Pittsburg, PA

Pirates’ Farm System Drops In ESPN’s Rankings

Published

12 months ago

February 2, 2025

Pirates’ Farm System Drops In ESPN’s Rankings

With Paul Skenes and Jared Jones announcing their presence in the big leagues last season, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ farm system took a bit of a hit in ESPN’s rankings.

ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranked the Pirates’ farm system as the 20th best in baseball, citing the loss of Skenes. He also noted that the Pirates’ top prospect, right-handed pitcher Bubba Chandler, could eventually give Pittsburgh another star alongside Skenes and center fielder Oneil Cruz. Pittsburgh was 14th in ESPN’s rankings last season.

“The whole organization has a different feel after the emergence of Paul Skenes,” McDaniel writes. “Oneil Cruz might be the only other potential star on the big league roster, but that’s two more than some teams have, and Bubba Chandler could make it a trio by the middle of 2025. Konnor Griffin is arguably the prospect with the highest variance in the top 100, so he certainly could turn into a superstar; however, this system is in a brief down cycle as the big league team is full of the last couple of years of graduates. Pittsburgh might have to now start to balance competing in the short term and long term, a welcome change after six straight losing seasons.”

Pittsburgh was last among teams in the National League Central. The Milwaukee Brewers were 8th, while the Chicago Cubs weren’t far behind at No. 10. The Cincinnati Reds were ranked 13th and the St. Louis Cardinals landed at 19th.

The Pirates had four players in ESPN’s top 100 rankings; Chandler, second baseman Termarr Johnson, shortstop Konnor Griffin and right-handed pitcher Braxton Ashcraft. Of the players ranked between 101 and 200, right-handed pitcher Thomas Harrington was 162nd and shortstop Jack Brannigan was 193rd.

On the heels of back-to-back 76-86 seasons and being a franchise that rarely spends money in free agency, the Pirates need their top prospects to eventually make an impact when they arrive in the big leagues. If they can’t then Pittsburgh could continue to struggle as it looks for its first playoff appearance since 2015.

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Pittsburg, PA

Extremely cold temperatures will be in place for the Pittsburgh area through the end of the week

Published

9 hours ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

Extremely cold temperatures will be in place for the Pittsburgh area through the end of the week.

Any Alert Days Ahead? Tuesday is a First Alert Weather Day due to wind chills potentially dipping to 25 degrees below zero. Friday and Saturday are likely First Alert Weather Days due to extreme cold.

Aware: Extreme cold warning in effect through 11 a.m. today, A cold weather advisory is in effect from 7 p.m. today through 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

There will be little escaping the cold over the next week, while outside, temperatures most mornings dip to 0° or below.

Highs are only expected to hit the mid-teens. When it gets this cold, we see a slew of cold-weather warnings and advisories being issued. For a general rule of thumb, warnings are always worse than advisories. So even without knowing why they are issued, you should think an Extreme Cold Warning is worse than a Cold Weather Advisory.

Extreme Cold Warnings are issued when wind chill values dip below twenty below zero. At these temperatures, you are looking at frostbite setting in 30 minutes or less. A Cold Weather Advisory is issued when wind chill values dip to lower than ten below zero but not more than twenty below zero.

KDKA Weather Center

So knowing that, we will likely see Cold Weather Advisories also issued for Wednesday evening to Thursday morning with morning temperatures near 0° and wind chills between -10° to -20°. Thursday evening to Friday morning, along with Friday evening to Saturday morning will likely see Extreme Cold Warnings issued with morning temperatures falling to around -5° on Friday morning and -8° on Saturday. It won’t take too much of a wind to get to the warning criteria on those days. If you must work outside for any long period, please take precautions against frostbite, including layering and covering up, along with making sure your skin isn’t dry.

At least there are no days when we are expecting to see several inches of snow incoming. We do have a chance for snow tonight, with our best chance coming after 5 this evening, with upslope snow showers possible for the rest of the evening. Snow totals will be an inch or less. Besides that, I don’t have anything more than an isolated snow chance through next Monday.