Pirates' new scouting director faces a draft challenge Pittsburgh hasn't had to worry about in years

For years, the Pittsburgh Pirates have enjoyed one significant advantage when it comes to building their future: premium positioning in the MLB Draft.

That luxury is about to disappear, and the man now responsible for navigating the transition couldn't be stepping into his new role at a more consequential time.

The Pirates have promoted Justin Newman to director of amateur scouting, filling the vacancy left when Justin Horowitz departed for the Washington Nationals last October. Newman, who has been with Pittsburgh since 2017, previously served as the organization's director of player analysis and has extensive experience in the amateur scouting process.

He inherits a scouting department that has assembled an impressive collection of young talent. But he'll also inherit a challenge the Pirates haven't had to confront in years: finding franchise-changing players without the benefit of selecting near the very top of the draft.

Pirates' recent draft success makes Justin Newman's next challenge even more important

Consider the Pirates' recent first-round selections. They landed Paul Skenes with the No. 1 overall pick in 2023, Konnor Griffin at No. 9 in 2024, Seth Hernandez at No. 6 in 2025 and Derek Curiel at No. 5 in 2026.

That's an extraordinary stretch of draft positioning, and Pittsburgh has taken advantage by bringing some of baseball's most exciting young talents into its organization. But those opportunities have also been a direct consequence of the franchise's prolonged struggles at the major league level.

The Pirates have essentially been rewarded for losing, and now they'll have to prove they can build a winner without relying on those rewards. Under MLB's draft lottery rules, teams receiving revenue-sharing payments cannot receive lottery selections in three consecutive years. Because Pittsburgh received lottery picks in both 2025 and 2026, the Pirates are ineligible to select higher than 10th overall in 2027.

Selecting Skenes first overall required recognizing an extraordinary talent and committing to him. Finding another pitcher with his potential outside the top 10, however, would require identifying something other organizations overlooked.

The same principle applies to Griffin, Hernandez and Curiel. Their selections certainly weren't automatic, and Pittsburgh deserves credit for its evaluations. But having access to that caliber of prospect year after year is a luxury most competitive organizations don't enjoy.

Newman's challenge is making sure Pittsburgh's scouting success doesn't disappear along with its premium draft positioning. Fortunately, though, the Pirates already have examples of what that approach can accomplish.

Jared Jones was a second-round selection in 2020, while Bubba Chandler lasted until the third round in 2021. Braxton Ashcraft was another second-round pick, back in 2018. Those selections demonstrate that Pittsburgh is capable of finding impact pitching talent beyond the first round. Now it needs to apply that same effectiveness more consistently across the organization, particularly when evaluating position players.

And with the Pirates coming off their first winning season since 2018, the stakes are only getting higher. Pittsburgh can't afford to treat the 2027 draft as an unfortunate consolation prize simply because its first selection won't come among the first six picks.

The franchise has spent years accumulating high-end prospects. Turning that collection into a sustainable contender will require finding affordable contributors throughout the draft, rather than depending on another miserable season to deliver the next superstar.

Ultimately, Newman's success won't be measured by whether he can identify the obvious elite talent sitting at the top of a draft board. It will be measured by whether he can consistently discover difference-makers when the Pirates no longer have first access to them. That's the kind of scouting operation Pittsburgh needs if it ever intends to make winning sustainable.

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