PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – The first two picks of the MLB Draft went by Sunday and you wouldn’t know the Pirates were in desperate need of offense. It’s not as much that the team’s front office doesn’t know, they just stuck to their philosophy.
“We're going to take the best player available,” said Pirates GM Ben Cherington with Pittsburgh reporters Sunday night.
“We thought we did with our first two selections. Felt pretty clearly about that, and we love the potential that (third-baseman) Murf (Gray) and (catcher Easton) Carmichael (third round) bring us with the third and fourth picks.”
Cherington said obviously they have to create more offense at the major league level, but they can attack that in different ways. It doesn’t have to come from the top of the draft.
“Whether that happens naturally through internal player development or through trades or free agency or over time through the draft and international, it's gonna have to happen through all those channels, candidly,” Cherington said.
The Pirates general manager said the draft is hard enough, but to force his scouting department to have to focus on picking a certain type of player or a certain position makes it even more difficult. Cherington said that would limit them from getting the best talent possible and they were really happy both high school pitchers were available at picks six and 49 Sunday.
“We feel we're off to a really good start,” Cherington said. “We're thrilled to get these two young pitchers in the system and we'll just continue to attack the offense, solving that offensive issue in different ways."