Full Count: Ben Cherington can't ignore Pirates' offense but plans to pick best available player

Ben Cherington has defied expectations — and, perhaps, industry norms — in his first five drafts as Pittsburgh Pirates general manager.

Despite the Pirates being in last place in the NL Central and ranking among the least productive offenses in baseball, Cherington remains steadfast in his assertion that they want the best player available with the No. 6 pick in the 2025 MLB Draft on July 13 in Atlanta.

But Cherington knows he can’t ignore the Pirates’ deficiencies. He repeatedly mentioned the need to address their anemic offense, whether that’s through the draft or trade-deadline deals this summer.

“We do feel pressure to create more offense, for sure,” Cherington said Saturday afternoon in a 29-minute news conference. “We have to do that to deliver what we need to deliver to our fans. To deliver more to our fans, which is our focus, part of that is creating more offense, no question about that.

“I don’t believe that doing that, especially in a place like Pittsburgh, is ever going to be about one thing — one decision, one free agent, one trade, one draft pick — it’s never going to be about that. It’s going to be about 100 things. We need to create more offense, so what I want to avoid in the draft is making our decision any harder because of that. Let’s just find the best player, and, with that, we need to create more offense over time.”

That approach served Cherington well when he hit the jackpot with the 2023 No. 1 overall pick, right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes, who won National League Rookie of the Year honors and finished third in Cy Young voting last summer. As much as picking Skenes seemed like a no-brainer in hindsight, outfielder Dylan Crews was the odds-on favorite for the first pick until Skenes dominated the College World Series.

Making surprising first-round selections is nothing new for Cherington. He found a future starting second baseman in Nick Gonzales with the No. 7 pick in 2020, though he passed on All-Star lefty Garrett Crochet, who went 11th overall.

The Pirates took catcher Henry Davis first overall in 2021, signing him to an under-slot bonus and bypassing prep shortstops Jordan Lawlar and Marcelo Mayer. That allowed the Pirates to pick four top-100 prep prospects and sign them to above-slot deals, including right-hander Bubba Chandler, who is now baseball’s top prospect.

Cherington took top prep hitter Termarr Johnson fourth overall in 2022, a draft that saw college players go in nine of the next 10 selections. And the Pirates took the first prep player of the draft at No. 9 in shortstop Konnor Griffin last year, a draft deep with college hitters.

The Pirates’ top five prospects and seven of their top 10 as ranked by MLB Pipeline were drafted by Cherington. That includes Chandler, a 22-year-old right-hander at Triple-A Indianapolis who was a third-round pick in 2021 but bypassed a football scholarship to Clemson to sign for a $3 million bonus.

That the industry has accelerated the timeline for promoting draft picks to the majors isn’t lost on Cherington. Nine of the top 14 selections from 2023, including Skenes, have made their MLB debuts. Cherington warned that it won’t influence their decision on which prospect to draft.

“Yeah, I certainly don’t want to — and I don’t think any team would assume that — just because of a single player came into an organization moved quick, that those rules are going to apply perfectly to the next one,” Cherington said. “So we want to be careful just to keep it about the player, what’s best for the player and what’s the path that’s going to make sense for this player. Not everyone’s going to move fast, and there’s lots of good players in the major leagues who didn’t move fast.

“I do think that, particularly at the top of the draft, even for high school players, that the access that players have to really good development resources, even before they get into pro ball, it just continues to be better than ever. And certainly that’s the case for the high-level college programs, but even for high school players. The resources are out there. You don’t have to wait to get into pro ball to take advantage of those resources. So I do think certainly at the top of the draft, we’re seeing players come into pro ball better equipped than ever, really. Doesn’t mean it’s easy. There’s still failure involved with the pro game. But, yeah, players are pretty much ready to go.”

In a draft loaded with college talent last year, the Pirates selected Griffin, who reclassified and graduated early. It appears to be a prescient move. After a dominant stint at Low-A Bradenton, the 19-year-old Griffin was promoted to High-A Greensboro on June 10.

Although Griffin also sees time in center field, Cherington discussed the club’s desire to develop him as a shortstop. Yet the Pirates are projected to pick a shortstop in multiple mock drafts. MLB.com has them taking Corona (Calif.) prep shortstop Billy Carlson. ESPN predicted they would pick Oregon State shortstop Aiva Arquette. And they also have been connected to Fort Cobb (Okla.) Broxton High shortstop Eli Willits.

But it’s possible the Pirates could opt for a pitcher, even though their farm system is flush with pitching prospects. Baseball America and CBS have them taking Corona right-hander Seth Hernandez, considered the top prep pitcher in the draft.

What remains a guessing game for draft analysts is about making the best bet for the Pirates, regardless of how quickly that pick can make an impact in the major leagues.

“One of the things I’m really excited about in how our draft process has evolved — and I really feel like it keeps getting better over time — is that the question is sort of baked into the process,” Cherington said. “I don’t feel like now we’re really having to think about the decision maybe between upside and risk of being further away, versus closer and safer. I think it’s all part of the process, and the process itself is, I believe, doing a good job of capturing all of that, capturing both the upside and the risk of every player. It’s getting them in an order and we’re going to be disciplined and honor that order when we’re done with it on July (13) and just take the best player available.”