Baseball America released their third mock draft on Thursday and they have the Pittsburgh Pirates taking 2B/LF Keston Hiura from UC Irvine with the 12th overall pick.
This is an interesting player, who is hard to rank due to an elbow injury, which will probably require surgery right after he signs. Hiura is one of the best hitters in the draft, and he is athletic enough to play second base and some center field in the past, but he has been the designated hitter since April 2016 due to the injury. That doesn’t mean that he profiles as a DH, he just needs to have surgery before he can resume playing in the field. The bat is strong enough that he would be a solid pick at 12th overall. This season, Hiura is hitting .402/.546/.669 in 49 games. He has 46 walks, 19 doubles and eight homers.
Baseball America recently rated him as the 20th best player in the draft class. MLB Pipeline has him 26th overall and believes he will need Tommy John surgery. Both rankings reflect the risk involved in taking an injured player. For a position player, that is 6-8 months recovery, which would probably mean that whichever team signs him would have it done right away, so he is available from the start of the 2018 season. Hiura doesn’t turn 21 until August, so he is young for his draft class.
I’ve included a video from Prospect Pipeline. It’s a little older, but it has video of him play second base. He still takes grounders daily in pre-games, just doesn’t make any throws at all.
