After the trade deadline, MLB Pipeline re-ranked their list of the top farm systems and the Pittsburgh Pirates now have the fourth best system. During the preseason, the Pirates ranked eighth overall.
MLB Pipeline had six Pirates in their top 100 rankings last week. That helped them rank high on this list, though it brings up one of the issues with the list. Jameson Taillon is four innings away from graduating from the list. You would hope he reaches that mark over the weekend. That would knock the 28th ranked prospect off the list, someone who they didn’t include in their preseason top 100 list.
So you could say that they were probably a little low on the Pirates preseason, but the timing of this article has them higher up on the list than they would be if it was released 4-5 days from now. Either way, they are one of the top farm systems according to MLB Pipeline.
They will remain high over the off-season as well, as it looks like Taillon could be the only player graduating this year. Adam Frazier might as well (it will be close), and possibly another starter like Chad Kuhl, since he has 19.1 Major League innings, and just pitched well over six shutout innings on Monday night in Indianapolis. The two players to be named later in the Ivan Nova shouldn’t affect their rankings, since they really don’t take depth into account as much as top end talent.
