Pittsburgh Pirates Draft: Keith Law Mock’s a Catcher

The Pittsburgh Pirates will be drafting 18th overall next week in the MLB Draft.  Here is a mock draft from ESPN’s Keith Law.

On Monday, June 3rd, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the rest of Major League Baseball will kick off the 2019 MLB Draft.  On the first day, teams will complete the first two rounds and 77 total picks.  With that being said, more and more amateur scouting sites are starting to provide up-to-date mock drafts.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will have the 18th overall pick in the first round on Monday.  After the first round, they have another three picks at number 37, number 57, and number 72.  Of course, the most interesting pick will always be the teams’ first-round pick.  This is the pick that teams expect to find their next franchise player with.  So who could the Pittsburgh Pirates be looking at taking with the 18th overall pick?

Well, no one will really know until the picks are announced on Monday.  However, that does not stop many of the major scouting sites trying to predict what will happen.  The most recent one comes from Keith Law of ESPN.  Law, a former Special Assistant to the General Manager with the Toronto Blue Jays, put out his mock draft yesterday on ESPN’s website.  He mocked just the first round, so the first 32 picks.  The Pittsburgh Pirates only have one of their picks mocked since their next highest pick is at number 37.

Law has something different in his mock than a lot of the other sites.  Most prospect sites have projected the Bucs to take either a shortstop or a right-handed prep pitcher.  This makes sense as the team’s general draft trend is to take those two positions.  However, Law has the Pittsburgh Pirates selecting Shea Langeliers.

Langeliers is a college catcher who is playing for the Baylor Bears.  He is widely considered to be the second best catcher in the draft only behind Oregon State’s Adley Rutschman.  This, of course, is not a slight on Langeliers, as Rutschman is the consensus top prospect in the draft.

The 6’0” and 190 pound Baylor catcher is considered to be a solid all-around catcher.  His best attribute is his arm behind the plate, but he also could be an above-average hitter as well.  He is having a solid year batting .311/.376/.484 with 15 extra base hits in 38 games played.  He also is only striking out 13 percent of the time, which is a college career low.

For the Bucs, Langeliers would make a lot of sense.  The Pittsburgh Pirates have not drafted a catcher above the fourth round since 2013 when they took Reese McGuire.  With that being said, the catching position is one of the biggest holes in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system.  They do not have one catching prospect inside their top 30 prospects as ranked by MLB Pipeline.

If the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Shea Langeliers with the 18th overall pick it would make a lot of sense.  The team does not have a top catching prospect, and Langeliers would easily fit that bill.  Also, on MLB Pipeline he ranks as the 10th best prospect available so the Bucs would get a highly rated prospect as well.