The Pittsburgh Pirates begin a new era in 2020 after the unceremonious end to the age of Huntington, Searage and Hurdle. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, and the organization will carry over it’s penny-pinching ways in 2020 and beyond. Despite the lack of funds available to new GM Ben Cherington, I am optimistic that the fresh faces will be able to change the fates of several Pirates prospects for the better. Gone are the days of pitching to contact, chasing high floors in the first round, avoiding risky athletes with potentially high ceilings, and squandering the potential of seemingly every prospect we have only to see them blossom after they are shipped off to other more developmentally adroit organizations.<\/p>\n
Notable graduations from last year’s list that were largely successful start and end with Bryan Reynolds and Kevin Newman. Reynolds continued his career long streak of never hitting under .300 at any level and gave the Pirates<\/a> 3.2 WAR despite having to play out of position in a cavernous center field. Newman showed a solid, if unspectacular, level of production on both sides of the ball and never looked overmatched at the plate, posting a K% of just 11.7%. Newman gave the Pirate faithful something to dream on in 2020 by sending Steve Blass into retirement with this walk-off winner.<\/a> If Cherington and Co. can simply graduate two players a year with a combined 5 WAR they might just be able to right the boat. Feel free to ask me questions about these prospects or really anything related to Pirates baseball @CavghtLooking.<\/a> Now let us dive into the 2020 list!<\/p>\n