The division reports debuted last year. The goal of this article series is to provide a quick overview of all dynasty-relevant information from each division. Each team has multiple minor league levels, each containing plenty of impactful prospects, which can feel impossible to keep up with. This article series, which will be updated once per month, will help dynasty managers stay up-to-date on performances, injuries, promotions, and more. New this season is the inclusion of tiers in the rankings. Next to their rank, each prospect is assigned a tier. The tier range is 1-5.
- Tier 1: A potential difference-making dynasty prospect. Somebody who would rank in the top-20ish prospects for dynasty baseball
- Tier 2: A still very good dynasty prospect who holds plenty of value. This prospect would typically rank in the 21-75 range
- Tier 3: A mid-tier prospect who could be valuable but has questions and concerns present in his profile, ranking in the 76-150 range
- Tier 4: A prospect who is worth knowing, but is reserved for deeper leagues. This prospect would rank 151-250
- Tier 5: The rest of the prospects fall into Tier 5
Even after the promotions of Paul Skenes and Jared Jones in 2024, the Buccos have a talent-rich system headlined by Bubba Chandler and 2024 first-rounder Konnor Griffin. The Pirates may not be in their competitive window now, but it won’t be long before they’re raising the Jolly Roger!
Notable Prospect Promotions and News
- Yet another Pirates’ pitching prospect is becoming an exciting name as 6’4″ lefty Hunter Barco made the jump to AAA on May 6th. Barco is a fast riser in my personal rankings, having jumped inside the Top 125, surpassing organizational mates Termarr Johnson and Wyatt Sanford. Barco has been completely unhittable in 2025. In 33 1/3 innings, he has allowed just 15 hits and 3 ER (all at AAA) while striking out 47 batters. Opposing hitters have a .135 average and a .429 OPS against him. Given his current workload (33 1/3) versus his career high (66), my best guess is that Barco would top out around 90 innings in 2025. That would pretty much guarantee he would remain at Triple-A to close out the season.
- Want more Pirates pitching? Yet another of their top farm arms is in the Majors, as Braxton Ashcraft debuted on May 26th. Ashcraft is one of the most talented arms in their organization, but he has missed significant time due to injuries throughout his career. Pitching exclusively out of the bullpen with the Pirates, Ashcraft has started his career with six scoreless innings, yielding three hits and one walk with 6Ks. His four-seam fastball is averaging 96.8 mph. Ashcraft has produced a 53.3% groundball rate thus far but has a track record of being an excellent bat-misser in the Minors. Given his injury history, it will be interesting to see how the Pirates utilize him moving forward.
Notable Prospect Performances
- There are a plethora of high-end prospects playing in High-A right now, but Pirates OF Esmerlyn Valdez leads all of them with 15 home runs in just 52 games for Greensboro. The 21-year-old outfielder signed with the Buccos at 16 in 2021 and spent the last four seasons playing between the Dominican Summer League and Class-A Bradenton. Valdez moved to High-A this season and is destroying pitching at the level. In addition to his 15 homers, Valdez is slashing .288/.365/.571 with 11 doubles and 37 RBI while trimming his strikeout rate to 24.8%. The power output is no surprise, as Valdez hit 22 last season, but it’s how he’s doing it. After a six-homer month in April, Valdez belted nine in May. Included was a three-game homer streak and then another streak where he mashed four in a span of seven games late in the month.
- Nick Yorke spent 11 days in the Majors to close out last season and did well, hitting two homers with two steals. He was a favorite to break camp with the club this Spring but didn’t make the club and then went on the MiLB IL with a shoulder injury on April 4th. As he recovered from the injury, Yorke sputtered in April with a .212 average. May was a far different story. Yorke slashed .322/.366/.425 in the month, hitting two homers with three doubles and seven steals. He had a hit in 20 of 24 games, which included a six-game and seven-game hit streak. Sometime soon, I’d expect Yorke to be back up with the big club, and he’s a worthy stash in points league formats where average and OBP play up.
Esmerlyn Valdez leads all players at the High-A level in home runs (14), RBI (36) and slugging (.604) 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/j0yRxlqgSo
— Young Bucs (@YoungBucsPIT) May 26, 2025
