Seth Hernandez didn’t just move fast in 2026 - he arrived with the kind of numbers that force everyone to pay attention.
The Pirates’ top prospect has now been named the Florida State League’s Top MLB Prospect for 2026 after a brief but overpowering run with Low-A Bradenton. Hernandez only needed six starts with the Marauders before Pittsburgh pushed him up to High-A Greensboro on May 12, and the performance made the promotion feel inevitable.
In 28 innings, the 20-year-old right-hander posted a 0.96 ERA and struck out 50 batters. He recorded at least seven strikeouts in every outing, and three of those starts ended with nine punchouts.
Hernandez also picked up FSL Pitcher of the Month honors for April after going 2-0 with a 0.53 ERA, 32 strikeouts and five walks in 17 innings. He later added Pitcher of the Week recognition after throwing five scoreless, one-hit innings against Clearwater.
The Pirates made Hernandez the sixth overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, and his standing has only climbed since then. He entered 2026 ranked No. 26 overall by MLB Pipeline, then jumped all the way to No. 7.
His season ended in late July because of an oblique strain, but the full body of work still stood out: a 6-1 record, a 2.43 ERA and 118 strikeouts in 74 innings. That’s the kind of line that keeps a pitcher squarely in the conversation as a future impact arm in Pittsburgh’s rotation.
Greensboro also delivered a strong showing on the position-player side, with Axiel Plaz, Jared Jones and Wyatt Sanford all landing South Atlantic League All-Star honors.
Jones earned the first-base spot after a big first full professional season. Pittsburgh’s 2025 ninth-round pick hit .311/.411/.567 with 23 home runs, and even with injuries slowing him at times, the bat kept forcing its way into the spotlight.
Plaz was selected at catcher after another step forward in his offensive development. The 20-year-old showed real power growth at Greensboro, including a two-homer game in August, and he now sits among the Pirates’ top prospects.
Sanford was honored at shortstop. Pittsburgh’s No. 5 prospect has continued to build on the athleticism and offensive upside that made him one of the system’s more intriguing young position players.
That Greensboro group helped push the club to the South Atlantic League championship series, another encouraging sign for a Pirates farm system that looks increasingly crowded with position-player talent.
At Triple-A Indianapolis, Connor Wietgrefe and Nick Cimillo closed the year by sweeping the International League’s weekly awards for Sept. 14-20.
Wietgrefe took Pitcher of the Week after blanking Gwinnett over six hitless innings on Sept. 17, striking out seven and walking two. The 24-year-old left-hander finished strong, posting a 0.51 ERA with 16 strikeouts and a 0.91 WHIP over his final three starts.
He also showed the kind of workload Pittsburgh can file away for 2027. Wietgrefe logged 151.1 innings this season, third-most among all minor leaguers, and went at least six innings in nine of his 15 starts with Indianapolis.
Cimillo earned Player of the Week after going 4-for-? No - after hitting .381 with four doubles, two home runs, 13 RBI and a 1.301 OPS. The 26-year-old first baseman stayed hot in September as well, batting .333 with six homers and 23 RBI in 15 games.
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Pirates Make A Troubling Oneil Cruz Call In Seasons Final Stretch
Oneil Cruz will sit out the Pirates next game against the St. Louis Cardinals, with Jake Mangum stepping into center field as Pittsburgh continues to manage a painful left-hand fracture. With the club already eliminated from postseason contention, the decision is as much about protecting Cruz as it is about surviving the final stretch, and it comes with a lineup that looks noticeably different from the one fans have gotten used to.
Cruz is expected to be out of the lineup for about a month and 25 games, leaving the Pirates to shuffle the order in ways that say a lot about where this season stands. Brandon Lowe is set to hit fourth, while Rafael Flores Jr. will bat second for the first time in his career, a reminder that September in Pittsburgh has shifted from results to evaluation and caution. [Read more 🡒]
Pirates Turn To Another Patchwork Plan With Cardinals Series At Stake
Lake Bachar is set to take the ball for the Pirates on September 23 against the Cardinals, another sign of how the club is leaning on a patchwork pitching plan while Braxton Ashcraft and Mitch Keller remain unavailable. Bachar has been asked to fill in as a starter in this kind of bullpen game before, and Pittsburgh will again need to stitch together innings with a relief corps that does have some rest behind it.
The setup gives the Pirates a real chance to claim the series, but it also leaves little margin for error. With the rotation thinned out, the early innings become especially important, and the club will be counting on the bullpen to hold the line long enough to keep the matchup from slipping away in a series that still hangs in the balance. [Read more 🡒]
Ryan O'Hearn Sees Something Real In These Pirates
The Pirates kept rolling with a 2-0 win over the Cardinals on Sept. 22, their fifth straight victory and another reminder that the seasons late stages have looked different from the months that came before. Even with the postseason already out of reach, Pittsburgh has found a way to keep competing, and the record now sits at 80-77 after a year that has included plenty of injury trouble but also stretches where the roster has looked tough and balanced when healthy.
Ryan OHearn saw enough in that stretch to leave with a positive view of where this club could be headed. He pointed to the competitiveness in the room and the leadership around the team as reasons for optimism, a notable endorsement at a time when some teams are already thinking ahead to next year. For the Pirates, the challenge now is turning this late surge into something more lasting once the calendar flips. [Read more 🡒]