For a team in the Pirates’ position, still in need of plenty of talent to eventually compete, the next month is as important as they come.
First, from July 17-19, will come the MLB Draft. The Pirates have said on multiple occasions their farm system is going to have to be the lifeblood of the organization. And in terms of future hopes, that appears to be true.
As ranked by MLB Pipeline, four of the team’s top eight prospects and each of their top two were drafted in the last two seasons (No. 1 Nick Gonzales, No. 2 Henry Davis, No. 7 Anthony Solometo and No. 8 Bubba Chandler). With the fourth overall pick in this year’s draft, the Pirates will surely add another name to that list.
And so, if the Pirates are relying on those prospects to fuel their next successful team, it’s certainly important for them to make the correct pick — not someone who will just look good on prospect rankings in the short term but someone who will develop into a valuable MLB player down the road.
The Pirates haven’t yet locked in to organize their draft board yet, general manager Ben Cherington said, but they do have a decent idea of who will be available and who the Pirates covet.
“We literally haven't gotten in the room yet formally. That'll happen starting on Thursday, [July 7],” Cherington said Saturday. “The board is ranked virtually through the course of the spring, and it goes live where we get in the room, and we'll have a lot of work to do to fine-tune it. But we've got a decent idea of who's at the top of the board. It’s probably (fewer) than 10 names, but it's certainly more than four. So we'll look forward to diving into it.”
Cherington wasn’t willing to say if the Pirates were targeting any type of player at this point, which should come as no surprise. He also didn’t want to say the Pirates had concluded this 2022 draft class has a particular strength, though he did say, based on different publicly available mock drafts and analyses he’s read, there seem to be a bevy of high-school position players expected to be taken early in the first round.
“We’ll take the best player available and then with another eye on how do we get the most talent out of the draft,” Cherington said. “We don't have a particular demographic that we’re focusing on.”
Exactly two weeks after the draft finishes on July 19, the trade deadline comes around on Aug. 2. Deals can and will be made around the league before that date.
Trades are the other main way the Pirates have refueled their farm system. Among those same top eight prospects, three of them — No. 3 Oneil Cruz, No. 5 Liover Peguero and No. 6 Endy Rodriguez — were acquired in trades.
On the other hand, the Pirates may not have the same sort of trade capital they’ve had in years past. When Cherington arrived, he dealt outfielder Starling Marte. He’s then traded away starters Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon, first baseman Josh Bell and second baseman Adam Frazier.
There aren’t that many obvious, home-run trade candidates now. Center fielder Bryan Reynolds and late-inning reliever David Bednar would surely net the Pirates the largest trade haul, but at a certain point, the Pirates will have to question whether that return warrants giving away a 2021 all-star in Reynolds and a potential 2022 all-star in Bednar.
But Cherington understands more than anything the current on-field product is not good enough to compete. So, as he’s maintained often in his tenure, the Pirates’ phone will remain on.
“We've still got a lot of work to do, a lot of improvements to make to be the team we want to be,” Cherington said. “That means we’ve got to stay open-minded and not get cornered into any particular position because there are all kinds of deals that can help you get better quickly. It's about execution and finding the right ones. Small deals that might involve a a younger player for a younger player can help you sometimes. There’s all kinds of deals that can help. It’s more about good execution.”
What exactly any of this means remains to be seen. No general manager is going to outright say who they will draft or who they are looking to trade. People will take educated guesses, but until the time comes, those predictions remain predictions.
Cherington understands the gravity of this time of year, though. Beginning last season, MLB moved the draft back a month, stacking it right on top of the trade deadline. That means within the span of a couple of weeks, the Pirates will make several important decisions that impact the next few years for the organization.
“It's an important month,” Cherington said. “The draft and the deadline are opportunities for us to get better, get closer to winning more games faster, so we’ve got to execute well on both. It's a busy month, a lot going on, but it's fun.”
Mike Persak: mpersak@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDPersak
First Published: July 2, 2022, 8:00 p.m.