- 1970 - The Pirates selected HS pitcher John Bedard with their first pick (#13) of the draft. While Bedard never made it past A ball, the FO hit paydirt later, picking OF Dave “The Cobra” Parker in the 15th round and adding C Ed Ott in the 23rd.
- 1971 - The Pirates selected SS Craig Reynolds (#22) first in the draft, followed by RHP Doug Bair (#46) in the second round. It was slim pickings that year; they were the only two selected who saw any big league time. Both did have long careers, playing 15 years. Reynolds suited up mostly for Houston. He got into 38 games as a Pirate and hit .225 between 1975-76, while Bair got into four games as a Bucco in 1976 and then worked the pen for six other clubs.
- 1975 - Yogi’s son Dale, a high school SS, was the Bucs first pick (#20) in the draft. They also signed RHPs Don Robinson and Ernie Camacho, the only other picks to play in the majors.
- 1980 - SS Rich Renteria (#20) was the Bucs first selection in the draft; he ended up with 186 MLB games, mostly with Seattle. OF Joe Orsulak, picked in the sixth round, had a pretty good run as a reserve OF’er, and third-round RHP Tim Burke carved out a nice career in the bullpen with Montreal and later NY.
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| Rick Renteria - MLB Photo Sports Memorabilia |
- 1990 - The Bucs picked HS righty Kurt Miller in the first round (#5) of the draft; he went on to win two games in his career. Other guys they signed who were more successful were 1B Kevin Young (seventh round), RHP Brian Shouse (13th round), RHP Rick White (15th round), 1B Mark Johnson (20th round; he was first selected in 1989) and C Keith Osik (24th round).
- 1996 - Clemson RHP Kris Benson was the Bucs top pick and the overall number one selection in the draft, signing for a $2M bonus. They also inked OF Tike Redman (fifth round), IF Willie Harris (28th round) and OF Rob Mackowiak (53rd round). One that got away was LHP Chris Capuano (45th round), who went to college and signed with Arizona in 1999. LHP Mike “Gonzo” Gonzalez (17th round) was also selected, but didn’t sign. The Pirates tried again and got him in the following draft.
- 2002 - The Pirates selected RHP Bryan Bullington with the first overall pick of the player draft, bypassing BJ Upton, Prince Fielder, Zack Greinke, Khalil Greene, Nick Swisher, Matt Cain, Cole Hamels, David Wright and Jeff Francoeur. Bullington received a $4M signing bonus after four months of negotiations. RHP Matt Capps (seventh round) and OF Nyjer Morgan (33rd round) were also members of that draft class.
- 2012 - The Pirates had pre-draft favorite RHP Mark Appel drop in their laps at the eighth spot because of perceived signability issues. Well, those issues weren’t perceived; they were real as he and agent Scott Boras turned down the Pirates' reported bonus offer of $3.8M, the biggest deal they could tender without losing a first-round draft pick the next year. Appel was the only unsigned first rounder of the draft. His pick nullified a reported pre-draft deal with OF David Dahl, who was selected 10th by the Colorado Rockies. The Pirates received a bonus pick for 2013 (which became prep OF’er Austin Meadows the following year), and used their 2012 sandwich pick (#45) to select Texas Tech OF Barrett Barnes, who signed for $1M. C Jacob Stallings (7th round) and HS pick SS Max Moroff (16th round) have appeared for the Pirates. One notable busted selection was prep star Hayden Hurst, who played two seasons in the minors, first as a pitcher and then as a first baseman, after signing for $400K as a 17th rounder. He went on to South Carolina to play football and was a first-round pick in the 2018 NFL draft, now playing for the Atlanta Falcons.
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| Travis Swaggerty - 2020 Bowman |
- 2018 - The Pirates picked South Alabama OF Travis Swaggerty, who was compared to Austin Meadows, in the first round (#10) and inked him to a $4.4M contract. At #36 in the Competitive Balance round, they selected Florida prep RHP Gunnar Hoglund and then used the second round (#51) to add Texas high school RHP Braxton Ashcraft. Hoglund turned down a reported $2M offer from the Bucs to pitch at Ole Miss while Ashcraft agreed to a $1.825M payout.
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