Pirates GM Cherington celebrates Baseball America's top farm system nod but eyes future, not just present, talent pipeline.
Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington puts only so much stock in farm system rankings.
Cherington understands the fluctuations that come with a good farm system. Promote some of your best prospects quickly, and the ranking goes down. Stock the farm system with some high draft picks and key international amateur free agents, and the ranking goes up.
Right now, the Pirates are riding the crest of the wave. On Wednesday, Baseball America ranked the Pirates’ farm system as the best in the game. Last year, they were 16th among the 30 MLB organizations.
While the ranking makes the Pirates happy, it also motivates Cherington to continue building top-notch player development and scouting departments.
“I think of it, specifically, it's a good opportunity to continue to work our tails off to make sure it's sustainable,” Cherington said. “It's signal that we have some talented players. It's signal that we have really talented staff that are really committed to ultimately influencing wins in Pittsburgh, which is the goal.
“We know that we need to have a really good pipeline to be able to do that. So for me, it's signal. It's signal that we're on some of the right things. It doesn't mean we can't continue to evolve. We have to evolve. That's what this offseason has been a lot of focus on. It's certainly a positive. We'd rather be ranked there than 30th, for sure, but there's so much work that needs to be done, and we're not even scratching the surface of doing what we need to do to make sure our foundation is established so that thing can be sustainable."
The Pirates have the top prospect in baseball in shortstop Konnor Griffin. He made his professional debut last season, reached Double-A Altoona by the end of the year as a 19-year-old, and was every outlet’s pick for Minor League Player of the Year.
Baseball America ranks three other Pirates prospects in the top 40 – right-hander Bubba Chandler (No. 15), outfielder Edward Florentino (No. 28), and righty Seth Hernandez (No. 38). Chandler is expected to being this upcoming season in the Pirates’ rotation after going 4-1 with a 4.02 ERA in four starts and three relief appearances late last year.
“We don't mind saying that we want to have a top 10 farm system most years,” Cherington said. “If we're not, then let's challenge ourselves to get back there as quickly as we can. “