One thing that Pittsburgh Pirates fans loved to criticize Neal Huntington for was his inability to land a top prospect in a trade. Every time it came to trading away a key trade chip it seemed like the team ended up getting more quantity over quality. While the philosophy made sense in terms of prospects being “lottery tickets”, it can be hard to convince a fan base that it was a good move without notable prospects coming back.
A prime example of this would be the Gerrit Cole trade which saw four of the Astros’ mid-level ranked prospects come to the Pittsburgh Pirates.