What Does a Perfect MLB Draft Look Like for the Pirates?
What strategies could the Pirates use on draft day, and who should they target in the early rounds?
Heading into the 2026 MLB Draft, the vibe around the Pittsburgh Pirates is far different than at this point in past years. Currently sitting at 47-47, the Pirates are just five games out of an NL Wild Card spot, and with an active deadline, they have a real shot to make things interesting down the stretch.
With the Pirates being so close to competing in the big leagues, this year’s draft could be very important for them for multiple reasons.
Firstly, they will need to be active traders in the coming years, which means that players will be constantly leaving their farm system, and with the largest bonus pool in MLB history, this year’s draft class could be intriguing assets to use for trades in future seasons.
Going one step further, these players could also serve as more ammunition for the core that’s currently beginning to take shape in the big leagues, from Konnor Griffin to Paul Skenes. The Pirates could add a few legitimate players to the club in this draft if they play their cards right.
Due to the new CBA rules, the Pirates will be ineligible for a lottery pick next season, which makes No. 10 the earliest they’ll be able to select in 2027. This makes it even more important to nail this year’s draft, as the system will be working against the Pirates in the coming years.
With these things in mind, and the MLB draft mere days away, it’s only right that we preview what this class could look like for the Pirates. Let’s dive into some of the strategies they could use heading into draft day and a few of the players they should be targeting in the early rounds.
Key Positional Targets and Draft Strategy
When it comes to preparing for this year’s draft, the Pirates will need to approach things carefully. While they possess the largest bonus pool in MLB history, they cannot afford to be lackadaisical with their picks. Especially with the incredible talent at the top of this year’s class, the Pirates have a chance to make a selection that could have a significant impact on their major league roster — and soon.
With this club potentially so close to contention, the Pirates should be looking for two things above the rest: quick-moving college bats and toolsy high school prospects to spend some of their bonus pool on. Together, the right balance of these two things could set the Pirates up to make an impact on their roster as soon as possible without sacrificing their future.
The first of these two groups is pretty self-explanatory. Typically, college players tend to move more quickly through the minor leagues due to their experience playing high-level baseball for multiple years, especially as the best conferences in baseball continue to get better with time. These players tend to come with higher floors, and in the right instances, the ability to impact the big league club with little development time.
This year, the top of the class is the perfect example of this idea, as players such as Roch Cholowsky, Vahn Lackey, Drew Burress, Chris Hacopian, and more could all fall into this bucket. While it’s lofty to expect the first three of these players to be available with the Pirates’ first pick in the draft, this idea doesn’t have to be limited to the fifth pick.
If they can find the right player, we could be looking at the next big piece of what looks to be the club’s next window of contention.
The second leg of this approach is where things really get fun, as the Pirates have the chance to pull off some exciting prep picks, dishing out more money to players of this group than ever before. Not only do the right prep prospects come with higher ceilings than most college prospects in each draft, but they also present an opportunity for the Bucs to trust their strengths and develop yet another toolsy prep middle infielder.
Over the past few seasons, developing prep prospects has gone from a weakness to a major strength, as the Pirates have routinely hit on multiple picks of this nature. The most obvious is Konnor Griffin, who the Pirates took at pick No. 9 back in 2024 despite a litany of swing concerns, positional questions, and more.
However, the Pirates couldn’t have nailed this pick any better, as within the next year, Griffin became an athletic freak, climbing his way to Double-A as a teenager during his first full professional season, becoming the undisputed No. 1 prospect in the sport, and a potential generational player.
Oh, and then just a few mere months later, Griffin would go on to make his major league debut and sign a record-setting pre-arb deal shortly after.
While this may be their largest success while taking this route, the Pirates have had other prep position player success stories. For example, shortstop Wyatt Sanford has become a borderline top-100 prospect after being drafted out of high school in the second round back in 2024.
While these are the two main strategies I’d expect the Pirates to deploy during this year’s draft, they shouldn’t be afraid to take some other routes as well.
One of these pathways may be to take the best player available at fifth overall, which looks like it could be UCSB right-hander Jackson Flora. Despite seemingly developing endless arms in the Cherington era, the Pirates can always benefit from more, especially when they have a chance to land the best pitcher in the class for the second year in a row.
This topic serves as the perfect segue to the next strategy they could employ, which is to double down on their strengths and continue drafting talented arms. The Pirates have arguably become the gold standard for pitching development in MLB, and with plenty of talented arms on the board this year, Pittsburgh could find another diamond in the rough, even if these players serve no other purpose than trade bait in the coming years.
Ideal Early Draft Picks
After establishing some of the strategies that the Pirates could be looking to deploy during this year’s draft, we can now get into the fun part of this story and break down some of the players who make the most sense with each of these picks.
Even though we’re just days away from the draft, it’s still very unclear how the draft will play out, meaning all of these picks could either be slam dunks or incredibly wrong. Especially with this year’s class being regarded as the “wild west,” we’ll be lucky to nail even one pick. Either way, let’s dive into some candidates for the Pirates’ first five picks in this year’s class.
First Round (Pick 5): Jackson Flora, RHP, UCSB
In our final mock draft here at Just Baseball, we had the Pirates selecting UCSB right-hander Jackson Flora, fifth overall, and this is what seems to make the most sense leading up to draft day.
The concern for the Pirates is that the fifth overall pick will leave them just outside of being able to select one of the few true “blue-chip” prospects in the class, and there’s a good chance that Flora is the last remaining prospect of this type still on the board here.
There is no question about whether Flora is the top pitcher in this year’s class. He’s a lanky fireballer who possesses one of the strongest heaters in the class and good secondaries to pair with it. His four-seamer has touched 100 mph while averaging 17.5 inches of vertical break, making it a tough offering to square up.
On top of that, Flora spins two variations of a slider, one that has more gyro shape and one with more sweep. Both of these offerings generated extremely high whiff rates, with his gyro slider receiving swings and misses at a clip above 40%. Oh, and his sweeper averages nearly 18 inches of horizontal break, making it a truly disgusting pitch.
Flora rounds out his arsenal with a disgusting kick-change, with movement so strong that it feels like it should be a felony. During this college baseball season, Flora’s changeup received a mind-blowing whiff rate of over 49.5%, which speaks to how good this pitch is.
While arms may not be at the top of the Pirates’ wish list, if they have the chance to select the best pitcher in the draft, the opportunity may be too good to pass up. The league should be afraid if the best pitcher in the draft lands in Pittsburgh yet again, as the Pirates could be looking at a rotation headlined by Paul Skenes, Seth Hernandez, and Jackson Flora by 2028.
Competitive Balance Round A (Pick 34): Rocco Maniscalco, SS, Oxford High School
As it currently stands, it appears as though the 34th pick in the draft could be the most interesting for the Pirates, as this range has the potential to include multiple toolsy, fascinating prospects who could’ve been back-end first-rounders. If all goes to plan, selecting prep shortstop Rocco Maniscalco could be a dream scenario.
Maniscalco was one of the biggest risers throughout the combine process, as he showed off a well-rounded toolset despite being the youngest player in the entire class and one of the youngest draft-eligible players in MLB history. He carries an incredibly strong glove that will allow him to rack up 3.0 fWAR in his sleep, with most scouts willing to throw a plus or better label on his defense.
Offensively, Maniscalco is no slouch, either. His bat-to-ball skills are exciting from both sides of the plate, and the only real potential weakness in his swing is that his hands can sometimes get a little longer during the stride. Other than that, he’s as solid a prep hitter as you’ll find, making him even more intriguing as he grows into his frame.
He could be an over-slot pick here, but he’d be worth every penny. This is someone who could easily go within the true first round, and the Pirates would be lucky to land him here with this selection.
Second Round (Pick 44): Luke Williams, SS, Franklin Regional High School
Similarly to the 34th pick in the draft, the Pirates are in a great position in the second round, as they possess two picks in what could be a very strong range overall. This is due to the Pirates failing to sign right-hander Angel Cervantes away from his commitment to UCLA, and spending one of their second-round selections on shortstop Luke Williams seems like a great investment.
For starters, Williams is about as local a kid as you’ll find in the draft for the Pirates, as his high school is a measly 36-minute drive from PNC Park. He’s arguably the most talented all-around athlete in the entire draft, which is reflected in a lot of his combine tests. He scored near the top of the leaderboard in a lot of these tests, and this has resulted in him being a late riser since the combine.
Offensively, Williams possesses the ability to lift the baseball with regular frequency, and he’ll have no problem slugging home runs at the next level. He likely trends towards a power-over-hit profile ever so slightly, but if the hit tool begins to come around, he could be one of the sneakiest day-one picks in the class.
This will likely be another over-slot pick for the Pirates, but again, he’d be worth every single penny, and he’s the exact type of player the Pirates have excelled at developing in recent memory.
Second Round (Pick 51): Kaden Waechter, RHP, Tampa Jesuit High School
In virtually every draft during the Cherington era, the Pirates would have selected a prep pitcher by this point in the draft. This year, their first high school arm could come a little bit later than usual in the form of Kaden Waechter, a righty with a ton of projection at the next level.
When it comes to Waechter’s game, the main thing that stands out is his ability to spin the baseball like few other arms in the draft. His fastball has been clocked at over 2,700 rpm numerous times within the last calendar year, while also touching 97 mph in the process. There seems to be more velocity in the tank as well, which he’ll pair with pretty good command.
On top of this fastball, Waechter features a sharp slider that he commands well, and he can even throw this pitch a little harder sometimes, creating a pretty solid cutter when needed. His changeup misses bats, giving him an arm-side whiff-offering to pair with his heater and slider.
With mechanics that are reminiscent of Jared Jones, Waechter is the exact type of arm the Pirates love to work with.
Third Round (Pick 80): Gavin Grahovac, 1B/3B, Texas A&M
Dating back to his time as a high school prospect in California, I’ve preached about corner-infielder Gavin Grahovac as a good fit for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Although he ended up spending three years at Texas A&M instead of turning pro, the Pirates have a chance to land Grahovac in the third round of this year’s class.
When it comes to power threats in this year’s draft, few prospects have the type of power that Grahovac features. It’s his carrying tool, and for good reason, as he registered exit velocities as high as 115 mph this year while going deep 22 times. On top of that, he posted a hard-hit rate well over 60% and an average exit velocity above 95 mph.
While there are some swing-and-miss concerns in his profile, the power is worth betting on. His swing is smooth with a small move, and it’s one that should translate quite nicely to professional baseball, which is one of the reasons I’m less scared of the transition to professional baseball than most.
There’s the chance that Grahovac could potentially be a good under-slot candidate, and this is something the club will have to balance if they target prep players early in the draft. Regardless, he could be the true homegrown power threat this team has been waiting for over the past few seasons.
Final Thoughts
While the Pirates have repeatedly hit time and time again during recent draft classes, this year’s draft has a chance to be special and better than the rest. Not only do they have the largest bonus pool in MLB history, but their picks are also in ideal ranges that could allow them to find a nice balance of quick-rising college bats and high-potential prep prospects.
Despite being praised for the prospects at the very top of this year’s draft, this class is quite deep, and there are plenty of opportunities for the Pirates to win in the later rounds. Especially considering the caliber of arms who are available in rounds 4-10, the club may find itself selecting and developing even more high-potential pitchers yet again.
Whichever route the Pirates decide to take in this year’s class, it has a chance to be one of the most memorable groups in the franchise’s draft history, not just the Cherington era.
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Written by
Jay Staph, a huge baseball fan and stat nerd, founded and ran his own baseball writing website, BSBWrites, at just 16-years-old. With focal points around prospects,…