The Pittsburgh Pirates wrapped up the 2022 MLB draft with ten more picks on day three.
For every pick in the draft so far, check out our new Draft page, which you can also find linked in the site’s menu. Below are the day three picks, with links to their articles and player pages. Check below for a breakdown of the guys drafted on day three.
11: Dominic Perachi | Player Page
12: KC Hunt | Player Page
13: Miguel Fulgencio | Player Page
14: Julian Bosnic | Player Page
15: Josiah Sightler | Player Page
16: Nick Cimillo | Player Page
17: Jaycob Deese | Player Page
18: Elijah Birdsong | Player Page
19: Yoel Tejeda | Player Page
20: Joshua Loeschorn | Player Page
Potential Over-Slot Deals
The Pirates only drafted three prep players in this draft, while also taking one JuCo player. I don’t think they will have much slot savings from their day one picks, with most of their savings coming from the 5th-10th rounders.
On day three, the Pirates took two guys who might require over-slot deals.
The first was 13th rounder Miguel Fulgencio, a left-handed pitcher from the JuCo ranks who has a commitment to Oklahoma. Fulgencio throws 93-96 with an average slider, and was Baseball America’s 289th best prospect in the draft.
Perhaps a more difficult sign will be 19th rounder Yoel Tejeda. The prep pitcher turned 19 a few weeks ago, and stands at 6′ 7″, 210 pounds. He’s a two-way player in high school, also playing first base. The Pirates like the right-hander’s ability on the mound, announcing him as a pitcher. He throws low-90s, touching 97, and was ranked 372nd in this draft by Baseball America.
Summer Ball Success
The Pirates had the fourth pick in this draft, which means they had the fourth pick on day three. The 11th round pick isn’t always the highest upside or most notable pick in the current bonus pool system. However, that player is notable for the fact that the team prioritized them first on day three.
The Pirates took Dominic Perachi, a left-handed pitcher from Salve Regina University. Perachi may be a late bloomer from a small school. He had solid numbers his junior year, with a 1.00 ERA and a 15.1 K/9. He followed that with strong results in summer ball.
Perachi is a left-handed pitcher — one of six drafted by the Pirates this year, with three going on day three. He can reach 93 MPH, has a projectable 6′ 4″, 195 pound frame, and pairs the fastball with a curve and changeup.
KC Hunt, drafted one round later, seems like a similar story. Hunt didn’t see much action on the mound at Mississippi State. His overall numbers were poor during his junior season, outside of 32 strikeouts in 25.1 innings. Like Perachi, Hunt went to play summer ball this year, and fared much better. He had a 2.65 ERA and a 13.8 K/9 in his limited looks.
Hunt throws 93-94 with a slider that can generate swings and misses. He has worked as a reliever, and due to having fewer than 50 innings in college, he’s likely to stay in that role.
In both cases, the Pirates drafted guys who look much more impressive when you factor their recent summer ball performances into the mix.
The College Seniors
There were six college seniors taken by the Pirates on day three, adding to two others in the top ten rounds.
This group will likely move faster through the system, providing depth for the A-ball teams immediately, with a few possibly working their way to Altoona next year. The odds of getting a future MLB prospect from this group is slim. What you want to see for hope in that regard is a standout tool.
For 15th round first baseman Josiah Sightler, that tool is power. He had 15 home runs and a .329 ISO as a senior at South Carolina, giving a boost over his previous power production.
In the very next round, the Pirates added catcher Nick Cimillo, who also hit for an impressive amount of power after transferring to Rutgers as a senior. Prior to that, Cimillo played three years at Manhattan College.
Julian Bosnic, taken in the 14th round, is another left-handed pitcher. He’s an interesting case in that he is currently planning to transfer to Arkansas as a fifth-year senior. Bosnic missed the 2022 season with a flexor strain in his elbow, which required surgery in April. He didn’t pitch much in 2020, and threw 50.2 innings with good numbers in 2021. Bosnic isn’t necessarily the highest upside guy from this group, but he has the most leverage.
The Pirates took right-handed pitching college seniors with three of their final four picks.
Jaycob Deese, taken in the 17th round, has mostly worked as a starter, with unimpressive numbers. He may fare better in a move to relief, working with his low-90s fastball and slider combo.
18th rounder Elijah Birdsong hasn’t played much in his college career after missing his junior year with Tommy John. He struggled his senior year, but the lack of pitching prior to this makes him less experienced than other college seniors.
The final pick of the draft was Joshua Loeschorn, who has a lot of pitching experience in college, including summer ball heading into the 2022 draft. The Pirates love guys who play summer ball. Loeschorn throws 88-92 with a slider and a change. He’s mostly worked as a starter, and could fill innings in the younger A-ball rotations.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
“Julian Bosnic, taken in the 14th round, is another left-handed pitcher. He’s an interesting case in that he is currently planning to transfer to Arkansas State as a fifth-year senior.”
It’s actually Arkansas, not Arkansas State, and since Arkansas has one of the top baseball programs it speaks well of Bosnic’s potential but also that he might be harder to sign (though as a rising 5th year senior he has very little leverage).
Speaking of seniors, to point out the obvious many of those seniors still have a COVID year so they won’t necessarily sign for as cheaply as would have been the case a few years ago.
not my kinda draft, but they got some interesting players nonetheless. i’m excited to watch them play in pro ball
If drafting all these pitchers means we won’t have the endless waiver claims on relievers, then I’m happy 😉
nailed it with this comment
Not every year can be as exciting as last year’s haul, but I wish they’d taken more projectable high schoolers and less 23 year olds. I like Fulgencio and Sightler most out of the older college crowd, and I see what makes Harrington and Barco appealing, but the only picks I really loved were Termarr and Tejeda
Nobody else drafted many projectable prep players in rounds 11-20 either. I don’t know why. Since many are puzzled, we should learn more soon.
I will note that age matters less for pitchers than hitters. If you are 18, your reaction time is the best it’s going to be (usually). You can improve every aspect of your game, but reaction time won’t get better. It will get worse. For pitchers this matters much less.
Seems like the asks simply exceeded the value.
At some point it’s a bad deal to cut what you’ll spend on better prospects only in order to chase worse and riskier ones.
I do want to thank this site for its draft coverage.. you do an excellent job year in and year out. I do appreciate your efforts and it is why I support this site. Hopefully before I am gone, the Pirates organization can be one to also support and be proud of. Barring new ownership I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
Considering they were picking near the top of every round, a very unimpressive draft on paper. Too many very low ceiling prospects and most were pitchers. Other than Johnson and Harrington, not much to be excited about. Unlike last year, this draft doesn’t improve the system much on paper. I expect other systems will pass the Pirates in ratings after the draft. Pirates drafted three HS players and will likely be leaving money on the table. If so, that is a failure in my opinion.
I think the only way there will be money left is if Kennedy and Tejeda don’t sign, which would just mean that there was a change of heart at some point and money allocated for those two goes unused (I’m assuming they picked Tejeda after working the phones and him being the HS player who gave a number they thought they could match). We’ll see–if there is money left, then I’d agree with others that we should have added another HS pick or two yesterday.
Agreed. There will be some money from rounds 4-10, but not too much. And rounds 11-20 look the same to me. Many of these guys still have some leverage.
Thank you so much for all of the coverage! All of the content at such short turnaround times was incredible!
Excellent coverage, but I experienced a good bit of slowness on the sight during the draft, especially at the start of day one. Not sure if anyone else experienced that, but wanted to bring it up in case.
Fantastic coverage P2 team, haven’t dove into the draft page but I cannot wait to do so🙏👍👏👍