Baseball America released their 2018 Organizational Talent Rankings on Monday morning. All 30 MLB teams are ranked by the strength of their farm system. The list also includes their previous five rankings, so you can see how each organization has been rated over the years.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are ranked 16th overall by BA. That is one spot below where Keith Law ranked them last week. The difference between the two lists is that Law had four Pirates in his top 100 and Kevin Newman just outside of the top 100, while BA had just Mitch Keller and Austin Meadows in their top 100.
BA had the Pirates seventh overall going into last year, but they have lost highly ranked prospects in Josh Bell and Tyler Glasnow since then to the majors. BA had also been high on Steven Brault in the past (ranked him seventh in their mid-season update), and he lost his prospect status. This is the lowest ranking for the Pirates by BA since 2011 when they were ranked 19th best.
On the 2018 list, the Pirates rank fourth in the NL Central, with the Cincinnati Reds leading the way in ninth place and the Chicago Cubs bringing up the rear in 28th. The Pirates are ninth overall among all NL teams. They were also fourth in the divisions and ninth in the league for Law.