There's been a lot of speculation about the Pirates' draft strategy in the nine months since they clinched the top selection.

But with the scouting season all but completed, capped off by the first MLB draft combine ever this past week in Cary, N.C., Ben Cherington remains undecided about who Rob Manfred will call at No. 1 overall. But Cherington has at least seen that speculation and believes that what he's seen in things like mock drafts have closely resembled his thinking on the subject.

"There's a lot of good players at the top of this draft. And they're pretty tightly packed together," Cherington said on his weekly radio show on 93.7 The Fan. "And we're going to spend time here in the next couple of weeks trying to see if we can separate them. If we can dig in and get them get them in the right order. I think we've gotten a long way there already."

Based on the list of participants, it's very unlikely that Cherington learned anything new or even saw a potential candidate for No. 1 overall. But, he's stressed the importance of hitting on all 21 picks in this draft. And the combine was more of a final step before the scouting group gathers in the left-field lounge to build their draft war room.

"By this time, really all the information that you're going to have you already have," Cherington explained. "We're in a really strong place, thanks to the great work and hard work from a lot of people. And now we get in the room together and dig into it."

When Cherington was asked if he'd whittled down the number of players being focused on with the top pick, he admitted that he's finally down to single digits. Alex Stumpf has been able to report that high school shortstops Marcelo Mayer, Jordan Lawlar and Kahlil Watson and University of Louisville catcher Henry Davis are all on the Pirates' radar heading into the draft. That's already a longer list than in plenty of other years.

The draft will mark the first event of the All-Star break the night of July 11 in Denver. The Pirates will also have picks Nos. 37, 64 and 72 and the largest draft bonus pool at $14,394,000.

MORE FROM CHERINGTON

• With the promotion of Max Kranick for his MLB debut Sunday, Cherington also admitted that the Pirates will attempt to work with a six-man rotation in the 15 games -- without a day off -- leading into the All-Star break.

"We're still working through what those six looks like," Cherington said. "We'll figure that out between now and the All-Star break."

Kranick seems like he's already earned another turn in the rotation. But the Pirates have been able to see how a six-man starting staff works in Indianapolis. He explained that the main difference is that with a six-man rotation, a pitcher can have two side sessions between starts instead of just one.

• As he discussed last week, there were plenty of events for the scouting leadership to evaluate at the combine, but Cherington took in a day at the USA Baseball complex himself. While he was able to watch some workouts on and on-field events, Cherington talked about having an opportunity to mingle with some of the other general managers in attendance while conversing with players.

Despite all those decision-makers being in the same room for the first time in a while, the event did not turn into a Winter Meetings Lite. The wheeling and dealing still starts with a phone call.

"We did not distract ourselves with trade talk," Cherington said. "But there have been plenty of phone calls. And we expect that those will continue."

• It's been a tough road for Shelby Miller since his All-Star season in 2015. He's had a 7.15 ERA in three organizations since but will be getting another shot with the Pirates. Cherington said that the plan is to build Miller back up to a starter for Class AAA Indianapolis.

The general manager took note of a few changes Miller had made to his pitch mix, particularly with his slider. Couple that with his major-league experience, and he became an attractive candidate to the organization.

Mitch Keller will continue to extend his outings for Indianapolis into a full starter's workload. His first two appearances since being optioned three weeks ago came out of the bullpen, but he threw 40 pitches in a piggy back start on Friday. Cherington expects that Keller will continue to add more reps and pitches to his workload moving forward, and he seems pleased with the way this entire project has gone overall.

"He's really encouraged with just where he is. His frame of mind has been very positive. He's working really hard, think he has good intentions about what he's trying to do," Cherington said. "As I said, threw a ton of strikes in his last outing, which is encouraging. So, we look forward to seeing that continue."

Keller has allowed four runs, two earned, on five hits and three walks with seven strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings since returning to the minors.

• A lot has been made of the importance of minor leaguers already in the system to the club's rebuild.

Beyond that, the Pirates are voluntarily doing something that should be standard practice across baseball: Paying players for their labor.

Cherington said that the Pirates' prospects who did not break camp with a full-season squad are still receiving salaries, confirming a report by Advocates for Minor Leaguers, which describes its own mission as, "providing a voice for Minor League players and improving working conditions."

The Pirates are one of only 11 organizations, and one of only four in the National League, to continue to pay players that stayed in extended spring training. 

"We had plenty of other people pushing for it. And we had a very quickly, supportive audience to say yes, this is something we should do. So yeah, this is the right thing to do," Cherington said. "There really is an effort to improve the experience for minor-league players. Is it perfect? No, I don't think it's supposed to be. Maybe there's still something about, some value in the struggle. Some value in learning how to deal with some adversity and fight through things. But we needed to make it better. We are making it better. Being a minor-league player should be a great experience."

These players are basically the ones that will open the year in the Gulf Coast and Dominican Summer Leagues -- of that's still what they're called when they begin next week. Cherington also confirmed that the Pirates will field two teams in the GCL.

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