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Williams: The 2018 Season Will Be a Rebuilding Year on Many Levels For the Pirates

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This article originally appeared in the 2018 Prospect Guide, which is now available and includes reports on every prospect in the Pirates’ system. You can order your copy here.

Neal Huntington said this offseason that the Pirates aren’t using the word “rebuild” to describe their actions after trading Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen. He doesn’t want to use that term for the sole reason that the word implies that the team is five or so years from contending again. The Pirates believe they are closer than that.

If you remove the timeline implications of the word, and just focus on the pure definition, then it’s clear that the Pirates are definitely rebuilding. They’re rebuilding in more ways than one. They’re rebuilding a team at the majors that put up one of the best records in baseball from 2013-15, but that has fallen off since then. They’re rebuilding a farm system that was one of the best in baseball a few years ago, but has since graduated a lot of top prospects, and is now middle of the pack.

The 2018 season will be a rebuilding year for the Pirates on multiple levels. And the farm system is going to play a big role in that rebuild.

At the major league level, the Pirates have graduated a lot of top prospects in recent years, giving them a young team. They will be relying on guys like Jameson Taillon, Chad Kuhl, Trevor Williams, Josh Bell, Adam Frazier, and others who have made the jump to the big leagues in the last few years, not to mention recently acquired guys like Colin Moran and Joe Musgrove. The Pirates can’t solely get by with their farm system. They’re going to eventually need help from the outside. They do still have more help on the way from within.

Mitch Keller is the top prospect in the system, and the most likely player to provide an impact for the Pirates in the future. He could arrive in 2018, depending on how aggressive the Pirates want to get with his development in the upper levels. Keller should join Taillon at the top of the rotation, giving the Pirates a solid one-two punch.

The Pirates will soon need replacements at their middle infield spots. Fortunately, they have a wealth of middle infield prospects. Max Moroff has already made the jump to the majors, and is a potential starter at second base. Kevin Kramer is an alternate option, and will start the 2018 season with Indianapolis. Jordy Mercer has one more year under contract, but Kevin Newman is starting the year in Indianapolis, and Cole Tucker is right behind him.

Colin Moran will step in right away to fill the vacancy at third base, and Ke’Bryan Hayes is another option in the wings, starting the year in Altoona. They need an outfield replacement for Andrew McCutchen right now. They have Jordan Luplow as a short-term option, and Austin Meadows in the wings with more upside, assuming he can stay healthy enough to get close to that upside.

There are players who can help out in the upper levels of the minors, with a lot of those options set to arrive in 2018, and set to lay the foundation for the Pirates to compete again. There are some players in this group who could play big roles in that quest to contend. The Pirates will need to supplement that group with help from the outside, either through trades or by adding free agents, and they’ll need prospects to trade if that is going to happen.

The other rebuild in the system could help in that department. This farm system is very similar to the one the Pirates had in 2011-12. They didn’t have a lot of high-end prospects in the upper levels after graduating the few guys they did have in previous years. They did have a lot of high upside guys in the lower levels, with the chance for some breakout prospects. And that eventually led to them having a top farm system, and graduating many of the players who either helped them win in 2013-15, or who are key players on the current roster.

The current group has a lot of upside in the lower levels, with a lot of breakout potential. The Pirates went prep heavy in the 2017 draft, leading off with right-handed pitcher Shane Baz in the first round, and taking prep pitchers like Steven Jennings and Cody Bolton, and prep hitters like Cal Mitchell, Conner Uselton, and Mason Martin in the middle rounds. They went with a lot of prep pitchers the previous year, with some promising guys in Braeden Ogle, Max Kranick, and Travis MacGregor.

The Pirates have been increasing their efforts on the international side, signing a lot of players in each of the last two years, and starting to see another wave of international talent making it through the system. Lolo Sanchez had a bit of a breakout year in the GCL last year, and could emerge as a top 100 prospect by the end of the 2018 season. Sherten Apostel, Samuel Inoa, and Jean Eusebio lead a talented group of position players who will make the jump to the GCL, and who could repeat the success that Sanchez had last year.

Then there’s the trade front, where the Pirates have added some power hitters in recent deals. They traded Tony Watson for third baseman Oneil Cruz, who instantly has some of the best raw power in the system at the young age of 19. They got Jason Martin in the Gerrit Cole deal, giving them an outfielder with a lot of raw power at the Double-A level. They added Bryan Reynolds in the Andrew McCutchen trade, providing an outfielder who doesn’t have the same raw power as the previous two hitters, but does have a well-rounded bat.

Just like with the rebuild at the majors, the Pirates can’t settle for only the guys currently in the system. They will need to continue adding players, either via rebuilding trades, or through the draft and international signings. They have the tenth pick in the 2018 draft, and another large international bonus pool to work with, so they should be able to add to the lower-level prospects in a significant way.

The Pirates are rebuilding, and the 2018 season will be important for that rebuild. They need prospects at the top to arrive and help get them back to being contenders. They need prospects in the lower levels to step up and help elevate their farm system toward the top again, which will help them either with trades, or with more players who can help when they’re ready to contend again. That might just make the Pirates’ farm system the most important thing to watch during the 2018 season.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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