MLB Pipeline ranks Pittsburgh Pirates farm system as 8th-best

The Pittsburgh Pirates continue to have a strong farm system, even as several top prospects are nearly ready to break through to the big leagues.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have climbed out of their 20 years of misery mainly by slowly building up a solid farm system.

With some of the fruits of that labor about to be sampled at the major league level, the system’s latest ranking from MLB Pipeline shows that there is still cause for optimism for the future.

The propsect-arm of MLB’s official website has been releasing their annual rankings of farm systems across baseball, and they have listed the Pirates as currently having the eighth best system.

As MLB Pipeline’s Jonathan Mayo writes, the Pirates took a tumble year-over-year, as they were ranked fourth in 2015. Mayo is quick to note that this is not due to any failure on the part of the club, but rather by being lapped by other clubs.

Mayo also notes that the club’s top prospects are well balanced, with the top five comprised of three pitchers and two hitters. It’s curious to note how their ranking may look next year, with Tyler Glasnow and Josh Bell presumably graduating fully to the major league club at some point this season.

For the full breakdown of Mayo’s rankings and to see which prospects have the best tools in the system, visit the full article over at MLB Pipeline.

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