On Sunday night, we will know who the Pirates’ first overall draft pick, and one of the faces of their rebuild, is.
Right now? It’s still up in the air.
“We have people in our draft room who might believe they know who we’re taking, but I honestly don’t,” Ben Cherington told reporters at PNC Park before Wednesday’s game against the Braves. “We don’t know. I think we’re closer, obviously, because Sunday is closer than it was a week ago. We’re going to take all the time we have. We have to get it right, then we have to get 20 more selections right.”
That decision might not be finalized until the last minute, literally. The draft will begin at 7 p.m. Eastern Sunday, and their pick is due within five minutes of when they go on the clock.
“I think it’s most likely we’ll go right up to that,” Cherington said. “Maybe something happens where it’s clear before that, but I think it’s most likely.”
While nothing is final, almost all recent mock drafts have had the Pirates taking high school shortstop Marcelo Mayer. The club has also been tied to prep shortstops Jordan Lawlar and Kahlil Watson, as well as Louisville catcher Henry Davis.
They are still gathering information on those players. As reported by Dejan Kovacevic earlier this week, Lawlar, one of the top players available this year, made the trip to Pittsburgh Monday to meet with the team, a practice that almost certainly has or will happen with the other players the Pirates are considering taking with that top pick.
“We've had guys here the last few days,” Cherington said. “We've gone to see guys and there's a ton of stuff for all those guys to consider and think through. So to some extent, they need all the time they have to consider things, and then you just have to keep that dialogue going and share information and see where it lines up."
A week ago the amateur scouting and draft teams got together to start forming that draft board. The order is still a work in process, and not just at the top.
“We have to debate, debate, debate, disagree, disagree, disagree,” Cherington said. “Dive deep as we can, then commit. Commit to a group and an order, and the order may tell us what to do. Or as we get into conversations with players, that may help us, too. We’ll just see.”
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• There is no specific goal -- other than maximizing the talent they get with those 21 picks -- going into this draft, like to get a lot of pitchers, focusing on high school players and getting more Major-League ready guys in particular. They're still building the draft board, but once it's done, that's what they'll be working from.
"All information. This is the order," Cherington said. "1-1 is a little bit different, because you know when that’s coming, you have time. Once the draft starts, though, it just goes too fast to be re-ordering. The order becomes really important."
Of course, picking first overall, the Pirates will be setting the pace each round, but the residual effects of each pick probably won't last to their next selection.
"Once we get to our second pick, I don’t think whoever we take at one is going to impact who’s still there at 37. That’s where the order becomes really important. We have to be ready."
• Pitching could potentially be harder to scout this year now that there is a crackdown to get rid of foreign substances in games. After all, sticky stuff wasn't just limited to the majors.
This could apply for all of the Pirates' avenues of player acquisition, including the trade deadline later this month.
"We've tried to look at that objectively, and we've also made a lot of phone calls and asked questions to try to dig on that question," Cherington said. "It's a thing. Same with minor-league pitchers too. That's a new thing this year, trying to figure out [who is using it]. We need to be careful that because someone is using something and now they can't, [it] doesn't mean they can't be really good. It's just an adjustment, and we're already seeing guys in the big league make the adjustment. Talented amateur players will do the same thing."
• Speaking of the trade deadline, pushing the draft back a month means that it runs closer to that July 30 deadline.
So is that a good thing or a bad thing?
"I guess we just have to experience it and see," Cherington said. "Maybe it's just getting used to a new thing, and maybe it won't be a big deal and we'll all like it after the fact... No matter what, we have to figure out how to do our jobs, and we will."
After a quiet trade deadline last year where they only dealt Jarrod Dyson and the rest of the league was more stagnant, Cherington says the number of phone calls he is getting this year is similar to what he had previously been accustomed to, even though every team is focusing on the draft right now as well.
"Maybe it does slow down for three or four days because teams really will need to focus on the draft," Cherington said. "So maybe that slows down a little and then picks up again. Up until now it seems like pretty normal still.
The Pirates have one of the top hitters and pitchers available this deadline in Adam Frazier and Richard Rodríguez. While Cherington said he has had some discussions that have advanced beyond the preliminary talks, nothing is imminent yet.
• Bringing new players into the organization through the draft could spark a series of minor-league promotions throughout the system. The midseason check-in with player development will take place after the draft, and promotions will be one of the topics on the agenda.
"We’ll look at a list of players and see where they are in terms of meeting their goals and if there are any things left that we really feel like it's better for them to stay where they are. I would guess at some point, we'll have some guys (move up)."
• After the draft was drastically shortened from 40 to five rounds last year, it is back to 20 this year, which will probably be the new normal going forward. Cherington believes "there is depth in this draft," so those extra picks will provide them extra opportunities.
"I do think it's really important that the draft's longer," Cherington said. "We're clearly still at a point where we've got to very focused and aggressive on bringing in as much talent as we possibly can. 21 players is more than five, or six, from last year."
It's about the whole class, not just nailing that 1-1 pick, even though it's obviously incredibly important.
"I don't ever remember having a conversation in a draft room of, 'we need to draft a Hall of Famer,' " Cherington joked. "That's like another level of aspiration. That would be great. We just need lots of good players. There's good players in this draft and let's get as many as we can."
