The Pittsburgh Pirates signed two draft picks on Monday afternoon, getting 17th round draft pick Mason Martin and 27th round draft pick David Lee, who just won the College World Series with Florida. Martin played some first base in high school, but the Pittsburgh Pirates announced him as an outfielder. Lee is a 21-year-old right-handed pitcher. Both players have been assigned to the GCL Pirates.
Here are the player pages for both players with more information.
The Pirates have now signed 37 of their 42 draft picks this year. You can check out our draft tracker here. The draft signing period ends on Friday. It appears right now that the only other possibility to sign is 12th round draft pick Hunter Wolfe. The other four have committed to going back to school. If we get any bonus information for either player, we will post it here. Martin had a commitment to Gonzaga and will likely require an over-slot deal.
UPDATE: Jim Callis reports that Martin received $350,000 to sign. That means that the Pirates can offer $349,395 to Hunter Wolfe before going 5% over their bonus pool. Or in other words, that’s the most they will offer, but it’s possible that he signs for less. I’ll note that we don’t know all of the bonus amounts, but every over-slot amount has been announced, so it’s safe to assume that $349,395 is the highest they can offer.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
Isn’t David Lee pretty old for being a draft pick? He retired from the NBA not so long ago, heck, he may still even be playing, I’m not sure, don’t follow the NBA that closely.
google david lee florida international or fiu and you will get david lee the baseball player.
Same name, same school- Different kiddo.
Two Hunters from Walter State. Who’da thunk it?
This appears to be a very strong draft class. Many of the players are off to good starts for their respective teams, too.
So….this is it right? Just Wolfe?
I’m glad the Bucs finally decided to draft guys with power instead of guys who go with the gap to gap approach.
Uselton and Mitchell will be reverted back to having line drive approaches. Their obsession with power is what led them to dropping in the draft. Busby had similar issues.
Uselton should be reverted back to hitting line drives. He should be allowed to grow into any power he will have. Mitchell should only have minor adjustments made to his approach, and not his swing. He has a very natural smooth powerful swing.
As opposed to their International free agent strategy, I do applaud the Pirates for getting all if their high leverage picks signed. This draft was huge improvement over past 2 to 3 drafts.
Yep. Pretty pleased with these picks.
When was the last time the Pirates signed such a high percentage of their picks?
When was the last time the Bucs drafted two Hunters from Walter State?