After the draft: Free-agent frenzy
Undrafted players will fill out system
After two days, the 2020 MLB draft is finished.
The Pirates came out of it with six new players added to their organization, far from the usual number of around 40. So now general manager Ben Cherington and his staff will be tasked with filling out the rest of their minor league system with the players who are left over. As part of shortening the draft, MLB mandated that teams will be allowed to sign undrafted free agents for up to $20,000.
There is a moratorium first, but starting Sunday, those signings will begin.
The Pirates, Cherington said Thursday night on a conference call, have strategized for this. It’s unique, as it is more of a courting process than what usually takes place, but the Pirates already began the process before the draft.
“So starting Sunday, we’d be able to communicate again directly with passedover players,” Cherington said. “We were able to do that with some guys prior to [Thursday night], guys that we thought might be candidates. We were able to have some communication, but we’ll pick that up again on Sunday.”
Cherington’s draft strategy, as he has said multiple times, was to take the best player available. The way it broke this year, that meant a lot of right-handed pitchers — five of the Pirates’ six selections were of that ilk. Any similarities between them, Cherington and amateur scouting director Joe DelliCarri insisted, were coincidences.
In a normal, 40-round draft, based on volume alone, that strategy could result in an even balance positionally. In this five-round version, that was not the case.
Still, Cherington says they won’t be looking to fill one position, specifically, in the undrafted free-agent period, although he did admit that they will look at areas where the Pirates have depth in the lower parts of the minor league system, factoring in where players could come in and still get playing time and opportunity.
“I mean, we probably would look at areas at the lower levels where we might be a little deeper, and that might guide us a little bit,” Cherington said. “For example, we have quite a few outfielders currently who kind of would have been in the shortseason, low [Class] A mix this year and need to play and will need opportunity next year. So that may factor a little bit, if there’s areas where we’re relatively a little bit deeper. That may affect us a little bit. I think more than that, it will continue to be players we just have interest in and who we believe there might be a good development match with.”
That also leads into the team’s general strategy when looking for undrafted players. Cherington said, for that reason, the Pirates don’t plan on casting a super wide net. Rather, they will target individuals who they truly see helping the organization somewhere down the road.
While that will be part of the front office’s main focus in the coming days, it won’t be the only focus. There also is the business of signing the players they already drafted.
For that, Cherington said, there is no real reason to wait. Even if the future is uncertain with how and where the minor leaguers will be developed amid COVID19 restrictions, Cherington feels the sooner they put pen to paper, the better.
“I don’t think there’s any real benefit in waiting longer than is necessary,” Cherington said. “And the guys we took, we have some level of confidence we can sign. There’s no guarantee, but we have a level of confidence, so I’d say we’d probably get to work on that and hopefully come to an agreement as soon as is reasonable and possible, just because you want to formalize the relationship as soon as you can. And even though you can’t work with guys in person right away, just start sharing more information more formally and be able to talk to them about what development might look like for them over the rest of the year.”