3 players the Pirates could pick in the 1st round

PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - The MLB Draft has arrived, and with it comes a new opportunity for teams around the league to boost their prospect pools and bring home the latest era of promising young talent. For squads who haven’t endured much — or any — playoff success in recent years, the picks made this weekend will make all the difference in shaping the future of their franchise. Currently stuck in a decade-long playoff drought, the Pittsburgh Pirates are certainly among them.

While the club’s on-field performance hasn’t met expectations as of late, Pittsburgh has done pretty well off of it on the draft floor, specifically in the opening round. Selections like Paul Skenes (1st overall, 2023) and Konnor Griffin (9th overall, 2024) have already begun to leave their mark in the majors as fan-favorites. On top of that, last year’s first-round pick Seth Hernandez is also rising through the rankings of the MLB’s Prospect Pipeline.

Pittsburgh’s strategy in recent drafts has been simple: Select the best player available, no matter the positional need they fill. But according to Assistant GM Kevan Graves, who will be leading the Pirates’ draft process for the first time, other factors will influence the team’s selections this time around.

“I’d probably say what we lean back on is what I said earlier, which is around: Which player sort of checked the boxes? What players fit our organizational skill pillars and then what do feel like we have the best opportunity to influence? That may be a high school kid, maybe someone coming out of college – it’s happened to be a couple of high school kids the past two years. I don’t think there’s a specific demographic necessarily that we’re targeting. But I do think consistent with Konnor, consistent with Seth (Hernandez) and others, players that I think are having really nice years throughout the system, we’re looking for players that really check those boxes,” Graves said of Pittsburgh’s draft approach.

Here are a few highly-touted prospects the Pirates could select with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft.

Eric Booth Jr., OF, Oak Grove HS, Hattiesburg, Miss.

The easy answer would be for Pittsburgh to use its first-round pick on Booth, and there are multiple reasons why. For starters, the Pirates have already proven they can bring the best out of Mississippi high schoolers based on the ascension of Konnor Griffin this season, who’s really only been held out of the lineup due to injury more so than struggles on the field.

At the same time, Booth’s baserunning ability makes him hard to pass up. Despite his large frame of 6 feet and 207 pounds, he’s one of the quickest runners in his draft class. On top of that, his swing has plenty of pop, a trait he likely inherited from his father, Eric Sr., who was selected in the 1993 MLB Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Jackson Flora, RHP, UC Santa Barbara

With so much talent overflowing out of the Draft’s top 10, there’s a chance the top pitching prospect lands right in the Pirates’ lap. Not a high chance, but still a very real one. According to MLB.com’s latest mock draft, Flora should still be available for the taking at No. 5 overall, but so would Booth. A tough decision would have to be made in that case by Graves and Co. whether to select the Draft’s most promising outfielder or pitcher.

A product of UC Santa Barbara’s pitching lab, most of Flora’s development came during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which he got much taller. His fastball-slider combination made him a strong, consistent reliever for the Gauchos this past season, as he posted a scintillating 1.06 ERA and 133 punchouts (school record) through 102 innings of work.

His best outing came against UC Riverside on May 14th, where he finished a complete game with 12 Ks and two hits.

Jacob Lombard, SS, Gulliver Prep, Miami

This selection is less likely than the previous two, but Lombard could still be very much in play for Pittsburgh when it comes time to make the No. 5 pick. At the end of the day, it will all depend on what the four teams in front of the Pirates decide to do to shake up the draft.

Like Booth, Lombard also grew up in a baseball family. His father and brother, George Jr., are both former MLB draft picks, with his brother impressing within the New York Yankees organization as the team’s top prospect right now. But according to MLB.com scouting, Lombard is on pace to become even better than his brother someday based on the power and speed he already has at 18.

Drafting Lombard would also fit well with the Pirates’ recent trend of using their higher picks to select high schoolers.

“Don't know what we're taking, we'll know that on Saturday, but in terms of where the board sits, I don't feel like it's any different than it has been in years past. We've got a pretty good idea what the order is, but we'll keep stressing it between now and Saturday,” Pirates GM Ben Cherington said Wednesday.

“People are trying to get it right, not be right. I know that's a cliche, but that is what I believe is happening in our draft room. I don't know what the outcomes are going to be, but it gives me confidence that we're going to give ourselves a chance to get the ones we want,” he added.