Pirates lose their most prized coaching asset to NL West contender

The biggest strength the Pirates have had with Ben Cherington as general manager has been their pitching development. They have turned so many prospects into valuable assets, building one of the top pitching staffs in baseball and trading a handful of them for offensive pieces. A good deal of the credit goes to the director of pitching development, Jeremy Bleich.

Bleich has been a big voice in determining how Pittsburgh manages their pitching, but now they have lost his influence. According to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Bleich has taken a job in Arizona as their assistant general manager.

Losing him hurts the organization significantly. He is certainly a key reason why this pitching staff has reached its current heights, and without him, the pitching prospect turnout may look a little different. Bleich wasn't always in this role, either. He was a part of the major league coaching staff before becoming the assistant director of pitching development in 2024. Then, in 2025, he was put in charge of the whole process. Regardless of where he stood, his respected analytical approach gave him a lot of sway in the organization.

Pirates lose director of pitching development Jeremy Bleich, who might've been their biggest strength.

This is now the second director the Pirates have lost to an assistant general manager role elsewhere this offseason. Justin Horowitz, the director of amateur scouting who helped target Konnor Griffin, landed a job with the Nationals. Pittsburgh recently decided to put one of their assistant general managers, Kevan Graves, in charge of the amateur scouting.

Drafting and pitching, the two areas in which the Pirates have really thrived these past few years, will be entering new eras. The Pirates went internal with their new head of amateur scouting, and it's possible they do that with pitching development, too. Dewey Robinson is a current special advisor in the pitching development department, so he is a possible candidate to get promoted.

If the Pirates want to maintain one of the only positives they have created over these last few years, they have to find a serious candidate to take over this position. Bleich was a big time voice in this organization, and the Diamondbacks saw that and took him away. Pittsburgh must replace him, or the deep pitching lab they've created could quickly change for the worse.