The Pirates’ decision to take LSU outfielder Derek Curiel Jr. with the No. 5 overall pick in the MLB Draft left a lot of people scratching their heads, especially after UC Santa Barbara arm Jackson Flora had long been viewed as the kind of fit Pittsburgh might love. Once the consensus top pitcher in the class went to the San Francisco Giants one pick before the Pirates were on the clock, Ben Cherington’s choice seemed to come down to a tougher call than expected.
Curiel Jr. brings a safe profile and a high floor, but that’s not usually what you want when you’re picking fifth overall. At that spot, the appeal is supposed to be star-level upside, and it’s fair to wonder whether the young outfielder offers enough of it. If Pittsburgh was going to go in another direction, there were at least three prospects who looked like stronger bets.
Jacob Lombard would have been the swing-for-the-fences option. The Gulliver Prep shortstop has speed, power, and the kind of bloodlines that make scouts lean in.
His older brother, George Lombard Jr., is the New York Yankees’ top prospect and sits No. 11 on Baseball America’s latest top 100, while his father, George Sr., has been around the game in one form or another for years. Lombard carried more risk than Curiel Jr., but his ceiling is clearly higher, and he was viewed as a near-consensus top-five pick before draft day.
Even with Konnor Griffin in the system, shortstop isn’t necessarily a long-term opening, though Lombard has the athleticism to move around if needed.
If the Pirates wanted an outfielder, Eric Booth Jr. looks like the more explosive bet. The Oak Grove High School standout in Mississippi ranked sixth in the class by MLB Pipeline and has elite speed, but he’s not just a burner.
Evaluators also project 20-25 home run power at the major league level. That makes the comparison with Curiel Jr. pretty straightforward: polish versus upside.
Booth Jr. may be less refined, but there’s enough in his game to think his floor wouldn’t have been too low to justify passing on the bigger ceiling.
Then there’s Gio Rojas, and if Flora really was the name Pittsburgh had circled, Rojas feels like the cleanest pivot. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School left-hander was the top-ranked southpaw in the class and MLB Pipeline’s No. 8 overall prospect.
He also fits the kind of pitching pipeline logic that makes sense for a team thinking ahead to the day Paul Skenes walks out the door. Pittsburgh has shown it isn’t afraid of high school arms, as last year’s Seth Hernandez pick showed.
Rojas already works in the mid 90s with his four-seamer and has touched 98 as a teenager, which is rare velocity for a lefty at any age. Add in a nasty slider and a changeup that still needs work but has real potential, and you can see the outline of a rotation anchor.
Just not one that would have ended up in Pittsburgh.
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