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Paul Skenes’ future Pirates teammate labeled biggest draft steal

Originally posted on MLB on ClutchPoints
By Russell Steinberg | Last updated Jul 14, 2025 1:03 PM ET

There are few sure things in the MLB Draft, as drafted players, particularly out of high school, are usually a few years away from even breaking into the big leagues. The Pittsburgh Pirates took a swing on high school pitcher Seth Hernandez with the sixth overall pick in the MLB Draft on Sunday and one analyst thinks they got a steal.

ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez explained his reasoning in a story published Monday.

“Seth Hernandez, who went sixth to the Pirates and should someday share a rotation with Paul Skenes and Jared Jones. High school pitchers are incredibly risky, especially when taken so early in the draft,” he wrote. “But Hernandez is a great athlete who already throws hard, boasts a plus changeup and showed improvement with his breaking ball this spring. He’ll go the Hunter Greene route, from standout high school pitcher to major league ace.”

A 6’4 righty, Hernandez can touch 100 on his fastball, and the team’s director of amateur scouting Justin Horowitz called him a “culture changer.”

“He’s competitive. He’s focused,” Horowitz said via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com. “He has a professional demeanor about him. He just checks so many of our boxes, to be honest. We were pumped when we had the opportunity to grab him at 6.”

The Pirates are set up with an elite home-grown rotation

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jared Jones (37) throws a pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies in the first inning during spring training at LECOM Park. Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

As Gonzalez alluded to, Hernandez could give the Pirates three elite front-end pitchers, all under team control, in just a couple years. Skenes broke in last year, and barely 365 days later is on the verge of starting his second All-Star Game. Jones, for his part, also came up last year, but will miss the 2025 season recovering from UCL surgery.

And that’s not even mentioning two-way prospect Bubba Chandler in Triple-A, one of the best pitching prospects in baseball. In 18 starts for Indianapolis this year, he has a 2.82 ERA and is averaging 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings.

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers called out what could be the only downside to the Pirates stacking starting pitching the way they have: “Seth Hernandez could be great, but they need hitting. A lot of it,” he wrote.

This article first appeared on MLB on ClutchPoints and was syndicated with permission.

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