Continuing to show their commitment to the draft, the Pirates followed up the selection of Austin Meadows with the selection of Reese McGuire. The Pirates have been linked to McGuire for quite some time now and the value of getting McGuire at No. 14 couldn’t have worked out better for the Pirates. After the Mets took Dominic Smith, the Pirates had just the Mariners and Padres standing between them and McGuire. Since the Mariners took Mike Zunino a year ago as their catcher of the future, they passed on McGuire. The Padres selected Hunter Renfroe.
The Pirates selected two catchers in last year’s draft (Wyatt Mathisen and Jacob Stallings), but as MLB Network’s Jon Mayo told me, McGuire is a “can’t miss hitter.”
In his senior year, McGuire hit .436 and had an OBP of .559. McGuire hit 13 doubles, four homers and had 20 RBIs in 26 games for Kentwood High School.
