Could the Pirates Trade the 34th Pick in the 2026 Draft?
If the Pirates trade their Competitive Balance pick, it would continue a disturbing cost-cutting trend this season.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have an advantage in this weekend’s MLB Draft.
With $19,130,700 to spend, the Pirates have the largest bonus pool in the draft, despite picking fifth overall. This largely comes from two picks.
The first is the 34th overall pick in Competitive Balance Round A. This pick is awarded to small market teams to help give them a small boost in building up their system.
The second is the 51st overall pick, which they received as compensation for failing to sign last year’s 50th overall pick, Angel Cervantes.
Both picks combine for over $4.8 million dollars in pool space. The 34th overall pick, which has a pool limit of $2,897,400, is the only pick that can be traded. Any trade must take place before the draft, which means the Pirates would have until tomorrow morning to make a deal.
Rumors have been circulating that the Pirates would look to trade this pick.
The Cost and Benefits of Trading the Pick
If the Pirates traded this pick, they would no longer have the top bonus pool.
They would drop to around $16.2 million available to spend, which would put them 6th overall, one spot behind the St. Louis Cardinals.
Having the 34th overall pick gives the Pirates an advantage beyond the 5th overall selection.
They have extra bonus pool space in the event one of the top overall picks falls to them at the number five spot.
They could also use that extra space to spread around bonuses and add extra prep players in what could be the final year that prep players are eligible.
Or, they could just take an extra late-first round talent at 34th overall.
The long-term value of this pick could theoretically be greater than whatever the Pirates could get for the pick in return.
Last year, the Tampa Bay Rays traded the 37th overall pick for reliever Bryan Baker.
Baker had three years of control remaining beyond the 2025 season. He had a 3.52 ERA in 42 games with the Orioles, before putting up a 4.75 ERA with the Rays down the stretch. The FIP numbers (4.00 vs 3.83) show he was slightly better with the Rays, despite the elevated ERA. His numbers this season are better on both ends, with a 1.73 ERA and 2.56 FIP in 38 appearances.
Interesting side note on Baker: He was originally drafted by the Pirates out of high school in the 40th round in 2013, but went to college and was eventually drafted in the 11th round in 2016 by Colorado.
Baker would be the best-case scenario for the Pirates if they traded the pick. He was a cost-controlled reliever with multiple years of control. He ended up successfully taking over the closer role for the Rays this year, after previously only being a middle reliever.
The best case for the 34th overall pick likely wouldn’t arrive for several years. The Pirates have drafted players like Carmen Mlodzinski (31st overall, 2021) and Jared Jones (44th overall, 2021) in this range.
Based on those timelines, the Pirates would be getting MLB returns on this year’s pick as early as 2028-2029. The tradeoff is more years of control and the potential for better upside.
That’s where the long-term value exceeds a trade. Adding a reliever like Baker for 3+ years is much less valuable than adding Mlodzinski or Jones for 6+ years.
The present-day value does impact this equation. The Pirates do need help today, so the idea of possibly getting a good player in 2-3 years isn’t as appealing as immediate help.
There’s also the risk that the Pirates get less than Mlodzinski or Jones with their pick.
Other players taken in this range in recent years include Anthony Solometo, Mitch Jebb, Thomas Harrington, and Hunter Barco. At best, you've got depth options out of Triple-A, with hopes of increasing value. At worst, the failure rate at this range is high.
All of this talk is largely based inside the vacuum of theory.
It doesn’t take into account the actual situations taking place with the Pirates.
Drafting Without a Director
Over the last two years, the Pirates have had some of their most promising draft results in years.
With the ninth overall pick in 2024, they added one of the best young players in the game in Konnor Griffin.
One year later, they took Seth Hernandez sixth overall. He’s currently rated higher than any other 2025 draft picks, and is already considered one of the best prospects in the game.
These drafts were overseen by Justin Horowitz, who was hired away by the Washington Nationals over the offseason to be their Assistant General Manager.
The Pirates didn’t replace Horowitz with a new scouting director.
They’ve started their intentions to hire a new scouting director after the 2026 draft. For the current year, they will have Assistant General Manager Kevan Graves taking on an increased role with overseeing the draft.
Previously, Graves was involved with the draft, overseeing Horowitz. The loss of Horowitz, and the refusal to replace him, leaves the Pirates with reduced amateur scouting resources in a year where they have the most money to spend in the draft.
The decision to go without a scouting director never made sense to me.
Horowitz left in October, which was nearly four months before the current amateur baseball seasons began in high school and college. The Pirates had to know ahead of time that he could be leaving. They had plenty of time to prioritize finding a replacement, while using Graves to ease in the new director to the existing process.
It’s not like they’ve suddenly decided they no longer need a scouting director. They’ve stated their intentions to hire a new director after this draft, which means they believe that position is still important. Why, then, would it not be important during such a crucial draft?
When discussing what the Pirates could theoretically get with the 34th overall pick, you have to take into consideration their adjusted approach this season. I have a lot of respect for Graves, but the scouting resources available have been depleted, and he’s being asked to step up and cover for that loss. That’s not a great situation.
The 2021 results with Mlodzinski and Jones came in a year when the Pirates worked their draft budget to spread money around to middle round picks. They wouldn’t even need to go signability with the fifth pick this year to get the same effect.
But the idea that getting a talented player in the future with these middle picks is far from a slam dunk when considering the reduced scouting approach the Pirates are taking.
Other Areas of Cheapness
Going without a scouting director for a year is a move that justifies every complaint that has ever existed saying that Pirates’ owner Bob Nutting is cheap.
Leaving the scouting director position vacant is not a move that a serious organization would make. It’s a horrible approach for small market teams that depend so heavily on the draft under the current economical system in baseball.
This isn’t the only sign that the Pirates have been pinching pennies.
Sure, they made a big splash by spending at the MLB level in the offseason in ways they haven’t spent in the past. Ryan O’Hearn was the first multi-year free agent signed since 2016, while also receiving the largest annual salary from a free agent in team history.
Overall payroll went up to the current level around $105 million, which is an increase of about $7 million after all salary dumps from the last deadline are considered. This payroll level ranked 22nd in the Majors entering the season, up from 26th last year.
The Pirates didn’t raise their spending bar as much as they picked the bar up off the floor and held it at ankle-level.
And they’re struggling to hold it that high.
Aside from skipping a year of employing a scouting director, the Pirates are showing signs of penny pinching throughout their system.
The minor league teams are currently suffering from serious depth issues.
Indianapolis just had to sign three minor league free agents in order to ensure they can fill out an active roster. Even with those additions, they had to promote a player from Low-A to Triple-A to fill the bench.
It would be one thing if the Triple-A group was having depth issues due to injuries at the MLB level. The Pirates are currently needing to replace Oneil Cruz, Spencer Horwitz, Endy Rodriguez, and Griffin at the MLB level, while having Mike Jarvis, Nick Yorke, and Jebb on the injured list in Triple-A. They also just released Davis Wendzel, who was on the injured list.
Normally, these problems would be solved by players moving up from the lower levels.
Double-A Altoona hasn’t suffered as many injuries, but they don’t have many players forcing their way to Indianapolis. There are only three players from the Altoona position-player group with an OPS above .800, and none above .831.
The Pirates haven’t done a good job with their development process. Griffin has worked out, but he came to the Pirates as a good player, and needed minimal work to develop into a Major Leaguer. They’ve shown poor results at turning toolsy players into actual prospects who could then take the step Griffin took.
This is both an argument for and against trading the 34th overall pick.
The development process makes it less likely the Pirates end up with a future Major Leaguer, but the higher pick would give the Pirates someone with less development work needed than any of their remaining picks in the draft.
Injuries have led to a shortage of depth in the minors. That’s undeniable. However, that shortage has been made worse by a lack of veterans in the upper levels to add depth, and a lack of positive development that would lead to an excess in the upper levels.
A good development system should be forcing players out of Double-A and Triple-A.
The Pirates are desperately seeking help at those levels, with recent external additions at both levels, while even promoting guys from High-A to Double-A with sub-.700 OPS results just to fill out the rosters.
Claiming Penny Pinching
More important to the Major League roster, and related to the penny pinching, is the lack of action the Pirates have taken on the waiver wire.
Zero.
That’s how many players the Pirates have selected off waivers this season.
Eight players have been selected from the Pirates to other teams from November 6th to February 21st.
The last time the Pirates selected a player off waivers was October 31st, 2025. They also added another on October 13th. Both players were lost on waivers during the same offseason.
The last in-season waiver claim they made was August 24, 2025, when they added Ryan Kreidler from Detroit. He was lost to waivers over the offseason. Earlier that month, they added Jack Little from the Dodgers. The Pirates made six waiver claims last season from March through August. They lost four players on waivers during the same span.
Not only have the Pirates gone without claiming any players this season, they also haven’t lost anyone to waivers.
Ignoring the depth issues for a moment, the Pirates have seen a horrible bullpen all season.
They haven’t brought in replacements off the waiver wire, which is a change-in-scenery approach that is one of the cheapest ways to add relief help.
They also haven’t gotten rid of their own struggling relievers, instead cycling the same struggling depth options back and forth from Triple-A.
They have sold a few players.
Justin Lawrence was sold to the Twins. Joe La Sorsa, who was pitching well in Triple-A, was sold to the Red Sox. Carson Fulmer was sold to the Mariners.
They’ve dumped salary by trading Alika Williams and Joey Bart in-season.
On March 4th, the Pirates traded Kyle Nicolas for Tyler Callahan. That was a good trade, but it also represented the point when the Pirates set their roster for the season.
Ever since that move, they haven’t added anyone new from the outside, save for the addition of Hunter Stratton in the Bart trade. Meanwhile, they’ve sold three players and traded two more with seven-figure salaries.
Only in the last few weeks have they started adding players in the minors to fill their growing depth issues.
This isn’t a team that is doing all they can to win.
They’re not making any efforts to address their MLB bullpen issues, or to be proactive about the lack of upper-level depth their development system is producing.
For a team with the narrative that they finally spent this offseason, there are too many examples of being cheap.
Going without a scouting director.
Selling players and trading away seven-figure salaries from the bench, which only increases depth issues.
Zero waiver claims, and no external help since early March.
The last time the Pirates added anyone to the MLB roster without also getting rid of someone to make the salary exchange a wash was when they added Marcell Ozuna on February 16th.
The Pirates locked in their spending narrative with the addition of Ozuna, results be damned.
Then, they acted cheaper than they’ve ever acted.
Trading the 34th Overall Pick
What are the odds that this cheap team spends nearly $3 million on the 34th overall pick while also adding help from the outside?
I can tell you what they should do as a real Major League team that wants to seriously try to contend.
The Pirates aren’t that.
It would fit their pattern if they traded this pick, and a nearly $3 million spending commitment, in order to address their bullpen issues.
The net move would reduce their overall spending in 2026, while giving the impression that they’re trying to win at all costs. Meanwhile, their winning focus is ultimately limited by trying to win while reducing costs to a level detrimental to winning.
That’s what the Pirates have always been about.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they traded the pick by tomorrow.
Best case would be getting a reliever like Baker.
I think the Pirates feel the best case would be saving money, while being able to say they’re adding help to the MLB roster to hide their cheap ways.
Until the next time I go live…
…which will be all weekend for the 2026 draft.
Follow along by subscribing to this Substack and bookmarking PiratesProspects.com, using the Draft Pick Signing Tracker to follow all of the new picks.
-Tim Williams