The buzz around Seth Hernandez is real, and it’s easy to see why people are already penciling him into the Pirates’ future.
Pittsburgh’s 2025 first-round pick has rocketed up prospect boards after the club grabbed him out of Corona High School in California, and the climb has been fast enough to draw Konnor Griffin comparisons. Hernandez is only 20, yet he now sits No. 9 on MLB Pipeline’s top 100 list. He’s also the second-highest-ranked pitcher and the top right-hander on that board.
That kind of rise has already started to shape how people talk about the Pirates. In an early 2027 power rankings piece for ESPN, David Schoenfield slotted Pittsburgh ninth and pointed to Hernandez as a possible impact rookie for next season.
“Then there’s this: There is every reason to believe the rotation will be better, from Paul Skenes to Bubba Chandler to Jared Jones to [Seth] Hernandez debuting at some point. The defense wasn’t good and the bullpen needs help, but the Pirates have every reason to believe they can reach the postseason for the first time since 2015,” Schoenfield wrote.
There’s no question the rotation should have room to grow. Pittsburgh’s starters finished 2026 with a 4.14 ERA, good for 16th in MLB, so the group was a little below average. Schoenfield’s case leans on the idea that Paul Skenes can shake off his struggles, Bubba Chandler can take another step, and Hernandez can join the mix without the Pirates needing outside help.
But that’s where the caution light comes on.
Hernandez is a premium talent, and he’s also still a very young pitcher with a tiny professional track record. He opened his pro career this year at Bradenton, carved through just six starts there, then moved up to Greensboro. In 12 starts and 46 innings at that level, he was still strong, posting a 3.33 ERA.
The full season line was eye-catching: 18 starts, 74 innings, a 40.4% strikeout rate, a 10.6% walk rate, and a 2.43 ERA between the two stops. Even so, the numbers came with some warning signs, including control issues and a 1.22 HR/9 mark.
His season ended on July 24 because of an oblique injury, and there had been plenty of thought that he might keep climbing to Altoona before the year was over.
That’s why the Pirates have to be careful not to let the hype run the plan.
The club already went through a similar exercise with Bubba Chandler, who entered 2026 with plenty of buzz of his own. Chandler is 24, had already gotten a taste of the majors in 2025, and had 139 1/3 career innings in Triple-A before last season. Even with that background, he still posted a 4.50 ERA and had his share of rookie growing pains.
Hernandez may be the more electric prospect, but he’s not in the same place developmentally. He has not pitched above High-A, and with only 74 innings last year, his arm still isn’t built to carry a regular major league workload, especially for someone who came straight out of high school.
Pushing him too hard too soon could hurt his performance, slow his development, and put his health at risk.
The Pirates clearly see Hernandez as the heir apparent to Skenes, but that makes protecting him even more important. And with the 2027 outlook still demanding more than one young arm can provide, Pittsburgh can’t treat him like the whole answer.
The Pirates have been out of the playoffs for more than a decade, and while 2026 moved them in the right direction, they are still a long way from where they want to be. To get there, they need more starting pitching, another veteran in the rotation, and a left-handed option to balance things out.
Hernandez doesn’t check those boxes by himself. The Pirates need to keep building around him, not build their offseason around him.
In Other News...
Pirates Just Sent A Frustrating Message About Paul Skenes
Paul Skenes spent his first two major league seasons setting a standard that made almost anything short of dominance feel like a letdown, and Pirates pitching coach Bill Murphy did little to soften that reality. Murphy described Skenes 2026 campaign as really, really good, even as the right-hander showed some regression from the level he had established early in his career.
Skenes finished 2026 with a 10-11 record, a 3.82 ERA, 200 strikeouts and a 1.12 WHIP, still strong numbers by most pitchers standards but a step back from the overpowering version Pittsburgh had grown used to seeing. Skenes pointed to his World Baseball Classic participation as a possible factor, saying it may have affected his preparation and led to mechanical inconsistency and reduced velocity, which leaves the Pirates with a familiar question: how much of this was a blip, and how much is a warning sign? [Read more 🡒]
Pirates Offseason Blueprint Just Got Much More Interesting
The Pirates finally gave their fan base something it had been waiting years to see, as an 11-win jump in 2026 carried Pittsburgh to its first winning record since 2018. A big reason was the front offices willingness to reshape the roster last winter, with offseason trades and signings bringing in a group that included Garcia, Soto, Lowe, Montgomery, Mangum and OHearn, all of whom helped stabilize the club in different ways.
What makes the next offseason so intriguing is how much of that turnaround appears tied to the new faces, especially Lowe and Montgomery, who emerged as real assets rather than short-term fillers. Pittsburgh now has a much clearer sense of what worked and what didnt, and the challenge is no longer simply finding ways to improve, but deciding which of those moves should be the foundation for the next step forward. [Read more 🡒]
Pirates Offseason Pitching Plan Is Starting To Take Shape
Ben Cherington made it clear at the GM Meetings that the Pirates offseason priority is already taking shape on the mound, where the organization wants to add more left-handed pitching. Pittsburghs projected rotation for 2027 leans heavily to the right side, and the current roster offers only limited left-handed options, a balance the front office clearly wants to address.
Cherington said the club will look to improve through both free agency and trades, which gives the Pirates some flexibility as they map out the winter. The specifics are still to come, though, and for now the bigger takeaway is that Pittsburgh knows the shape of the problem even if it has not yet settled on the names that might solve it. [Read more 🡒]