PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pirates signed first round pick Henry Davis Sunday and according to MLB.com’s Jim Callis its for nearly two million under slot value for the top overall pick.
That money likely used to overpay for the Bucs second and third round pick who will take more financial convincing to sign with the Pirates out of high school given their college options.
The 21-year-old drafted a week ago after a first-team All-American season at Louisville and was a finalist for the Buster Posey Award as college baseball’s best catcher. Davis threw out 46% of the runners stealing and was top 10 in the ACC in six hitting categories including average (.370), hits (68), home runs (15), RBI (48).
"I couldn't be more excited," Davis said. "Getting signed right away is important to me. I want to get playing. There is no time to waste. Getting right to work, I'm pretty happy with how it went."
Davis will begin his pro career at the Florida Complex League. There is a chance he would play for one of the four minor league affiliates before the season is over.
"I think Bradenton is the right place to go at the start for Henry and really the rest of the draft class too," said Pirates GM Ben Cherington. "Our guess is Henry is pretty ready to go. We will get started there and get into a baseball routine again. Get back into game activity and we will see. We won't put any limitation where it might go."
Pirates have now signed seven of the 21 players from the 2021 draft.