PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – When asked why take college catcher Henry Davis over the other selections first overall in Sunday night's MLB Draft, Pirates GM Ben Cherington quick to answer.
"We took him because he was the top player on our board," Cherington said.
Sounds simple, Davis said he knew for a little bit of time before the announcement. Meaning the Pirates had to know hours before the pick, but Cherington said there were hours of discussion. They had to work on coming to Davis being the choice and not one of the Vanderbilt pitchers or a high school shortstop.
"We did have a lot of debate," Cherington said. "There are good players at the top of this draft. There was a group of players we spent a lot of time on."
"When you are picking 1-1 (first pick overall) there's talent. There's performance. There's all those inputs you want to feel good about. At the end of the day, you want to feel good about the person you are betting on. Doesn't mean there weren't other people that were worth betting on. I'm not saying that at all. We feel real good about the person we are betting on in Henry."
The stats they are betting on is the 6'2" Louisville catcher throwing out 46% of the runners attempting to steal and known for maybe the best catching arm in the draft. Offensively, .370 average, 15 home runs, 48 RBI, 1.145 OPS, .482 on-base percentage and even 10 stolen bases in 2021.
"What Henry was able to do despite the missed year last year, getting off to the start he did," Cherington said. "The overall continued improvement. Obviously we dig deep on this stuff, you can look at his performance against better pitching, better velocity. It held up really well no matter how you sliced it up."
Regarded as one of the top college hitters, there is talk that Davis could end up a corner outfielder. While time will ultimately tell, Cherington believes Davis will stay behind the plate. An area barren of talent in the Pirates minor league system.
"We believe he can catch," Cherington said. "We know he is going to put the work in to do it. He's just a learner. How he keeps improving and has done that since high school. You are obviously betting on talent at the top of the draft. You are also betting on the person. Feel really good about the person."
"There's a number of talented players at the top of this draft that we liked. It was close. Henry was on top, but it was close."
In the opportunities to talk with Davis and the day he recently spent in Pittsburgh, was there discussion about him taking under slot value. Was that a reason they selected Davis?
"We haven't signed him," Cherington said. "We haven't agreed, but we take him with some confidence and hope that we can."
"We are really excited to add him to the Pirates."
