Every year around this time, all 30 teams in Major League Baseball send a group of prospects to Washington, DC for the Rookie Career Development Program. It’s a four-day event for prospects which help prepares them for the next level, with everything covered from finances, to health, to handling the media. Now in it’s 27th year, the program is run by Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association.
Each club will usually send 2-4 prospects each year. That means that not every player who is considered a prospect and is likely to make their MLB debut this year will attend. So you shouldn’t look into the list for extra meaning. Some teams send players who already made their MLB debut, while others send players who won’t see the majors in 2018. It’s also not mandatory the players go through the program if they are asked to attend. I know of Pirate players in the past who have been invited and turned the trip down due to prior engagements.
The Pittsburgh Pirates line their winter mini-camp in Bradenton up with the Rookie Career Development Program. The players who attend the four-day event, which runs through Sunday, usually follow it up by heading down to Pirate City for the winter mini-camp, which we will cover here starting next Monday. In the past, we have posted mini-camp discussion threads for each day, usually with news about what is going on in the camp. If the Pirates haven’t made any trades by then, you can bet their will be interest in who shows up for the voluntary mini-camp.
This year, the Pirates sent Austin Meadows, Kevin Newman and Jordan Luplow to Washington for the rookie program. Last year’s group included Clay Holmes, Edgar Santana, Max Moroff and Dovydas Neverauskas. Moroff, like Luplow, had already made his MLB debut before the program. In the previous year, Elias Diaz, Tyler Glasnow and Josh Bell attended, giving you another example of a player (Diaz) who had already made his debut.
The group that the Pirates are sending this year represents three of the top nine prospects in the system. Considering that none of the other six prospects in that top nine are expected to make their big league debuts in 2018 (they could, but 2019 or later is more likely), it’s a strong trio of prospects. Luplow will be battling for a spot on Opening Day with the Pirates, while Meadows and Newman are more likely to be called up in June or later.
As for the mini-camp next week, it is five days long and voluntary for players on the 40-man roster. That means that there is no guarantee that Luplow or Meadows will be in Bradenton on Monday, but it almost always works out that way because the younger players want to make a good impression. With Meadows being injured at the end of 2017, the Pirates will want to see him attend to check on his progress this off-season. Newman isn’t on the 40-man roster yet, but he will be a Major League Spring Training invite this year, so he should be in Bradenton next week.
You can also expect some minor league news next week. There has always been a minor league conditioning camp going on at the same time as the MLB camp in the past. If anything interesting is going on over there, then expect it to be mentioned in our daily discussion thread or an article from that day.
