Kiley McDaniel from ESPN released his list of the top 100 prospects on Wednesday morning. The Pittsburgh Pirates only have three players on that list, though another group of three players all received honorable mentions.
We start at the top with 2022 first round pick Termarr Johnson, who is ranked 24th on this list. He has been listed as the top prospect for the Pirates now on four of the five lists released so far. Johnson was recently ranked by MLB Pipeline as the best second base prospect in baseball, and the 26th best prospect overall. He was also ranked 31st overall by Baseball Prospectus and 49th overall by Baseball America. The Athletic had him higher than anyone else, placing him 18th on their list earlier this week.
Endy Rodriguez ranks second in the Pirates system, and he’s 42nd overall in baseball according to McDaniel. He was ranked 23rd by BA, who had him as the top prospect in the system. Baseball Prospectus had him in the same spot as MLB Pipeline, placing him 55th overall. The Athletic had him ranked 34th, which was third for the Pirates.
Henry Davis is the final player who made the top 100 for ESPN, ranking 68th on the list. So far, Davis, Rodriguez and Johnson are the only Pirates to make all five lists released. Quinn Priester has made two lists, while Luis Ortiz and Bubba Chandler each made one. Davis ranked 30th for The Athletic, 57th by Pipeline, 73rd by BA and 46th by Prospectus.
McDaniel also rated players by Future Value. Johnson received a 55 FV grade, while Rodriguez and Davis each received 50 grade. That 50 grade is a huge group, because he listed a group of players after the top 100, who also received 50 FV grades. That group included Priester, Liover Peguero and Ji-hwan Bae. This is the first time Bae has been mentioned on one of these lists, while Peguero got a mention on BA’s extended list.
We are just waiting on the Fangraphs list before we post a combined list of the top Pirates prospects, along with their average ranking. That will be posted shortly after the article covering the Fangraphs list.
