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It took a long time to get here, but I like the Fangraphs Top 40 of the Pirates. Started out with Paul Skenes and Jared Jones at 1, 2 and then at 4 Bubba Chandler, at 5 Mike Burrows, at 6 Braxton Ashcraft, at 7 Thomas Harrington, and at 8 Hunter Barco. Add Mitch Keller and the result is the Top 3 of an excellent Rotation followed by 5 Top SP prospects who are not far off. Add our 2nd best SP from 2023 Johan Oviedo returning from TJ for 2025 and Quinn Priester and you have a treasure trove of top SP prospects!

And, that does not consider present Pirates such as Aroldis Chapman, Martin Perez, Marco Gonzales, Bailey Falter, Joey Bart, Yasmani Grandal, Alika Williams, and MAT. Not sure what they have in mind for Olivares, but he could be a want by other clubs for his bat.

We have pitching - we need some consistency in the lineup. Reynolds has been excellent, and Cruz and Cutch have been better than expected at this point, but Hayes, Suwinski, Joe, and Gonzales have hit the wall at the same time, and our lineup is not strong enough to handle that. Tellez, Grandal - are they worth keeping? We are considered as "in the running for a playoff spot", but we need consistency from established hitters to be where we want to be. Probably two more key additions to the lineup - a CF and a power hitting 1B.

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