Pirates receive 2017 Comp Round B draft pick

The Pirates have received a pick in Comp Round B next year. The pick is third from last in Comp Round A and is currently No. 73 overall, although that could change somewhat based on where various free agents sign this winter.

The picks are given to teams that are in the bottom ten in revenue or market size or both. The selections for next year are as follows (and you can see the whole draft order here):

Round A

31. Rays
32. Reds
33. Athletics
34. Brewers
35. Twins
36. Marlins

Round B

68. Diamondbacks
69. Padres
70. Rockies
71. Indians
72. Royals
73. Pirates
74. Orioles
75. Cardinals

The new CBA stipulates that eight teams in Round B will switch into Round A in 2018 and 2020, according to Mayo. They will be in Round B in 2017, 2019 and 2021. (The order of the picks is no longer determined by a lottery, which had been a silly aspect of the process before. You still have a system in which the league is trying to address competitive balance issues by giving similar picks to the Pirates, Orioles and Cardinals, however.) Also, having a Comp Round pick adds to a team’s draft pool, and each pick can be traded once during the regular season.

The Pirates, then, currently have the No. 12 overall pick (their regular first-round selection), No. 42 (compensation for not signing Nick Lodolo last year), No. 50 (their regular second-round selection) and No. 73 (the Comp Round B pick).