The problem with the Pirates development can be seen with the comparison of Joey Bart and Henry Davis.
Bart was the second overall pick in 2018. He made his MLB debut in 2020 with the Giants. Davis is the first overall pick from 2021. He made his MLB debut in 2023 with the Pirates. Both had similar timelines to the majors. Both had lofty projections as catchers with impact bats that made them high picks.
These teams took a different approach with their catcher of the future.
The Giants had Bart batting 7th through 9th in the order. Very rarely did he get a start batting sixth. Thursday’s start with the Pirates, where Bart is batting cleanup, is the first game in his MLB career that Bart has started higher than 5th in the order — which was another game with the Pirates. He only started batting 6th with the Giants a total of four times.
Compare that to Davis, who was called up by the Pirates and spent most of his first month in the Majors as the number five hitter. Davis has 32 career MLB starts batting 5th, six batting cleanup, nine batting third, and two games where he set the pace of the offense batting leadoff.
This happens frequently with the Pirates. They call up a top prospect who could be “the future”, but they expect the future to arrive instantly, and put the prospect in a high profile role.
