Here's why Pirates fans' frustration with first-round pick in 2025 MLB Draft is overblown

Selecting Seth Hernandez with the sixth overall pick was an absolutely bold strategy by the Pittsburgh Pirates' draft team, and it has raised some frustration amongst the fanbase. Pitching depth is the organization's clear strength, while the offense lags behind at all levels, justifying the frustration. Despite taking another high upside arm, here is why Hernandez may have been the right choice.

Hernandez is a freak athlete at 19 years old, coming in at 6'4" and 190 pounds. He's got a lot of room to grow, yet he already gets his fastball up to triple digits. It sits around 97-98, reaching 100 at times. MLB Pipeline had him rated as the third-best prospect in the draft, along with grading his fastball a 70 on a 20-80 scale.

While his fastball is an excellent pitch for him, he also brings three other above-average pitches to go with it. MLB Pipeline noted his changeup as his second-best pitch, as it misses lots of bats, tunneling off of his fastball with similar movement and a drop in speed. Both the change and his 12-6 curveball are graded 60 on the scouting scale. His fourth pitch is a slider that is graded a 55 and is a bit of a newer pitch for him.

Here is why Pirates fans can trust the Seth Hernandez selection more in the MLB Draft.

Putting it into perspective, 50 is the average on that scale, and all of his pitches are above average. Hernandez has better overall grades on his pitches than top Pirates pitching prospect Bubba Chandler. While Chandler's fastball was graded the same at 70, his changeup of 55 and curveball of 50 are both graded lower than what Hernandez has in his bag. Chandler has the better slider, but overall Hernandez has a better graded arsenal. Chandler also has 50-graded control, while Hernandez checks in at 55.

In various aspects, Hernandez appears to have more upside than Chandler through MLB Pipeline's grades, and might become the Pirates' top pitching prospect. Although he won't be directly impacting this historically bad offense, he is still joining Pittsburgh's incredible pitching lab, opening the door for so many more opportunities.

Adding to that deep pitching pipeline gives Ben Cherington so much more capital to deal from when working on trades intended to acquire offensive upgrades. Last trade deadline, they dealt Quinn Priester for Nick Yorke, and even though Yorke has barely impacted Pittsburgh, he is rated one of the top offensive prospects in the organization and could bring his upside to the big leagues once he is ready.

This could happen once again now that Hernandez is in Pittsburgh. Maybe it's Thomas Harrington or any other pitching prospect, but somehow, someway, Cherington could really use these pitchers to land a controllable major leaguer, similar to what he did last offseason for Spencer Horwitz. Now, that move may not be paying off just yet, but that was the right idea, and another trade from a similar mold should happen soon.

There is a lot to like about this pick, even while it doesn't exactly help the offensive hole in this organization. Hernandez is one of the best prospects in the entire draft with elite stuff, and now Cherington has more room to add the big league roster in the offensive department. Obviously, he has to prove that he can do that. This pick gives him the cards in his deck to help finalize his process.