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Ben Cherington, center, talks next to team president Travis Williams and team president Bob Nutting Monday, Nov. 18, 2019, at PNC Park.
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Steve Sanders joining Pirates from Blue Jays

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Steve Sanders joining Pirates from Blue Jays

When Ben Cherington was hired as Pirates general manager, he said one of his biggest challenges involved acquiring more talent, whether that was via trade, free agency or the draft.

While the player part of that will take some time, Cherington made his first bold step toward that end by luring Steve Sanders to Pittsburgh from Toronto.

Sanders, formerly the Blue Jays’ director of amateur scouting, will assume an assistant general manager position on Cherington’s staff, the Pirates announced on Tuesday.

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Cherington and Sanders, 31, worked together with the Boston Red Sox, who gave Sanders his first full-time job in Major League Baseball. It’s unclear how the positions under Cherington will be structured along with fellow assistant GM Kevan Graves.

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“Steve has significant experience in amateur and international scouting from his time with the Red Sox and Blue Jays,” Cherington said in a statement. “He has a deep commitment to continuous improvement in process and decision making and, as importantly, to his own professional growth and that of the people he works with.

“Kevan Graves, Steve and I have various experiences and perspectives on the game and decision making, and we share a commitment to getting better every day, to helping people and to the Pirates. Kevan, Steve and I will collaborate across all aspects of baseball operations.”

Sanders had been in his current role for the past three years. One of the biggest things Sanders did was, along with Cherington, help the Blue Jays replenish their farm system through the draft.

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Entering Tuesday, four of Toronto’s top 10 prospects according to MLB Pipeline were Sanders picks. MLB.com’s Jim Callis rated Toronto’s farm system as the fifth-best in baseball after the 2019 draft.

Sanders is seen as a rising star inside the industry, given his first shot by the Cherington-led Red Sox in 2011. After an internship with Boston’s advance scouting department, Sanders was hired for good that year.

That followed internships for Sanders with the Los Angeles Dodgers and for Major League Baseball at the Arizona Fall League. Sanders was promoted to Boston’s international scouting coordinator in 2014 and to assistant amateur scouting director in 2015.

The Blue Jays hired Sanders in 2016, and he’s quickly made an impression on many of his peers.

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According to Baseball America, Toronto’s farm system has gone from 24th in 2016 to sixth in Baseball America’s most recent rankings.

First Published: December 2, 2019, 11:03 p.m.

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