3 Pittsburgh Pirates prospects the team can't afford to screw up

If the Pittsburgh Pirates want to have any chance of being good next year, most of their improvement has to come from their prospects excelling. They haven't had much of a problem with their pitching, but their bats have been severely lacking, with many of their young position players struggling once they reach the Major Leagues. Nick Gonzales is about the only one not to have completely failed in his first test in the bigs.

Regardless, the Pirates can't continue this trend of prospects falling well short of their expectations, especially some of their best names. There is virtually no room for error for them to fail these three top prospects.

3 Pirates top prospects who can't afford to fail

Rafael Flores

The one player the Pirates acquired at the 2025 MLB trade deadline that could have an opportunity to help the team in 2026 is Rafael Flores. He was the headliner of the David Bednar swap. The Pirates seem to be putting a lot of faith in Flores helping their lineup in 2026, so they need to figure him out and make him a productive Major League bat by next season.

Flores opened 2025 at the New York Yankees' Double-A affiliate. He put up some strong numbers, slashing .287/.346/.496 with 15 homers throughout 370 plate appearances. The downside was that he struck out 25.4% of the time with an unimpressive 8.1% walk rate. Despite that, he still put up a quality .379 wOBA and 146 wRC+. Overall, he was one of the best hitters at Double-A, ranking in the top 10 in slugging percentage, isolated slugging, wOBA, and wRC+.

Flores was then promoted to the Yankees' Triple-A team, but only appeared in 10 games before the trade deadline. So far, Flores has 10 plate appearances for Indianapolis. He has had a good first impression, with three hits, including two doubles, along with three walks and a pair of strikeouts. Hopefully, he can continue to hit like that over a larger sample size and into the Major Leagues.

Ben Cherington has a lot riding on Flores next year. They cannot afford to fail developing his bat if they want any chance of having a solid lineup in 2026. He has the potential to be a 20-home run catcher/first base type. That is the sort of power the Pirates need in their lineup right now. Given that he is one of the Pirates' most MLB-ready position players, the Pirates need to get him prepared for the big leagues next year.

Konnor Griffin

It might seem impossible for the Pirates to mess up Konnor Griffin, who isthe number one prospect in baseball. But if there was a sports team that was Murphy's Law incarnate, where anything that could go wrong will go wrong, it is the Pirates. Completely whiffing on his talent would be one of the biggest prospect busts in baseball history.

Griffin is hitting exceptionally well this season, with a .330/.408/.517 triple-slash across 405 plate appearances between Bradenton and Greensboro. His 8.6% walk rate is solid, as is his 21.5% strikeout percentage. Griffin has 13 home runs on the year with a .188 isolated slugging percentage, and has been highly effective on the basepaths. He has gone 50-for-59 in stolen base attempts. Overall, he has a .431 wOBA and 159 wRC+.

Griffin is one of the minor league's best hitters. He is one of just a dozen batters with at least a .300/.400/.500 triple-slash in 300+ plate appearances. Of those 12, he is the youngest. Griffin ranks eighth in wRC+ as well. He, along with New York Mets top prospect A.J. Ewing, are the only two minor leaguers with at least 50 stolen bases and a wRC+ of 150 or better this season.

The only knock on Griffin is his batted ball profile. He hits line drives at a high rate of 27.3%, but has a sub-30% flyball rate. He does pull the ball nearly 45% of the time, and definitely has the raw power to go yard anywhere, but Griffin does have an unsustainable .404 batting average on balls in play. Only 18 minor leaguers have put up a .400 BABIP in 400+ plate appearances, many of whom struggled.

That's the only red flag in Griffin's game, though. Only three number one prospects, per Baseball America's prospect rankings, have not gone on to make an All-Star game representing their original team over the last 20 years (not including 2024's Jackson Holliday or 2025's Roki Sasaki). They are Jurickson Profar (2013, Texas Ranger), Daisuke Matsuzaka (2007, Boston Red Sox, but was a professional international signee), and Delmon Young (2006, Tampa Bay Rays). Not figuring Griffin out wouldn't just be bad, but would rank as an utter travesty for the Pirates. Griffin is the highest-ranked Pirates prospect of all time, and messing that up would be historic for all the wrong reasons.

Bubba Chandler

Not only do the Pirates have the number one prospect in baseball, but they also have the game's number one pitching prospect in Bubba Chandler. The talented right-hander has had some bumps in the road this year, but he's been good more often than not. 

Chandler owns a 3.58 ERA, 3.85 FIP, and 1.36 WHIP through 88 innings on the year. Getting strikeouts has been no problem for him. He has a 27.9% strikeout percentage with a whiff rate of 31.2%. Chandler also has a 0.72 HR/9 ratio, with a respectable 6.8% barrel rate and 88.1 MPH exit velocity. While Chandler has seen an uptick in walks, to an 11.8% BB%, that shouldn't be a huge surprise. This was his first extended look at Triple-A, where they use the automated ball-strike system. 

There is no question about Chandler's stuff. He sits in the upper-90s with his four-seam fastball, topping out at 101.7 MPH this season. The rest of his repertoire consists of a curveball, slider, and changeup. According to Baseball America, Chandler has a 70-grade fastball, 60-grade changeup, 55-grade slider, and a 45-grade curveball. At just 22, and given his high ceiling and athleticism, it's not out of the question all four of his offerings could be average or better when it's all said and done.

The Pirates traded Bailey Falter and are going to be without Jared Jones for a good portion of the 2026 season due to Tommy John surgery in May. Johan Oviedo is just now returning to a Major League mound after his own Tommy John procedure. Still, they have a very good chance of having a formidable rotation in Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, Bubba Chandler, Mike Burrows, and some mix of Oviedo and fellow prospect Hunter Barco.

However, that picture becomes much blurrier if they can't get Chandler to rein in his control at the Major League level.