Ben Cherington views the upcoming MLB draft as a "critically important" event for the Pirates, who will make the No. 9 selection when the first round begins July 14. Over the last three years, they've selected Henry Davis, Termarr Johnson and Paul Skenes with top-five selections.
Cherington said the entire scouting department, including new amateur scouting director Justin Horowitz and vice president of scouting Joe DelliCarri, assembled in Pittsburgh for the first day of meetings Saturday.
"It will be an exciting week," Cherington said during his pregame press conference. "There's good players there. Of course we want to get more than one good player. Get as many as we possibly can. We'll be hard at work for the next week."
Cherington acknowledges the depth in the college position player class this year, but he believes there's good players in all of the demographics. Right now, Cherington said a primary emphasis has been placed on getting a list of players -- whether they're available at No. 9 or not -- in the right order to better prepare for when the time comes to make their first-round selection. That board was constructed in advance of Saturday's first meeting.
"The scouting input is still the most important input. It's the biggest input with this demographic of players. Players that are further away, amateur players. It's still the scouts' input that's the biggest driver of where players end up on a list. It's not the only one. We have other inputs, also, and we have to make sure that we're weighing all of those appropriately," Cherington said. "So, there's a lot of people that are smarter than me that have better math skills than I do that are doing all that work, helping us try to root out bias, try to get really precise on what's been predictive, what has been less predictive in the past, etc., so that when we get into today and we look at the list, it's pretty close. And then it's just a matter of stress-testing it for next week.
"We've got a lot of people with lots of different expertise pouring into that right now to help us be in a position to get more big leaguers. I think the college position group, generally, is an area of depth, but again, we don't know who's going to be there when we pick. Not just at nine, but in subsequent rounds. We've just gotta get the order in a good spot."
As for that ninth pick, the Pirates shouldn't be expected to draft based on organizational need, despite there being a lack of outfield and first-base prospects in the system. The goal is to choose the best player and best talent available.
"Get as much talent as we possibly can. Over time, of course, if there's areas in the organization that we need more of, then we've got to keep that in mind, but not specific to a draft or a deadline or an offseason, but more in the aggregate," Cherington said. "We can keep that in mind if there are areas that we may just not have as much of. I always felt like the draft, it's hard enough to begin with, to do that well, to find the right players. Layering any need thing on top of it, it's taking something that's already hard and making it harder, and we want to avoid that. The group will be focused on let's get the most talent we can with the picks we have."
Cherington acknowledges that the MLB draft is different than those held in other professional sports. In the time that it typically takes a player to get to the big leagues, so much can happen. Meanwhile, in other leagues such as the NFL and NBA, players are drafted and instantaneously expected to make an impact at the highest level.
"Even if we're right that we have a need today, who knows if that's the case three months from now, let alone three years from now?" Cherington said "So, we want to try to stick to the best player available when it comes to the draft."
As the Pirates prepare their draft strategies and construct their order of available players throughout the next week, they're not just focused on the first-round selection. Making wise decisions in every round is just as important.
“It’s critical, period. We have to be good at it and we have to be good at the development piece, too," Cherington said. "We have to be totally committed to keep getting better at both of those things forever. We’re certainly not satisfied. There are things we need to be better at. We know that. We just have to focus on keep getting better. The draft is one thing. We’ll keep doing that."
MORE FROM THE GM
• Cherington said he doesn't think there's been much of a change in the trade market recently. He's still staying on the phones with teams and will continue to do so in an effort to potentially improve the major-league roster.
"I haven't sensed any sort of real movement in the market, so to speak. Doesn't mean it can't happen at any time, it's hard to predict when something shifts," Cherington said. "We're going to stay at it. Nothing's changed, but as I've said, we want to try to find ways to help the Pirates get better between now and end of July. The draft is a really critical event, so we want to make sure we're focused on that and compartmentalize a bit. We'll keep working on the other piece of it. Tends to happen as we get a little bit deeper into this week and get closer to the draft. Most teams do hit pause a little bit and really focus on the draft for three or four days, and then it'll shift back again. So, we'll see. Not saying that'll absolutely happen, but that tends to happen."
• Cherington has talked a lot about needing to see internal improvements for the team to be successful moving forward. He said there have been signs of that, but consistency in maintaining those trend lines matters.
“It’s not every day, but over the course of a 10-game span, or three-week span of seeing those trend lines moving in a positive direction. That’s what needs to happen," he said. "I still believe that there are players on this team that, not only are capable of it, but are going to have better second halves than first halves. I believe that. But, talk is cheap, we’ve got to go do it. I know our group is focused on that just as we’re focused on continuing to work as hard as we can to find a way to make the roster deeper also.”
• Cherington on the club's willingness to engage in trade conversations surrounding its own major-league talent: “We just want to get better, so I think we’ve got to be open-minded about how to do that. Certainly there are the more traditional trades when you’re trying to add, with prospects for major leaguers, but there are lots of examples of teams trading major-league players for major-league players in a way that maybe helps two teams at the same time. That’s a totally good outcome also. It would just be speculation at this point, but I don’t think we can be close-minded. Believe in the group, believe we need to keep finding ways to get better.”
• Cherington on whether Jared Jones' injury will change how the team plans to manage his workload: “No, not specifically. I think it’s going to take some time because he’s on a no-throw and, as a pitcher, when you’re on a no-throw when you get back, you have to build back up again. The math is going to take some time. To some extent, total volume and questions we had for the year, this might get taken care of by itself. The goal is to get him back where he’s safe, healthy, effective and back in the rotation. We’re confident that’s going to happen in 2024, but it’s going to get there and it’s going to take a little bit of time.”
