Busts: NL Central
2026 fantasy baseball BUST picks from the five teams in the NL Central
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Pirates
The Pirates have a lot of young talent, and they’re coming off another bad season last year, so we have a lot value on them in fantasy leagues this year. I’m buying a lot of Pirates this year. I’m a little bit worried that my childish fanhood of the team is misleading me here. So I don’t know, double-check my takes with other people.
So I’m going to make some wild picks here. Remember that this post is simply highlighting guys that I don’t love at their 2026 cost. And I’m trying to give you a few names from each team, so I’m taking some liberties.
Paul Skenes
Am I the first person to ever call Paul Skenes a bust? I might be. But I don’t really believe it. I’m just saying that he’s my #3 pitcher this year. I’d take Crochet and Skubal over him.
When you’re deciding how to rank the game’s top three pitchers, you have to get down into the nitty-gritty a little bit. We have to do some of that tie-breaking stuff we don’t typically love doing. So here it is:
Skenes had the worst SIERA and the lowest K-BB% of the trio. He’s also posted HR/9 marks in his career that don’t seem repeatable. Pretty much nothing about his first two years seem like something that a pitcher could keep up for very long. But maybe he’s just truly that good. He does have pitch mix depth and velocity that few others have ever had. And it’s a good park for limiting homers.
But I think Skenes gives up more homers this year, and I think there’s a much higher chance of him going for an ERA near three than a lot of people will think.
So that’s my take, I’m ranking Skenes as my #3 overall pitcher. Not exactly a bust pick.
Konnor Griffin
Now that I’m done hating on the best pitcher the Pittsburgh Pirates have ever had, I will shift to the best prospect they’ve ever had.
I just don’t see it at the cost for 2026. Dynasty/keeper leagues, totally different story, obviously. We’re talking about a guy who has not even seen 100 plate appearances above single-A ball yet. And we’re drafting him inside of the top 230 now.
He’s going ahead of guys like Ezequiel Tovar, Xander Bogaerts, Colson Montgomery, and sometimes even Xavier Edwards. You have your two classic questions to answer before you can justify this pick:
When will he come up?
Will he be good?
With every move the Pirates have made this offseason, I’ve thought it more and more likely that Griffin might truly get a shot to make the team. But it still seems very unlikely to me. Again, he’s hardly played above A ball. He might even go back to AA to start the year, I don’t know. The best guess is that he spends April in the minors. Remember Bubba Chandler last year? I mean, he was struggling a bit, and the Pirates weren’t going for it like they are now, but nonetheless, they slow-rolled it.
For question two, let me remind you of what Bobby Witt Jr. did in his rookie year:
→ .254/.294/.428, 20 HR, 30 SB
The 50 HR+SB were great, but his .722 OPS was pretty mediocre, and when you look at the full picture, you see that he was not at all the player he’s come to be since then. These adjustments take time, so I don’t think the top 250 price on Griffin is justified for 2026.
Jared Jones
He’s throwing. I think we could even see him pitch in some spring games. So he could be back by May, earlier than we expected.
My issue with Jones this year is that he’s never had great command. He missed all of last year, so a lot of people might have forgotten about him.
He flashed ceiling in his 2024 debut (26.2% K%), but he gave up 1.33 HR/9 and posted a 14% K-BB% in his final 11 starts after bursting onto the season.
The hot start to the year he had always seemed a bit too good to be true. He had never shown command like that before. So we have to really wonder what kind of command he’ll have in his return from Tommy John surgery. We also have to wonder how many innings the Pirates might want to put on him after the lost year.
He’s not super expensive, but I’d still let someone else take him this year.
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