BRADENTON, Fla. – Having a highly-ranked farm system isn’t exactly something an organization will hang from the rafters, though there is evidence that points to showing up at or near the top of that kind of list does eventually point to big league success in the form of postseason baseball. In places like Pittsburgh, it’s no secret that having a good system is essential to steer the Major League boat in the right direction, so coming in at No. 3 on MLB Pipeline’s most recent rankings is a good sign, especially with hopes of contending in the NL Central this year.
“We have our goal for this year as an organization; everyone is working toward it,” Pirates farm director Michael Chernow said. “We heard Don Kelly’s message, we heard Ben Cherington’s message on how they expect us to operate. Thinking about how development can influence wins, there are so many ways. It’s making sure players are prepared for the big leagues when they get called up. It’s being relentless about skill development, and it’s making sure we’re playing quality baseball throughout the system, so that when they get to the big leagues and DK puts them in a lineup and asks them to do something, they’re not experiencing that for the first time.”
The first thing that might come to mind for the Pirates when thinking about player development might be pitching -- Paul Skenes and now Bubba Chandler and Seth Hernandez make that understandable -- but there’s a subtle shift happening across all levels of the system, with hitters starting to make a lot more noise.
“I’ve joked with some people here that if you’re a pro scout covering one of our affiliates, pick a night, pick a day, your target list of players, not only pitchers, but position players, it’s probably seven deep,” Chernow said. “I think the lineups we’re going to roll out this year are going to be filled with talented players that are interesting, that have traits and have established foundations that we can continue to build around. The volume is real.”
Konnor Griffin (MLB's No. 1 prospect), now set to begin the year in Triple-A Indianapolis at age 19, gets most of the headlines. But he’s far from alone. A year ago, few people knew who Edward Florentino (Pirates' No. 4 prospect) was. He had signed in January 2024 for $395,000 and had a decent enough debut in the Dominican Summer League. But buzz started growing in Spring Training last year, then he really started making noise in the Florida Complex League en route to earning a promotion to full-season ball at age 18. He finished with a .948 OPS, 16 homers and 35 steals over 83 games. A minor ankle injury slowed him down this spring, and he’ll begin the year rehabbing on backfields, but the Pirates are very excited for the now No. 50 overall prospect in baseball to do some damage in High-A Greensboro.
Joining Florentino on the breakout list is someone like Esmerlyn Valdez (No. 11), who hit 26 homers last year then was one of the more exciting offensive performers in the Arizona Fall League, helping him springboard into that Triple-A lineup with Griffin. Under-the-radar acquisitions like 2024 ninth-round pick Duce Gourson (No. 29) and trade get Callan Moss, who had a .993 OPS after coming to the Pirates from the Royals in the Bailey Falter deal, contributed to this rising tide.
In 2026, don’t be surprised to see prospects like Yordany De Los Santos (more on him shortly) and Darell Morel (No. 18), who’ll be making his United States debut this year like Florentino did last year, pick up the mantle of making sure the Pirates hitting pipeline keeps flowing.
COMPLETE PIRATES PROSPECT COVERAGE
“I think we have more position player depth than we’ve had in recent years,” Chernow said. “From top to bottom, we have some of the guys that have already popped, and I think we’re seeing this spring a lot of guys that are on that cusp of taking that next step and putting their name into the conversation on rankings, and how we view them internally.”
Camp standout: Yordany De Los Santos (No. 21)
Signed in January 2022 for $1.2 million, De Los Santos has shown hints of the skillset that made him a prime target on the international amateur market, but has yet to find any consistency. Case in point: He hit 11 homers and stole 51 bags in 2025, but saw his strikeout rate go up and his walk rate dip. There’s caution against putting too much weight into Spring Training performance, but the work the infielder did this offseason to prepare for the upcoming season showed up the minute he reported. And it certainly was apparent as he went 6-for-13 with three homers – second among all Pirates – as a backup in Grapefruit League games.
“The way he’s shown up, it may seem like it’s cherry-picking a little bit, because he’s had great Grapefruit League performances as a backup, but from day one of minicamp, the way that he carried himself, the confidence, the calmness in the way he went about things, articulating what he’s focused on from an offensive standpoint, understanding the work we asked him to do over the offseason, how he executed that, that’s the step forward for him,” Chernow said. “You're talking about a guy that's an above-average shortstop that can play three positions on the dirt, had over 50 bags last year, and if we get that progression from an offensive standpoint, then all the things we dreamt of when we signed him start to come into play at the age of 21.”
Breakout candidate: Levi Sterling (No. 16)
High school pitchers can take time to develop, and their progression can be less than linear. So no one panicked when Sterling, the club’s pick at No. 37 overall in the 2024 Draft, struggled during his debut season. His ERA, WHIP and batting average against were all inflated in the Florida Complex League. He got one outing with Single-A Bradenton, where he’ll return this season, and he used the lumps he took as motivation to prepare for the 2026 season.
“He had a fantastic offseason in terms of attacking the things we put out for him,” Chernow said. "He’s stronger, he’s more physical and he’s throwing harder. The secondary and the feel for the changeup, his calling cards as an amateur, that has always been there. But now you’re starting to see sequences of what we dreamt of when we drafted him.”
Something to prove: Termarr Johnson (No. 7)
When you’re billed as the best pure high school hitter scouts have seen in a long time, the expectation bar is always going to be very high. And in many ways, Johnson has yet to live up to that advanced billing when he was taken No. 4 overall in the 2022 Draft. At the same time, he’s always been young for his level and spent all of 2025 in Double-A, finishing sixth in on-base percentage and eighth in average in the Eastern League while turning 21 in June. He’s going to make the move to Triple-A now – phone call away territory – and at a certain point in time, people will want to see the production match the promise. The Pirates are bullish that could happen now.
“It seems like the industry has sort of forgotten about him a little bit; we certainly haven’t.” Chernow said about Johnson, who went 7-for-19 with a double and a triple in big league camp this spring. “His performance last year was well above league average as one of the younger players in the league. I’m so impressed with how he attacked his offseason, came down to camp and worked his tail off for six weeks here and was willing to challenge himself with our hitting guys. He made a very positive impression in how he carried himself in big league camp, the character, the worker and obviously the performance was fantastic.”