Pirates' Seth Hernandez pick looks even better after fellow draftee's brutal start

When the Pittsburgh Pirates selected right-handed prep pitcher Seth Hernandez with the sixth overall pick in this year’s draft, some questioned the choice. Sure, Hernandez is uber-talented, but the Pirates already have a deep pitching staff. Some at the time wanted the Pirates to chase offense and take Aiva Arquette, who was the top college position player on the board. However, Arquette’s slow start has made us even happier that the Pirates chose Hernandez, a potential generational talent.

Arquette’s performance at Oregon State definitely merited one of the top draft picks. He slashed .354/.461/.654 with a .481 wOBA and 153 wRC+ over 310 plate appearances. Arquette hit 19 home runs while putting up an isolated slugging percentage just below .300 at .299. The young infielder also walked in 12.6% of his trips to the dish, with a 16.5% strikeout percentage.

Both MLB Pipeline (No. 6) and Baseball America (No. 5) had Arquette among their top ten draft prospects. Both outlets had similar sentiments about Arquette’s game as well. Coming out of college, he was seen as a power-over-hit infielder. He struggled with strikeouts early in his college career at the University of Washington before transferring to Oregon. Arquette spent his 2025 college season at shortstop, where he easily has the arm strength to stick. However, his fringy speed left questions about his range at a middle infield position, so moving to third base was not out of the question.

When the Pirates were on the clock, they ended up going with Hernandez instead of Arquette, who ended up with the Miami Marlins with the seventh pick of the draft. Hernandez was ranked even higher than Arquette. Pipeline had him as the third-best member of the draft class, while BA was even more bullish, placing him at No. 2 behind just Ethan Holliday. His upper-90s four-seam fastball and plus secondaries give him the ceiling of an ace starting pitcher. While Hernandez hasn’t made it into a pro game yet, Arquette has, and he hasn’t exactly hit the ground running.

Pirates draft target Aiva Arquette has started professional career poorly

It has only been 70 plate appearances, but Arquette is batting .237/.343/.339, alongside a .331 wOBA and 102 wRC+ for the Marlins’ High-A affiliate. He has walked at a 14.3% pace, but strikeouts have returned to the table for Arquette. His K% is sitting at 24.3%, as the issue has been once again exposed during his transition to pro ball. Another issue is that he only has a single home run with a .102 isolated slugging percentage.

Many clamored for the Pirates to take Arquette with their first selection (including me). It is also a small sample size from Arquette of less than 100 plate appearances. But if the Pirates took Arquette, and he put up league-average numbers at High-A with a mediocre strikeout rate, you’d already be hearing Pirates fans groaning about the pick, even in a small sample size. Pirates fans are (rightfully) frustrated about the organization and its direction, and their first-round pick not getting off to a solid start would likely only add to that frustration. Hopefully for Arquette, this sluggish start is a byproduct of still getting used to pro pitching, and he can prove this is all just growing pains. Still, Pirates fans should be plenty happy to have Seth Hernandez on board.