Grading the last 10 Pirates’ first-round draft picks

2015: Kevin Newman, C+

Kevin Newman was the Pirates' first-rounder in 2015, and he had a decent few years with the Pirates. His best season was his rookie year in 2019. He batted .308 with 12 home runs and an OPS of .800. Much later, during the 2022 offseason after a number of middling campaigns, the Pirates sent him to Cincinnati in exchange for Dauri Moreta, who was great for the Pirates in 2023, but suffered a torn UCL during spring training this year.

Newman is still in the major leagues with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He has an fWAR of 1.0 through 67 games, so he is still a fairly productive player. He finished his Pirates career with a .260 batting average with 20 home runs and 143 runs batted in. He also had an OPS of .660, which included an on-base percentage of .305 and a slugging percentage of .355.

That's a C+ effort. Despite being powerless, he was productive in Pittsburgh and generated a solid reliever in Moreta.

2014: Cole Tucker, D-

Cole Tucker was the Pirates' first-rounder in 2014, and he has not had a very successful major league career. He played for the Pirates at various points from 2019 through 2022 before eventually being designated for assignment. He did not play many games in each of his seasons, typically serving as a "cup of coffee" guy. He is still in the league, toiling in the Angels' farm system.

With the Pirates, Tucker had a batting average of .211 with five home runs and 40 runs batted in. He also had an OPS of .582, which included an on-base percentage of .266 and a slugging percentage of .316.

He is graded a D- since he has not had a great career with the Pirates, but still had moments of being productive with the team.