On Thursday, before the Pirates had their Re-Opening Day game against the Milwaukee Brewers, The PM Team’s Andrew Fillipponi asked General Manager Ben Cherington, “You power rank the guys, will you take the number one ranked player?”
"Our job is to get the most possible talent we can with the pool amount we have," Cherington responded.
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Fan Morning Show host Chris Mack has an issue with that.
While he understands that each team can only spend so much money in the draft with bonus pool allotment and how much slot money you can spend, Mack has an issue that Cherington didn’t say ‘yes” when asked if they will take the player they consider to be the top ranked pick for their draft.
“You only get the first overall pick, what, in the Pirates case once a decade,” asked Mack. “I don’t know of any sports, anywhere regardless of the way the system is built and the disadvantages to a team that are baked into it in the MLB system are obvious, but I don’t know of any system in any draft where you don’t simply take at first overall, the best player available.”
Mack adds he doesn’t care who it is, Marcelo Mayer, Jack Leiter Jordan Lawler or Kahlil Watson, the Pirates need to take whoever they have ranked number one.
The Fan’s Jim Colony says that the issue is the 2021 draft doesn’t have a Bryce Harper or Stephen Strasburg-like stand out so they likely have a group of 4-5 players grouped closely together.
At that point, the Pirates will likely take the player who is willing to sign for the lowest amount.
Mack adds he believes Cherington has done a great job since taking over, but that the Pirates have a rare opportunity to take the best player available and need to do that.