Pittsburgh Pirates: MLB Pipeline Reveals Pirates Farm System Ranking

Earlier this week, MLB Pipeline revealed their top 10 farm system list. The Pittsburgh Pirates made this list for the first time since 2017!

After many conversations throughout the last two weeks, I slowly figured out as to why the Pittsburgh Pirates top 30 prospects list from MLB Pipeline was released later than the rest of the NL Central opponents. The reason why was they were ranked in the top 10 farm systems according to MLB Pipeline!

It has been quite a while since Pirates fans have heard this news, and to be honest, this is quite refreshing to see. Before I reveal where the Pirates fell in the top 10 list, I want to take a moment and just marvel at the job GM Ben Cherington, and assistant GM Steve Sanders have done in such a small amount of time here.

You can look at the track record of Cherrington and just see what he can do. Take the Red Sox, for example; sure, they spend big-time dollars, but they had a plethora of homegrown talent come up through their system. Do you remember when Toronto was kind of stuck in a tough AL East division? I do, and with the help of guys like Cherington and Sanders, the Blue Jays are now big-time contenders in that division.

Rome wasn’t built overnight, and yeah, I know 2013-2015 seems like it will never happen again but trust me, just like the 76er’s “Trust the process.” I’m not asking you to have blind faith, but with the moves, Cherington has made, you should be leaning towards optimism than this constant negativity I see every day in the comments. Pump the brakes, sip your water, and believe.

Now that my little tangent is over, here is where the Pirates fell in the top 10 farm systems. According to MLB Pipeline, the Pirates are the 8th ranked farm system in baseball. They ranked higher than the Royals and the Diamondbacks. They fell just behind Ben Cherington’s former club, the Toronto Blue Jays, who are ranked 7th. The Pirates haven’t been ranked this high since 2017, according to MLB Pipeline.

Below is MLB Pipeline’s reasoning for the Pittsburgh Pirates ranking

"2020 midseason rank: 162020 preseason rank: 15Top 100 Prospects: Ke’Bryan Hayes (No. 9), Nick Gonzales (No. 43), Quinn Priester (No. 52), O’Neil Cruz (No. 64)Eleven of the players on Pittsburgh’s Top 30 Prospects list were acquired by trade, more than any other organization this year. But the top three on the list were all first-round picks of the Pirates. The system is ranked among MLB’s Top 10 for the first time since 2017."