Pirates' Top Prospect Seth Hernandez Suffers Injury in Latest High-A Start

The 20-year-old has dominated in his first season in the minors

Jul 12, 2026; Philadelphia, PA, USA; National League pitcher Seth Hernandez (22) throws a pitch against the American League in the second inning at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

One of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Seth Hernandez, is reportedly dealing with an injury that will likely cause him to miss a chunk of time during his first minor league season.

Hernandez, MLB Pipeline's No. 6 overall prospect for 2026, is being placed on the minor league injured list due to a "left oblique issue," according to MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo. The injury reportedly popped up during the 20-year-old's most recent start on July 24, when he threw three shutout innings against the Winston-Salem Dash, the High-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox.

It's unclear at this time how long Hernandez is expected to be sidelined. But oblique injuries can be tricky to deal with, so it wouldn't be too surprising if the Pirates took an extremely cautious approach to the recovery of their highly touted pitching prospect.

How could Seth Hernandez's oblique injury impact his season?

Jul 22, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Seth Hernandez (left), the Pittsburgh Pirates' first-round and number six overall pick in the 2025 first-year player draft, looks at the glove of Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes (30) before the game against the Detroit Tigers at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In total this season, Hernandez has produced a 2.43 ERA in 18 minor league starts, with 118 strikeouts in 74 innings. The 6-foot-4 righty dominated Single-A to begin his professional career, posting a 0.96 ERA in six starts. That earned the young hurler a quick promotion to High-A in May, where he has a 3.33 ERA in 12 starts.

Despite these impressive numbers at the beginning of his professional career, it's important to remember that Hernandez is only one year removed from pitching in high school. The hard-throwing righty was the sixth-overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, and he made his minor league debut just under four months ago. With this in mind, Pittsburgh was likely always going to keep an extremely close eye on the 20-year-old's workload this season. And now, with his oblique injury, the Pirates may play the long game with their prized prospect.

If Hernandez didn't suffer this recent injury, it would've been interesting to see if Pittsburgh considered promoting him to Double-A before the end of the 2026 season. As things stand, that now seems unlikely, unless the right-hander has an incredibly speedy recovery. But either way, Pirates fans will be anxiously awaiting the next update on the status of the franchise's top pitching prospect.