect in all of baseball in the next year or so.

Let’s also not forget about the 2021 draft. Three of the best players available are pitchers. Vanderbilt aces Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter are arguably the best players going into the draft. Louisiana State University’s ace Jaden Hill is another potential name the Pirates look into. This draft will likely end up with the Pirates adding yet another pitcher with ace-potential to the farm system.

It’s better to have an overabundance of talented pitchers than it is to have a shortage of good pitching. I’ve previously talked about the importance of having back of the rotation starting pitching. Simply put, you can’t have a blackhole in your number four or five spots. It’s also important to have an overabundance as not every single prospect is going to pan out. Some may end up in the bullpen too. It may also give the Pirates pieces to use in trades to reinforce other areas of their roster that need help.