The Pirates have taken Louisville catcher Henry Davis with the first overall pick of the 2021 draft. The 21-year-old Davis joins Jeff King (1986), Kris Benson (1996), Bryan Bullington (2002) and Gerrit Cole (2011) as players drafted by the Pirates with the first overall selection, and Davis is the first Louisville player to be taken 1-1.
The pick ends weeks of speculation about Pittsburgh’s intentions with the top pick, and Davis’ selection counts as a bit of a surprise considering that high school shortstop Marcelo Mayer was seen as the favorite. However, Davis was also mentioned as a candidate on the Bucs’ radar, and in recent days, there seemed to be an increasing possibility that the Pirates might opt for Davis or one of two other well-regarded high school shortstops in Jordan Lawlar and Kahlil Watson. This is Pittsburgh’s second draft under general manager Ben Cherington, and the team also went with a college player early last year, taking New Mexico State shortstop Nick Gonzales with the seventh overall pick.
Considering Davis’ pedigree, the Pirates aren’t exactly reaching by taking the backstop with the 1-1 selection. However, since multiple reports have indicated the Pirates plan to spread out their bonus pool money, it’s fair to assume their choice of Davis may be tied to a willingness on his part to agree to a bonus south of the $8,415,300 assigned slot value for the first overall pick. Any money saved in signing Davis will allow Pittsburgh to allocate more of its $14,394,000 draft bonus pool to its other picks within the first 10 rounds, theoretically allowing the Pirates to select and then sign any blue chip talents that may have fallen down the draft board due to signability concerns.
Fangraphs and The Athletic’s Keith Law each ranked Davis as the second-best overall prospect of this year’s draft class, behind Mayer. Baseball America and ESPN.com’s Kiley McDaniel each had Davis fourth in their rankings, while MLB Pipeline ranked him fifth. Whether Davis will stick as a catcher is a matter of some debate, as his blocking and receiving still needs some polish, but both McDaniel and Fangraphs note that Davis’ issues with framing won’t be an issue if and when Major League Baseball implements a robotic strike zone. Additionally, Davis has a very powerful throwing arm, with BA and Pipeline each giving him a 70-grade arm on the 20-80 scouting scale. (McDaniel even goes so far as to call it a “70-or-80-grade arm.”)
It’s possible Davis will eventually have to move to a corner infield or corner outfield slot. No matter his position, however, Davis’ bat will seem to play anywhere — Fangraphs even called him “arguably the safest prospect in the draft because he plays a premium position, has impact raw power, and has no contact red flags.” Perhaps the most highly-regarded college bat of the draft class, Davis has something of an unusual swing, but also (as per Baseball America) “standout zone recognition, pure bat-to-ball skills and plus power to his pull side to make everything work.”
MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis was the first to report that the Pirates were drafting Davis.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
That’s one hell of a surprise. Playing it relatively safe, it would seem.
Mark Appel has already advised him not to sign.
Worked out for mark eh?
It did work out for Mark. He was drafted 7 spots higher the next year and made a lot more money.
Can’t go much higher than 1st overall
hiflew: and tell me oh wise one, how did it work out for Appel from the on field perspective?
That’s unrelated to his signing issues
He played several years in the high minors, which I assume is much further than you made it. So from that perspective, he did pretty well.
Brady Akin too.
Stupid troll
Mark also advised yiu to choke
To me playing it safe would be to draft another middle infield prospect high. Their track record isn’t very good.
Tucker
Newman
Kramer… etc.
Catchers who are drafted high like Posey, Weiters and more recently Bart can be high risk high reward.
Great pick. He will be starting by 2023. Late season call up in 2022. Didn’t need a short stop
.
Not a pitcher. Robo-umps coming. Nice pick.
Great pick. Safe? Yes. But it would suck to blow a top overall pick.
The reason they’re drafting 1st is a general lack of talent and it’s not like they have a lot of talent on the way. Bad picks by bad teams will keep them picking 1st.
not a lot of talent on the way? have you looked at the prospect rankings recently? they’re top 5 right now. not many in AAA but that’ll change soon
Guys like swihart and refsnyder were tops in prospect rankings too. And I guess they brought plenty of talent and production to their big league clubs.
Until guys have shown they’re all but ready for the show, they don’t count as being ‘a Lot of talent on the way.’
Then it is a moot point. There is no reason to bother discussing prospects, farms, drafts, etc., if you don’t count their talent.
GA and Joe-I think that you are both right.
It is like new predictive statistics versus personal ML records.
It is important to have a talented minor league system since a certain percentage of players will generally turn out to be good ballplayers.
But it does not mean anything until they do,and a relatively small percentage of them do,for a variety of reasons.
dshires4: Kebryan Hayes says “Hello”.
They have nearly every position with quality+ prospects a couple at the mlb level now. they have a bunch of pitchers who are also quality prospects. some will ‘bust’ but it is still good quality that could bring in needed players if/when the time comes.
Most serious pirates fans know this and it is pretty much the only thing keeping us sane.
there is a lot of time between now and then and the prospect picture could be totally different but they’re set up pretty nicely as it stands now.
@HHJJ
Matt Bush approves your message.
Typical Buccos. Maybe they already have an under slot signing agreement in place.
Multiple high payroll teams have used this strategy with no clear cut number 1.
@lilpartialbaldo You can troll on and complain about every move the Pirates make, or you can sit back and see this was a nice pick for them. Pirates have little catching depth at the moment with some upside to the position. Pirates have so many short stops in the minors, why take another? Have you seen the Pirates prospects that are in the top 15? At least 6 are short stops! I am pleased they went with Davis instead of another SS or Rocker and Leiter right now. Davis will find a role in Pittsburgh within 4 years (or less). They will work with him on his pitch framing. But he is rated pretty well in other parts of his game offensively and defensively. I think 90% of loyal Pirates fans will appreciate this pick.
Not trolling. I’m from Pittsburgh. They have no ability to sign top tier talent, so their only hopes are draft and trades. They seem to do poorly in the latter.
You must not be a Pirate fan then. The one area where the Bucs have NOT been cheap is the draft.
Uninformed pirate hater
Can anyone name a time where the Pirates or any other team in the MLB was called out for not using all of their draft pool? It’s a ridiculous comment
Look around at the good teams in baseball. Every single one built through draft and trades. That’s how you do it. Not being able to sign market rate free agents is definitely NOT the Bucs’ problem.
Sadly, I believe the DBacks did that once during the Stewart Days. Dark times indeed.
Lil-I agree with the trade rating.
Getting Reynolds and Crick for McCutcheon was an example of a really bad trade for the Pirates.
This is a super-old narrative before the draft pool was formed. Nobody doesnt use all their pool money. Pittsburgh is choosing to under slot this catcher in hopes of using the remainder to lure high school pitchers committed to college. The draft is supposedly deeper this year because of the abbreviated draft last year. We will all have to see how it plays out.
Above commented was @Cheap-Seats
I think the baldidiotphoenix is back ranting and trolling on the pirates
How is this typical buccos when there really wasn’t a consensus #1 pick?
Playing the spreading the money out game. Could work for them.
Tony Sanchez Jr?
No. Sanchez was a joke. He would have a 2nd round grade in this draft. Davis will be a stud.
In fairness, Sanchez had a 2nd round grade when they selected him as well,
You misspelled Buster Posey Jr.
Wow…this is surprising in that while he’ll sign for under slot, he was definitely a Top 15 pick do he’s not going to save them that much money. I think they’ll end up regretting this pick. Either should have gone with Mayer or should have looked at someone with a second round grade and save themselves $4M+ in slot bonus. I’m guessing they’ll only end up saving $1.5 – $2M by going with Davis as the #1 overall pick. The Rangers have to be psyched this is happening.
$500k is a huge deal in the MLB draft.
You don’t take a second round graded player with the first pick in the draft. If you want to save money for later picks, you select someone ranged maybe early first to mid first. A second round grade as the first overall pick is nuts. Use Carlos Correa as an example. I think he was rated like 8th or something.
That may be true, but Davis was not graded second round. Many mock drafts had him going in the top 5. Plus, there seems to be a trend towards drafting the best catcher available, within reason. The Dodgers having 2 young catchers in Smith and Ruiz, and the Giants with Bart and Bailey, for example. A highly ranked catcher is always going to be a good gamble.
No one said he was. Do you read all the posts before replying?
“A highly ranked catcher is always going to be a good gamble”…Source. Please.
Like many other catchers…there are questions about his defense.
@tad2b13 I didn’t say he was. See the comment I was responding to.
Are you kidding? Every mock draft that was published (and I read) in the last month had Davis somewhere in the top 5.
Hoping this comment is trolling
Jack Leiter is the best pitcher on the Rangers squad
Pirates screwed up bad
Bra
Jack Leiter can’t catch
Pirates caught the right pick
Judging by who the Pirates chose with their next 3 picks, your comment didn’t age well. At all. Unless of course you think Pirates taking 4 of the top 32 players available in this draft to be “regrettable.”
Henry Davis… now there is a unique name. And here I was thinking that nobody could top Lars Nootbaar.
Yea speeding money out but there next pick would be a nice player aswell
Nobody should be mad about “under slotting”. It’s just a technique that works….sometimes.
You CAN get mad if your team doesn’t spend it’s total allotment. But just about every team does, and the ones that don’t average missing it by only about 3%..
That said, my mock is dead, but I like the pick. Solid if unspectacular; 3-4 All Star Games in his future.
underslotting is a great strategy, but a little risky when you have the pick of anyone in the draft.
Isn’t it that you lose the allocated bonus pool if the player picked fails to sign? I may be mistaken, though
You’re correct. You lose the slot if the player doesn’t sign.
where do you get under slotting from? he is easily one of the top draft targets from almost every draft prospect ranking that i’ve seen. Easily one of the top 2 position players. Not to give Davis any ideas but I wouldn’t take much below slot value if at all.
Pirates have about 15M (including overage tax with out losing a draft pick). IF they are to pay slot value for their 1-4th round picks the team would spend 13M on bonus pools (rounded up) so about 2M to pay for the later rounds some of which likely won’t sign to get a better draft result in coming years.
I would say the idea that they’re using an underslot strategy comes from the fact that Davis has been listed as low as #6 in the rankings (I know because I was praying he’d reach the DBacks, how’s that for wishful thinking?) and the difference between the value of #1 and #6 picks is pretty substantial. Even the difference between #1 and #2 is fairly large. There is also a possibility that the amount of value that Mayer eats of Boston’s pool could act as a benchmark for how low the Pirates would go on his signing bonus. Pitt could be very well poised to grab some signability issue guys, as the only leverage Davis has at this point is to return for his Senior season and hope to get drafted 1/1 again. There’s also a surprising number of guys that are willing to sign overslot deals in 5-10 round money range, so even $2mil could help to inject some quality into the lower levels of the system.
eh the small difference between those at the top one “could” say any one are underslot as the first pick.. of course none of them really are. thats why i’m confused by the statement.. maybe its just because its the pirates.. that i could understand lol
but still… i won’t argue if they get him underslot and yeah its a possiblity. but just people saying it is an insult to Davis that isn’t deserved. (not saying you are, you clearly like him as a prospect)
I don’t pretend to know much about draft prospects, but as a Pirate fan from what I do know I have zero issues with this pick. The Bucs need as much talent as possible and can’t afford to miss, and while Davis might not have the highest ceiling of all the candidates, he also might have the fewest questions about him.
Yep. Best college bat. Best player at his position. They need catchers.
Hes the best pure hitter in the draft
Spot on. Not the greatest ceiling, but as solid a floor as anybody in this draft. Pirate fans will be happy.
Hey, I remember the year the Rays too Longoria, who was (still is) a heck of a player. Unfortunately, they passed on Kershaw. Was it a GOOD pick?
Depends how you look at it.
And funny what can happen year to year.This time last year the older players on the Giants,including Longoria,were considered dead weights.
What a difference a year makes.
he can hit and hit with power and has a good chance at sticking at catcher. His cieling isnt much worse than other position players if any at all.
Don’t forget that the Pirates will almost certainly have the DH by the time he gets there. So if he catches 3 out of every 5 games each time through the rotation, he will probably also be able to DH 35 times a season as well.
Well, the Red Sox got the guy they positively lusted for. Never thought they’d get him. They’re happy.
Great pick for them. And anyone who was questioning the Pirates choice has probably now shifted their attention to the Tigers.
I absolutely love this pick. Every mock I read had Mayer going #1. I liked Leiter, had he dropped, but never expected Mayer to drop this far. IMVHO, catchers are dangerous because some get moved off the position. Jobe has pure talent, but that far away is worrisome for a pitcher.
I also like Lawler at #6 and Rocker at #10. His inconsistency is noteworthy, but he has a huge arm.
Actually the Sox really wanted and expected Henry Davis to be there and the pick. I’m not convinced they wanted Marcelo!
Every team gotta have catchers. Looks like a solid pick to me.
The Pirates have been thin at catcher for what seems like decades and still are, so that’s another reason I like the pick.
wouldn’t be surprised if they pick another catcher in their next handful of picks given how many picks coming up…. ak.. Mack was just picked who i though could’ve been a chance.at round 2. so… maybe not.
Last good homegrown Pirates Catcher was Jason Kendall. So yeah, it’s been a while
Has fantastic arm and some pop in the bat. Good with pitchers. They will improve his catching. Hopefully they saved a million or 2.
You don’t draft by position in MLB! Just draft the best player and we didn’t do that. We drafted the best player that we could sign for less. Just can’t wait until the day whereI have any faith in this organization.
Yes I know we will spend the remaining money. Not going to matter to me if Leiter is as good as I expect him to be or if the SS is the next Tatis! I get this kid will probably be good but you have the #1 pick go for the biggest upside.
Who says they didn’t draft the best player?? Analysts have rankings but a popular opinion among several is that no prospect truly stood out from the others.
the field between 1 and 5 is rather close. First you decide pitcher or position player. If its position player . If position player and their valuation is close you look at which posistion is needed more.
Angels drafted a pitcher..First thing they asked the kid was if he could be in Anaheim by next thursday
And then he went AWOL.
I doubt he’ll be great with a name like “Henry Davis”.. just doesn’t sound right.
Hopefully he earns a great nickname…as long as the terrible Pirate announcers don’t give it to him..
Yeah, but change it to Hank Davis, and you got yourself a ball player.
Please don’t call him “Crash”…
Steelers had a good linebacker named Henry Davis. Mario hmmm splat
Yes,and Henry retired three weeks into training camp.
A guy named Jack Lambert had taken his job and he knew that he was not going to get it back.
que?
and people called me nuts (among other things)
Premium talent at a premium position. Looks like he has a better than average chance at staying at catcher.. but even if he doesn’t stick he can easily go to the OF corner or thirdbase. Lots of options for him.
saw him throwing some on youtube.. my gosh.
and Mayers interview before the draft.. “I’m at a bar”.. i went from eh.. maybe to a big nope. Might be nothing to it but i’m not taking that risk when there is other premium talent there. wouldn’t be surprised if he goes 5 or later (i still havn’t gotten through and havn’t looked ahead)
Where do you get that he has a better than average chance of staying at catcher?
evaluations based on his improvment this past year.
I read his biggest weakness was framing. If robo umps come in then that is moot.
Stallings could help with that too, hes pretty decent at it… but yeah might not matter by the time he gets to the MLB
If I was a MLB GM I would always take the best college player available with my 1st pick. Unless there is a unanimous choice best in the draft talent like Harper or Mickey Moniak available. Harper was selected from a Juco but he was 17 when he played there. High school players seem to be a crapshoot. Players like Tim Beckham and Brady Aiken were taken before college players like Kyle Schwarber, Carlos Rodon, Pedro Alvarez and Buster Posey. In the 2014 draft Aiken and Tyler Kolek another HS player were taken 1-2 in front of Rodon and Schwarber. It’s not often a team gets the #1 overall pick and I think they should use it on a player that has the best chance of contributing at the MLB level.
Harper or Mickey Moniak???
Moniak wasnt even consensus and Harper was JuCo lol.
Such a strange list of players you chose. On the flip side, Houston chose a non-consensus HS player like Correa, over the top college bat Zunino and pitcher Mark Appel. There is no magic formula.
The Bucs need Catchers and Power Hitters. If he fills one of those needs great. If he fills both awesome.
Bucs need everything.
on the MLB team pretty much.
Prospect class is in a better position and will likely be in a better position at the deadline.
Now that they got a great catching prospect their field on trade returns is wide open, especially for pitching and maybe a power 1st basemen
never mind they have a power firstbasemen.. forgot about Martin who has 16 HRs so far in AA.. and has crushed the ball his entire pro career… so pitchers.. cause you can never have enough 🙂
They said the same thing about Will Craig, and look where that got him.
to be fair to Craig he got stuck as a perpetural prospect. He maybe back in the system if he doesn’t get a job in Asia. He’d be fair depth now since the things mattering on the field as far as wins is at an all time low.
He’d also be good in the system just to show other firstbasemen somethings not to do on defense.
We’ll see if this pick works out well, Bullington was good in Japan, not so good in the MLB.
They drafted Bullington only because they knew that they could sign him.
Those were truly some of the bad days of Pirates’ history.
I think that this a very good pick.College players to me always have a much better chance at ML success since they are much older and better coached.
I give Cherington good grades for this selection.
I’m chiming in only to say I spent a few years of my youth attempting to convert Bryan Bullington into an elite closer in MVP Baseball when I was a kid.
The more that I’m reading about Davis the more I like the pick
In the comments section?
I mean Fangraphs and Keith Law basically have him and Mayer as 1A and 1B. So it isn’t like they reached here. Fangraphs has Mayer as #37 in their top 100 and Davis at #39. So they were basically equal. Leiter was 3rd at #40 so basically they had all 3 right there together.
Hate when people get on here and complain about draft picks going somewhere and saying “awful choice” like they know anything about baseball or these kids
Pretty sure nobody here works for organizations scouting team and are in the draft rooms analyzing players. People think they know more than the pros who dedicate their life to this kind of work. Kind of pathetic if you ask me.
You’re completely right of course; we’re all armchair analysts when it comes to this stuff. And while scouts/front offices have had their colossal blunders, they’re right a whole lot more than they’re wrong.
But you can still be a critic, more so these days when so much more information is available. Think of ( historical) reaction the Chris Sale trade. Twenty years ago, it would have been, “THEY GOT SALE FOR 4 MINOR LEAGUERS!!!!” Five years ago, it became, “THEY GAVE UP MONCADA AND KOPEC!!!!”. And you can criticize (just for another historical situation) the Rays front office for not knowing Josh Hamilton was a substance abuser; EVERYBODY from his friends/family to the neighborhood milk man knew it.
And you can criticize “under-slotting”, sacrificing a potential impact player for two or three lower priced average-type guys.
But again, you’re right. We do this stuff after work, or lounging around. These guys (ladies now) spend their lives (and their jobs on the line) doing it.
I don’t give most fans credit for research, especially when it comes to the Pirates fans. Their negativity is poisonous and prevents any ability to be objective by a large number.
Sto-Of course you are being negative by painting Pirate fans with such a large paint brush.Congratulations on being one of them.
I would think that all fan bases have their negative nabobs,especially the ones with losing teams.
Liked the pick a lot. Already have a ton of shortstops. The HS guys won’t be in the majors any time soon, Davis should be the catcher in 2023. I do think this is a sign that they are close to competing at least in their minds. I would also expect this means that Reynolds is off limits in trades and he is a building block for the next 3 year window.
Bob- Regarding Hamilton,the better question is “why didn’t Arte Moreno know it?”
True.
A catcher who could end up being perennial All Stars seems like a good thing to have.
Well, now we know why the Pirates went under slot. Bubba Chandler (3rd Rd. pick) has HUGE potential and a million dollar (see marketable) personality. But they’ll have to buy him away from Clemson.
totally missed who this guy is, Lonnie white in a similar boat.
Bubba is the guy from Forrest Gump.
Chandler is only one of 5 QBs for Clemson, he is at best 4th on the depth chart going in. All are Sophomores or younger. He is going to pitch and play SS too. That was what he wanted. He apparently has a deal pretty much lined up already. White is behind 14 returning WRs and have,struggled at,QB. He would not be as hard,to,talk out of going to PSU either.
Monster draft for the Pirates with high risk high reward guys after #1.
Nice strategy!
Words don’t describe it. 3 legit top 15 top 20 guys and another that could have been late 1st early 2nd. Hope all of them sign but if 1 doesn’t it is still a win. Davis must be signing for near 2 million under slot.
Time will tell. Buccos did good
A few teams (Red Sox, D-Backs) seem to have done well, but the Bucs, if they sign everybody, win this one by a country mile. Kudoos to their FO. Of course that comes with the usual acceptance that it’s a crap shoot.
But there are intelligent crap shoots and not so intelligent ones.
IMHO, it is a lot like the RS. Good talent in the first two rounds, but likely requiring over-slot bonuses. And they offset that with a could of lesser, but still solid picks later, for likely under-slot. I’d love to hear the negotiations between Watson & Ng. There is a lot of distance between his projected ~ #5 with the actual #16.