Morning Rundown: Pirates have five prospects in Pipeline top 100
MLB.com releases their initial top 100 list for the 2024 season, with five Pirates making it.
After over a week of build-up to it, MLB Pipeline released its initial top 100 prospect list for the 2024 season.
Five prospects from the Pirates system made the list, with most of the names not being a total surprise.
3 - Paul Skenes, RHP
44 - Termarr Johnson, 2B
62 - Jared Jones
82 - Anthony Solometo
93 - Bubba Chandler
After being selected first overall in the most recent draft, it’s not surprising seeing Skenes so high, especially since he was named the top right-handed pitching prospect in the game, and it has been Pipeline that has specifically higher than him.
Termarr dropped quite a few spots after a season that saw him struggle more with contact than expected, but during the reveal show on MLB Network, they seemed overly optimistic that he would climb back up this season.
Jones and Solometo were also carryovers from the previous year’s list. After his strong finish to 2023, Bubba Chandler debuts on the top 100 at 93.
The Pirates are among three teams with five players on the top 100, with the Chicago Cubs leading the way with seven and the Baltimore Orioles having six.
That means we have a top 100 list for Pipeline, Baseball Prospectus (101), and Baseball America.
So far, Skenes and Termarr are the only two to appear on all three lists, and Jones and Chandler have appeared on two. This was Solometo’s first appearance on a top 100 list.
FanGraphs, The Athletic, and ESPN have yet to come out with their prospect list.
KC signed Adam Frazier, which is fine. Made no sense for the Pirates.
Five in the top 100 is a good number, and it's easy to be optimistic about our pitching. On the negative side, when you look at the top of the list there is at least a suggestion that teams who recently went through rebuilding did a much better job at it than we did. And then there's Milwaukee that keeps putting competitive teams on the field and still has 4 guys in the top 50.