‘Excited About Where He’s at,’ No. 3 Prospect Seth Hernandez to Make High-A Debut

Seth Hernandez, Pittsburgh Pirates

It didn’t take Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Seth Hernandez long to start turning heads.

The 2025 first-round draft pick is MLB Pipeline’s new No. 3 prospect in baseball and received a promotion to High-A Greensboro. He’ll make his debut with the Grasshoppers on Friday night at Jersey Shore on Friday night.

Given his dominant performance, it was a pretty easy decision to bump Hernandez up a level.

[Scouting director Michael Chernow’s] on top of this stuff all the time,” general manager Ben Cherington said on promoting Hernandez. “He made the argument that it was time to move. It was easy to support it. Looking forward to seeing his first one.”

Hernandez made his professional debut with the Low-A Bradenton Marauders and dazzled across six appearances. The 19-year-old went a perfect 3-0 with a 0.96 ERA. In 28 innings, he allowed 13 hits, walked seven and struck out 50 batters, the most in by any pitcher in the Florida State League.

Had he qualified with enough innings, Hernandez, who was named the FSL Pitcher of the Week for April 20-26, also would’ve led the league in WHIP (0.71) and batting average against (.135).

After selecting him out of high school with the sixth pick in last year’s draft, the Pirates expected Hernandez to perform well, but it’s more than fair to say he’s exceeding expectations.

“I think we expected him to show up and throw hard, have really great stuff, be exciting in that way,” said Cherington. “You don’t know with a high school pitcher how well they’re going to execute and do all those things. That’s been very encouraging, just how much he’s been in the zone with all of his pitches. His mix, he’s getting outs with all of his pitches.”

In addition to now being ranked as the third-best prospect in the sport, Hernandez is also considered the top pitching prospect in baseball.

With Konnor Griffin’s graduation from prospect status, Hernandez gives the Pirates another potential franchise cornerstone and is now one step closer to the big leagues after a quick promotion to Greensboro.