Best performers from Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2024 draft class (besides Konnor Griffin)

The Pittsburgh Pirates took Konnor Griffin ninth overall in the 2024 draft, and he put up outstanding numbers during the 2025 season, going from A-Ball Bradenton to Double-A Altoona by the end of the season. That has led Griffin to become the consensus number one prospect in baseball. However, he isn’t the only Pirates draft pick from their 2024 class who impressed with their performance on the diamond this past season. A handful of their other picks also did well in their first extended look in pro baseball.

Don't forget these 3 Pirates 2024 draft picks also stood out in 2025.

Duce Gourson

Duce Gourson was the Pirates’ ninth-round pick in the 2024 class. Coming out of UCLA, Gourson displayed a patient approach at the plate. During his final college season, the young infielder slashed .288/.427/.489 in 241 plate appearances. He struck out 23.7% of the time and drew walks at an impressive 15.8% rate. That approach has since translated into pro ball. 

Gourson tallied 392 plate appearances between High-A Greensboro and Double-A Altoona in 2025, slashing .275/.370/.439 with a .377 wOBA and 135 wRC+. He was a very efficient base stealer, going 31-for-34 in stolen base attempts. His 22.7% strikeout rate may not be outstanding, but his 10.7% walk rate certainly is. On top of all that, he also displayed some solid pop, going yard 10 times with an isolated slugging percentage of .164. Gourson was one of only 16 minor league players with 300+ plate appearances, an OBP of at least .350, and 30+ steals who was caught five or fewer times. His baserunning was so good he earned the Pirates' Omar Moreno Baserunner of the Year award.

Most of Gourson’s innings in the field came at third base. However, he also took the field at second base and first base. Gourson is an interesting name to watch moving forward, given his ability to get on base and use it to his advantage. His performance at Double-A has been very promising thus far. Gourson will be 23 for nearly the entire 2026 season, so if he performs well between Altoona and Indianapolis next year, we may see him in the major leagues.

Connor Wietgrefe

Wietgrefe fits the mold of pitchers Ben Cherington likes: a soft-tossing lefty with good command. The Bucs took him with their seventh-round pick out of the University of Minnesota. During his final year there, he pitched 78 innings, working to the tune of a 2.77 ERA, 7.6% walk rate, and 21.5% K%. He excelled at limiting long balls, only allowing one home run.

Wietgrefe is the best-performing pitcher from the Pirates’ 2024 class (excluding Josh Hartle, who was traded to the Cleveland Guardians last offseason). He tossed a total of 116 innings between three levels of the minor leagues, though nearly all of them came at High-A Greensboro. Overall, he had a quality 3.10 ERA, 3.81 FIP, and 1.00 WHIP. The left-hander’s 22.2% strikeout rate and 1.01 HR/9 were solid, albeit not fantastic, but his 5.5% BB% was the 16th lowest among all minor league hurlers who started at least 20 games (Wietgrefe made 26 total starts).

Like Griffin, Wietgrefe started the year at Bradenton, but finished out his season at Altoona. He only appeared in a single game at Double-A, but it was a good first impression, as he allowed only one earned run, no walks, and struck out four batters over five innings.He was exceptional during the second half, with a 1.76 ERA, 21.6% K%, and 3.6% walk rate after the All-Star break. The southpaw turns 24 during the first week of June. He’s yet another arm in the Pirates’ system worth watching in 2026.

Will Taylor

For a Pirates system that is scarce on outfield talent, Will Taylor performing well was a nice revelation. Taylor was their fourth-round selection out of Clemson, and he performed well (when he was healthy enough to take the field). He had only 145 plate appearances in his final year with the Tigers, but hit .230/.465/.480. Taylor walked (33 BBs) more often than he struck out (26 Ks) while going yard seven times. His numbers would likely have been better with a larger sample size, given how unlucky he was in the BABIP department, which came in at .239.

Taylor’s first full season in black and gold saw him hit .262/.373/.458 with a .393 wOBA and 138 wRC+ over 398 plate appearances. Taylor continued to show off both above-average power output and an ability to draw plenty of walks, with 14 home runs, a .196 ISO, and a 12.3% walk rate. The most significant negative to his 2025 campaign was his strikeout rate. Taylor went down with a K just over a quarter of the time, with a 26.6% K%.

Overall, Taylor was one of the best performers among all the Pirates’ minor leaguers. He had the fifth-best wRC+, wOBA, and OPS, along with the fourth-best ISO, edging out Griffin by just two percentage points (min. 300 PAs). He even had the 33rd-best wRC+ among all minor league outfielders with at least 350 trips to the plate. The Pirates need young outfielders badly, and Taylor performing like this between Bradenton and Greensboro in his age-22 season is definitely a step in the right direction.