Organizational players have long been a staple of every team’s minor league system. That’s rapidly becoming less true, with MLB cutting both the size of the minors and the length of the draft. The latter is down to 20 rounds now, which wouldn’t leave room for, say, Andres Alvarez, the Pirates’ 22nd round pick out of Washington State in 2019.
A college senior drafted that late doesn’t have an easy path to stay in the system for more than a couple years. Alvarez seemed an especially unlikely candidate. He was a good defensive shortstop in college, but his hitting peaked at an OPS of .