The Pittsburgh Pirates are in a rebuilding phase, but there’s reason to be excited about the future.
Baseball America ranked the Pirates’ farm system second-best in baseball in their midseason rankings. The system trails only the Milwaukee Brewers’ farm, which features six top-100 prospects on Baseball America’s list.
The Pirates have four top-100 prospects: Konnor Griffin, Seth Hernandez, Bubba Chandler and Edward Florentino. Chandler is set to debut in the coming days, while the other three are a bit further from major league action.
Baseball America lists pitching as a strength for Pittsburgh, while hitting is a weakness. Griffin and Florentino should become everyday players, but there aren’t a lot of surefire bets after that.
The current Pirates’ roster also features more pitching than hitting. If the team can’t develop hitting, they might look to trade from their surplus of pitching. If the organization can continue to develop pitching as they did with 11th-round pick Mike Burrows, they’ll be able to afford swapping pitching for more established hitting.
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