The Pirates drafted Gerrit Cole first overall in the 2011 MLB Draft. Now, 10 years later, second year General Manager Ben Cherington is tasked with making the first selection in the draft just 10 days from now.
Cherington joined Andrew Fillipponi of The PM Team on The Fan today and emphasized the importance of nailing the pick. However, it was evident that he believes the importance of this draft expands beyond the number one pick.
"It's very clear, that our decision on who to take at one, it's is really important, Important to the future of the Pirates. It's also very clear we need to get the most possible talent we can out of the entire draft this year."
When pressed if he will simply select the number one player on their board, Cherington responded,
"Our job is to get the most possible talent we can with the pool amount we have."
You hardly have to read between the lines there to see that the Pirates will not just be looking for the best player with the first round/first pick but will be looking for the best deal too.
This likely steers the Pirates away from a guy like Jack Leiter who would almost certainly demand over slot value and towards players like Marcelo Mayer and Henry Davis who have been rumored targets for the team.
Cherington explained that a similar strategy has been used throughout baseball in recent years.
"There's certainly been cases where that's happened with other teams, and it really just depends on the year you are in and that particular group of players."
Though he seemed rather adamant about the strategy of spreading their draft pool to multiple picks in early rounds, Cherington admitted everything is still on the table until the draft begins on July 11th.
"I think we'll use all the time that we have, it's a really important decision. I don't know any reason why we would make the decision sooner than we have to because you just never know what you'll learn until you have to make it."
This year unlike others, Cherington will have even more time to make that decision as the draft is a month later than it normally is scheduled.
"I am grateful for the extra month, partly because 1:1 is really important, we have got to get it right, partly because we missed so much time last year."