# List of Pittsburgh Pirates first-round draft picks

The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the National League Central division. Since the establishment of the Rule 4 Draft the Pirates have selected 72 players in the first round. Officially known as the "First-Year Player Draft", the Rule 4 Draft is MLB's primary mechanism for assigning players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur clubs to its franchises. The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings, with the team possessing the worst record receiving the first pick. In addition, teams which lost free agents in the previous off-season may be awarded compensatory or supplementary picks.
Of these 72 players, 27 have been pitchers, the most of any position; 20 of these were right-handed, while 7 were left-handed. 17 outfielders and 15 shortstops were selected. The Pirates have also drafted 7 catchers, 3 first basemen, and 3 third basemen, but have never selected a second baseman in the first round. Eleven players came from high schools or universities in the state of California, while eight came from Florida.
Three Pirates' first-round picks have won championships with the franchise. Richie Hebner (1966) won a World Series title on the 1971 championship team, and Steve Nicosia (1973) and Dale Berra (1975) won with the 1979 team (though Berra did not appear in the World Series). No Pirates' first-round pick has ever won the Rookie of the Year Award. None of their picks have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but Barry Bonds (1985) won seven Most Valuable Player awards, more than any other player, including two with Pittsburgh. Bonds also won 12 Silver Sluggers, 8 Gold Gloves, and holds both the single-season and career home run records (73 and 762). The Pirates have made fourteen selections in the supplemental round of the draft and have made the first overall selection five times (1986, 1996, 2002, 2011, 2021). The Pirates will also have the first overall pick in the upcoming 2023 Major League Baseball draft after winning the inaugural draft lottery.
The Pirates have failed 3 times in signing a first-round draft pick. This first occurred in 2012, when the Pirates selected RHP Mark Appel from Stanford University, who sought a significant bonus which, according to new MLB rules, would have cost the Pirates a future draft pick. The Pirates received the 9th overall pick in the 2013 draft for their failure to sign Appel.
Pedro Álvarez (2009) nearly went unsigned as he faced a contentious process in which Álvarez and the Pirates reached an initial deal after the signing deadline (with permission from MLB); his agent Scott Boras and the Players Association filed a grievance challenging this post-deadline deal, and ultimately the Pirates renegotiated a deal with him in September that year. The Pirates have had ten compensatory picks overall since the first draft in 1965. These additional picks are provided when a team loses a particularly valuable free agent in the previous off-season, or, more recently, if a team fails to sign a draft pick from the previous year.

## Key

| Year | Each year links to an article about that year's Major League Baseball Draft. |
| Position | Indicates the secondary/collegiate position at which the player was drafted, rather than the professional position the player may have gone on to play |
| Pick | Indicates the number of the pick |
| * | Player did not sign with the Pirates |
| § | Indicates a supplemental pick |
| '71 | Player was a member of the Pirates' 1971 championship team |
| '79 | Player was a member of the Pirates' 1979 championship team |

## Picks

| Year | Name | Position | School (Location) | Pick |
| 1965 | Doug Dickerson | Outfielder | Ensley High School (Birmingham, Alabama) | 10 |
| 1966 | Richie Hebner '71 | Shortstop | Norwood High School (Norwood, Massachusetts) | 15 |
| 1967 | Joe Grigas | Outfielder | Coyle High School (Brockton, Massachusetts) | 16 |
| 1968 | Dick Sharon | Outfielder | Sequoia High School (Redwood City, California) | 9 |
| 1969 | John Morlan | Right-handed pitcher | Merritt Island High School (Merritt Island, Florida) | 10 |
| 1970 | John Bedard | Right-handed pitcher | Springfield Tech High School (Springfield, Massachusetts) | 13 |
| 1971 | Craig Reynolds | Shortstop | Regan High School (Houston, Texas) | 22 |
| 1972 | Dwayne Peltier | Shortstop | Servite High School (Anaheim, California) | 23 |
| 1973 | Steve Nicosia '79 | Catcher | North Miami Beach High School (Opa-locka, Florida) | 24 |
| 1974 | Rod Scurry | Left-handed pitcher | Procter Hug High School (Reno, Nevada) | 11 |
| 1975 | Dale Berra '79 | Shortstop | Montclair High School (Montclair, New Jersey) | 20 |
| 1976 | Jim Parke | Right-handed pitcher | Henry Ford II High School (Sterling Heights, Michigan) | 21 |
| 1977 | Anthony Nicely | Outfielder | Meadowdale High School (Dayton, Ohio) | 18 |
| 1978 | Brad Garnett | First baseman | DeSoto High School (DeSoto, Texas) | 18 |
| 1978 | Gerry Aubin | Outfielder | Dougherty High School (Albany, Georgia) | 21 |
| 1979 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 1980 | Rich Renteria | Shortstop | South Gate High School (South Gate, California) | 20 |
| 1981 | Jim Winn | Right-handed pitcher | John Brown University (Siloam Springs, Arkansas) | 14 |
| 1982 | Sam Khalifa | Shortstop | Sahuaro High School (Tucson, Arizona) | 7 |
| 1983 | Ron DeLucchi | Outfielder | Campolindo High School (Moraga, California) | 12 |
| 1984 | Kevin Andersh | Left-handed pitcher | University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, New Mexico) | 15 |
| 1985 | Barry Bonds | Outfielder | Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona) | 6 |
| 1986 | Jeff King | Shortstop | University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, Arkansas) | 1 |
| 1987 | Mark Merchant | Outfielder | Oviedo High School (Oviedo, Florida) | 2 |
| 1988 | Austin Manahan | Shortstop | Horizon High School (Scottsdale, Arizona) | 13 |
| 1989 | Willie Greene | Shortstop | Jones County High School (Gray, Georgia) | 18 |
| 1990 | Kurt Miller | Right-handed pitcher | West High School (Bakersfield, California) | 5 |
| 1990 | Mike Zimmerman | Right-handed pitcher | University of South Alabama (Mobile, Alabama) | 27$^§$ |
| 1991 | Jon Farrell | Catcher | Florida Junior College (Jacksonville, Florida) | 24 |
| 1992 | Jason Kendall | Catcher | Torrance High School (Torrance, California) | 23 |
| 1992 | Shon Walker | Outfielder | Harrison County High School (Cynthiana, Kentucky) | 33$^§$ |
| 1993 | Charles Peterson | Outfielder | Laurens District High School (Laurens, South Carolina) | 22 |
| 1993 | Jermaine Allensworth | Outfielder | Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana) | 34$^§$ |
| 1993 | Andy Rice | First baseman | Parker High School (Birmingham, Alabama) | 42$^§$ |
| 1994 | Mark Farris | Shortstop | Angleton High School (Angleton, Texas) | 10 |
| 1995 | Chad Hermansen | Shortstop | Green Valley High School (Henderson, Nevada) | 10 |
| 1996 | Kris Benson | Right-handed pitcher | Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina) | 1 |
| 1997 | J. J. Davis | First baseman | Baldwin Park High School (Baldwin Park, California) | 8 |
| 1998 | Clint Johnson | Left-handed pitcher | Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee) | 15 |
| 1999 | Bobby Bradley | Right-handed pitcher | Wellington Community High School (Wellington, Florida) | 8 |
| 2000 | Sean Burnett | Left-handed pitcher | Wellington Community High School (Wellington, Florida) | 19 |
| 2001 | John Van Benschoten | Right-handed pitcher | Kent State University (Kent, Ohio) | 8 |
| 2002 | Bryan Bullington | Right-handed pitcher | Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana) | 1 |
| 2003 | Paul Maholm | Left-handed pitcher | Mississippi State University (Mississippi State, Mississippi) | 8 |
| 2004 | Neil Walker | Catcher | Pine Richland High School (Gibsonia, Pennsylvania) | 11 |
| 2005 | Andrew McCutchen | Outfielder | Fort Meade High School (Fort Meade, Florida) | 11 |
| 2006 | Brad Lincoln | Right-handed pitcher | University of Houston (Houston, Texas) | 4 |
| 2007 | Daniel Moskos | Left-handed pitcher | Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina) | 4 |
| 2008 | Pedro Álvarez | Third baseman | Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee) | 2 |
| 2009 | Tony Sánchez | Catcher | Boston College (Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts) | 4 |
| 2009 | Victor Black | Right-handed pitcher | Dallas Baptist University (Dallas, Texas) | 49$^§$ |
| 2010 | Jameson Taillon | Right-handed pitcher | The Woodlands High School (The Woodlands, Texas) | 2 |
| 2011 | Gerrit Cole | Right-handed pitcher | University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California) | 1 |
| 2012 | Mark Appel* | Right-handed pitcher | Stanford University (Stanford, California) | 8 |
| 2012 | Barrett Barnes | Outfielder | Texas Tech University (Lubbock, Texas) | 45$^§$ |
| 2013 | Austin Meadows | Outfielder | Grayson High School (Loganville, Georgia) | 9$^§$ |
| 2013 | Reese McGuire | Catcher | Kentwood High School (Covington, Washington) | 14 |
| 2014 | Cole Tucker | Shortstop | Mountain Pointe High School (Phoenix, Arizona) | 24 |
| 2014 | Connor Joe | Outfielder | University of San Diego (San Diego, California) | 39$^§$ |
| 2015 | Kevin Newman | Shortstop | University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona) | 19 |
| 2015 | Ke'Bryan Hayes | Third baseman | Concordia Lutheran High School (Tomball, Texas) | 45$^§$ |
| 2016 | Will Craig | Third baseman | Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) | 22 |
| 2016 | Nick Lodolo* | Right-handed pitcher | Damien High School (La Verne, California) | 41$^§$ |
| 2017 | Shane Baz | Right-handed pitcher | Concordia Lutheran High School (Tomball, Texas) | 12 |
| 2018 | Travis Swaggerty | Outfielder | University of South Alabama (Mobile, Alabama) | 10 |
| 2018 | Gunnar Hoglund* | Right-handed pitcher | Fivay High School (Hudson, Florida) | 36$^§$ |
| 2019 | Quinn Priester | Right-handed pitcher | Cary-Grove High School (Cary, Illinois) | 18 |
| 2019 | Sammy Siani | Center Fielder | William Penn Senior High School (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) | 37$^§$ |
| 2020 | Nick Gonzales | Shortstop | New Mexico State University (Las Cruces, New Mexico) | 7 |
| 2021 | Henry Davis | Catcher | University of Louisville (Louisville, Kentucky) | 1 |
| 2021 | Carmen Mlodzinski | Right-handed pitcher | University of South Carolina (Columbia, South Carolina) | 31$^§$ |
| 2022 | Termarr Johnson | Shortstop | Mays High School (Atlanta, Georgia) | 4 |
| 2022 | Tom Harrington | Right-handed pitcher | Campbell University (Buies Creek, North Carolina) | 36$^§$ |
| 2023 | Paul Skenes | Right-handed pitcher | LSU (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) | 1 |
| 2024 | Konnor Griffin | Shortstop | Jackson Prep School (Jackson, Mississippi) | 9 |