For years, the identity of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ farm system was simple: pitching, pitching, and more pitching.
It was the era of Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, and Mitch Keller before them — wave after wave of arms designed to stabilize a franchise that historically struggled to develop frontline pitching. The Pirates invested heavily in pitching infrastructure, analytics, and draft capital to make that happen.
But MLB Pipeline’s latest re-ranking of the Pirates’ Top 30 prospects quietly revealed something far more interesting. The Pirates’ farm system is starting to change — and the shift is unmistakable.