The Pirates have already signed 24 players from their 2018 draft class, and more are definitely on the way.
They have at least five more players coming, with five players remaining in the top ten rounds of the draft. The hardest guys to sign — the prep pitchers with their second and third picks — have already indicated they will be signing.
Then there are the guys after the tenth round. There are two college seniors still left unsigned, plus plenty of prep players and college juniors. We’ve heard that at least two of those prep players have agreed to deals, and it sounds like the Pirates are just waiting to get everyone in the top ten rounds officially signed before making things official after the top ten rounds.
Add all of that up and you’ve got at least 33 players signing from this draft, with the chance to get up closer to 35 if a few more guys sign.
Then let’s look at the international side of things. The Pirates added over 70 players in the last international signing period, and they have a similar budget this year. They can start signing players on July 2nd, with any players signed being eligible to start playing next year. They added a seven-figure guy in Ji-Hwan Bae this past year, and it remains to be seen if they will make a similar signing this year, or if they’ll make a few bigger signings. But I think you can expect a large amount of smaller signings — maybe not 70 players, but enough to make an impact.
The last signing group led to the return of a second Dominican Summer League team. The Pirates previously had two international rookie league teams for years, then dropped their second DSL team to add a rookie league team in Bristol. They brought back the second DSL team this year due to the large amount of players they signed, all while keeping Bristol around.
This all raises a question: Where will all of the new players play?
I don’t think the draft picks will have an issue fitting into the system. Many of them are going to be in Morgantown, Bristol, and the GCL, with a few roster spots remaining on those teams. But what happens next year?
The Pirates added two teams worth of players on the international side last year, in addition to the guys already in the system. That led to a second team, which means next year there will be two teams funneling players to the US.
If they’re held back, they will be competing for spots with the players from the upcoming signing period.
And the guys who move up will be competing for spots with probably another 30+ draft picks next year.
Something eventually has to give here, and it’s probably going to lead to more minor league teams next year. That’s not based on any inside knowledge. It’s just based on sheer numbers.
The upcoming international class will easily add enough players to fill one team, and will probably approach two teams worth of players again. Some of the players in the DSL will move up, and some will be released. But if the Pirates don’t move enough players to the US, then they’ll probably need a third team to get playing time for all of the new guys.
If they do move a lot of players up, then they might need a second GCL team or another short-season team to handle all of the existing players, plus the addition of basically a new team moving up from the DSL, plus next year’s draft class.
Even if they don’t add another state-side team next year, they’re probably going to have to add an additional DSL team to handle all of the new players, which means eventually there would be enough players funneled up that they would need an additional US team to handle things.
This wouldn’t be a bad approach. More teams equals more chances for younger prospects to develop, and guys in those younger age ranges can develop in a big way over a short amount of time. There’s also no limit, as far as I know, to how many teams you can have in your system, as long as you’re willing to pay for the additional teams.
Eventually the Pirates would have to narrow the system. You can only have 25 players on the full-season rosters, and while they could eventually add a second A-ball team, there would be a limit to how long this process could continue. At some point the team would need to make decisions on players, since players usually reach a point where they’re not going to see huge changes in their development, and will start to see their future roles become more concrete.
The Pirates could narrow the system in other ways, specifically through trades. Having extra lower level teams funneling talent to the upper levels would make it more likely that they could find replacements for top prospects who are traded away, or more likely that they would develop top prospects in the lower levels who could be expendable. It’s difficult for small market teams to part with top prospects since those players are also needed at the MLB level. But if you add more prospects in the system, you get to a point where some of those prospects become expendable without hurting you in the short-term or long-term.
Will all of this happen with the Pirates? I don’t know for sure right now. What I do know is that last year’s draft and international class led to a new team in the system, and if they keep adding young players at this pace, it will only increase the number of lower level teams they have.
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pittsburgh Pirates lost 8-6 to the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday. They will now play the Milwaukee Brewers for three games at PNC Park. The Pirates will send Trevor Williams to the mound for his fifth start. He allowed eight runs, three earned, over three innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks in his last start. The Brewers scheduled starter is right-hander Jhoulys Chacin, who has a 3.32 ERA in 81.1 innings, with 64 strikeouts and a 1.24 WHIP. He gave up one run over six innings against the Pirates on May 5th.
The minor league schedule includes a lot of nothing. Indianapolis, Altoona and West Virginia all have off today. Bradenton returns from their All-Star break, while West Virginia is now on their break. Morgantown plays, though just like Bradenton, no starters has been announced yet. The GCL starts today as well, plus two DSL games of course. So we have five games, but no starting pitchers to announce. (updated below)
MLB: Pittsburgh (35-36) vs Brewers (42-29) 7:05 PM
Probable starter: Trevor Williams (4.38 ERA, 51:26 SO/BB, 74.0 IP)
AAA: Indianapolis (36-31) vs Norfolk (36-30) 7:05 PM 6/19 (season preview)
Probable starter: Clay Holmes (3.66 ERA, 63:30 SO/BB, 59.0 IP)
AA: Altoona (34-29) @ Richmond (34-32) 6:35 PM 6/19 (season preview)
Probable starter: Mitch Keller (3.25 ERA, 66:29 SO/BB, 72.0 IP)
High-A: Bradenton (33-29) vs Clearwater (31-34) 6:30 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Mike Wallace (5.25 ERA, 31:5 SO/BB, 36.0 IP)
Low-A: West Virginia (37-29) @ Hickory (30-38) 7:05 PM 6/21 (season preview)
Probable starter: TBD (0.00 ERA, 0.0 SO/BB, 0.0 IP)
Short-Season A: Morgantown (0-3) @ Batavia (1-2) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Michael Flynn (0.00 ERA, 0:0 SO/BB, 0.0 IP)
GCL: Pirates (0-0) vs Blue Jays 12:00 PM (season preview)
DSL: Pirates1 (6-7) vs Dodgers Guerrero 10:30 AM (season preview)
DSL: Pirates2 (4-9) vs Tigers2 10:30 AM (season preview)
HIGHLIGHTS
From Saturday night, Will Craig hits his tenth home run of the season. None of the four homers he hit recently have been cheap ones and this one clears the left field bleachers
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
6/16: Tyler Eppler placed on Temporary Inactive List.
6/15: Jung Ho Kang assigned to Indianapolis.
6/15: Pirates sign Travis Swaggerty
6/14: Pirates release Luis Cadet and Jess Amedee.
6/14: Pirates sign Antonio Gonzalez.
6/13: Pirates sign Enrique Santana, Bladimir Susana and Domingo Gonzalez.
6/13: Pirates sign nine draft picks.
6/13: Oddy Nunez activated from the disabled list. Jess Amedee assigned to Bristol.
6/12: Jerrick Suiter placed on Indianapolis disabled list.
6/12: Pirates sign three draft picks.
6/12: Enny Romero assigned to Bradenton on rehab
6/11: Pirates sign seven draft picks.
6/11: Jung Ho Kang assigned to Indianapolis on rehab.
6/10: Ivan Nova activated from the DL. Nick Kingham optioned to Indianapolis.
6/10: Jacob Stallings recalled from Indianapolis. Adam Frazier optioned to Indianapolis.
6/9: Jackson Williams added to Indianapolis roster.
6/8: Richard Rodriguez placed on disabled list. Pirates recall Dovydas Neverauskas.
6/8: Mason Martin assigned to Bristol. Jesse Medrano assigned to West Virginia.
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
Three former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, plus one trade of note. We start with the transaction, which has a couple of ironic nicknames. On this date in 1908, the Pirates sent pitchers Tom McCarthy and Harley Young to the Boston Doves for pitcher Irv Young. The Pirates got seven starts and nine relief appearances in 1908 from Irv Young, who posted a 2.01 ERA. The two Youngs were part of an unfortunate trend back in the day, which gave players with the same last name, the same nickname. Irv was known as Cy the Second, while Harley became known as Cy the Third. Irv went 63-95 in his career, while Harley went 0-3. It’s safe to say, neither lived up to that Cy Young comparison.
As for the players born on this date, we have Ron Necciai, a pitcher for the 1952 Pirates. He had a promising career derailed by injuries. In the minors in 1952, he pitched 42.2 innings over four starts and two relief appearances. He struck out 109 batters. That’s not a misprint.
Newt Halliday, first baseman for the Pirates on August 19, 1916. He was a late-innings defensive replacement, who struck out in his only at-bat. The 20-year-old Halliday joined the Navy the next year and contracted tuberculosis, which he succumbed to in 1918, making him one of the youngest MLB players ever to pass away.
Ben Shaw, 1B/C for the 1917-18 Pirates. His career was cut short just like the other two, but his reason was a salary dispute. Shaw didn’t sign his contract in 1919 and instead played outlaw baseball, which got his banned from the majors until 1925, which effectively ended his big league career.
