Pirates’ second-round pick stunningly chooses college over signing with Pittsburgh

In the second season where Justin Horowitz led the charge for the Pirates in the MLB Draft process, Pittsburgh appeared to put together another great draft class. Looking at FanGraphs' rankings, Pittsburgh got away with some steals throughout the process, including their second-rounder in Angel Cervantes. In the moment, that looked like a fantastic pick by Ben Cherington and staff, but on Wednesday, he suddenly decided to turn down the Pirates' offer and honored his commitment to UCLA instead.

The 17-year-old right hander was taken 50th overall and his slot value was just under $2 million at $1.95 million. With Seth Hernandez signing an historic, yet underslot bonus, Pittsburgh was able to even pay more than the pick value to retain Cervantes.

It wasn't enough.

Pirates miss out on second-round pick Angel Cervantes, who announces he will be going to UCLA this fall.

Missing out on a prospect that would instantly become a top-10-ranked player in the farm system hurts badly, especially when they didn't have to give up anything to acquire him. Cervantes had a lot of upside, too, having above-average grades on all of his pitches, including a 60-grade changeup, per MLB Pipeline. Pipeline ranked him as the draft's 49th-best prospect, and FanGraphs had him at 30th. Quite simply you do not select someone like that in the second round if you do not believe you can sign him, or have things somewhat pre-arranged.

This situation is just really surprising and frustrating, yet it comes with some exciting news for the 2026 draft. Due to Cervantes not signing, the Pirates will be awarded the 51st pick in the 2026 MLB Draft. That will be their third pick in the draft, coming after their first round pick and CBA pick. They are set to have a great opportunity to have three top prospects with those early picks.

Now that they are down nearly $2 million in this bonus pool, Pittsburgh may now be able to sign their overslot selections in the later rounds of the draft, too, in Connor Hamilton and Carter Gwost. Both are highly touted college prospects that somehow fell to them, likely due to their high asking price. Now that some money opened up, Pittsburgh could turn their attention to signing either of them. Of course, that process is a two-way street, and both players have to want to join the organization.

Cervantes is a massive loss, despite the potential ripple effects next year. Losing out on this high -upside arm hurts a lot. This farm system will now be without a second-round pick from the 2025 draft.