Pirates Top Prospect Gives Update After Midseason Injury

There are already a handful of exciting young pitchers on the Pittsburgh Pirates’ big league roster. It doesn’t stop there, though, because there are more exciting arms in the farm system.

Of Pittsburgh’s young pitchers, the most exciting and the one with the most potential of that group has to be of that group is 20-year-old Seth Hernandez. The Pirates’ first-round pick in the 2025 draft has already cemented himself as the organization’s No. 1 prospect and is a consensus top-10 prospect in the spot.

Hernandez pitched in his first professional season in 2026. Unfortunately, his debut year was cut short due to an oblique injury. The right-hander’s last appearance of the seaosn came on July 24, when he struck out five batters in 3.0 innings.

There’s always going to be a decent amount of concern whenever a young player misses significant time with injury, but there is good news for the Pirates. Hernandez spoke to the media after being named the Pirates’ minor-league pitcher of the year and stated that he’s fully healthy after his midseason injury.

In fact, Hernandez said he’s been fully healthy since early September.

“I’m feeling 100 percent healthy,” said Hernandez. “I’ve probably been healthy since the first or second week of September, so it was an easy process. I’m finally back home now (in California), getting after it in the offseason. So everything is good on that.”

That’s significant because, instead of spending all offseason rehabbing, Hernandez can focus on making improvements to his game. That growth will be necessary if he wants to achieve the goal he set for himself, which is finding a way to impact the big-league team in 2027.

Again, Hernandez is only 20 years old, but the possibility of him pitching with the MLB team next year isn’t an unreasonable goal.

For one, a healthy Hernandez has already shown the skill set of being a big-league caliber pitcher. He finished with a 2.43 ERA and a 1.054 WHIP, including 14.4 strikeouts per nine innings across two levels. These numbers even earned Hernandez a spot in MLB’s Rising Stars game, which he succeeded in.

The young pitcher ended last year at High-A, meaning he has two levels to go before the big leagues. The Pirates have shown a willingness to push some of their young talent quickly through the farm system. Paul Skenes and Konnor Griffin are each recent examples of this.

Having such a high goal in place going into 2027 is great, Hernandez. Before Pittsburgh elevates him to Double-A or Triple-A, Hernandez will need to prove he’s healthy. It sounds like he’s already there, though.