Keith Law posted his second mock draft on Tuesday morning for ESPN Insiders. He has the Pittsburgh Pirates taking Baylor catcher Shea Langeliers.
Langeliers is a player we covered earlier in our draft coverage, posting his scouting report and some videos here. At the time, he wasn’t hitting much, which could have possibly been due to him recently recovering from a broken hamate. He is now hitting .304/.372/.485, with eight doubles, a triple and seven homers in 41 games. The real selling point here is elite defense. He has thrown out runners on 13 of 23 attempted stolen bases, with just two passed balls and no errors. MLB Pipeline gives him a 60 grade for defense and 70 for arm.
Langeliers isn’t a name we have heard tied to the Pirates before. Almost every previous player has been a shortstop or a prep pitcher, with the occasional third baseman in there. While you never draft for need, the Pirates could use a top tier catching prospect.
The problem here isn’t just the lack of connections, but it’s unlikely that he drops this low. Assuming that Law is on to something though, I can’t imagine the Pirates passing on Langeliers, unless someone better also drops 8-10 spots. On Friday, both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America had Langeliers going to the Minnesota Twins with the 13th pick.
The draft begins in just six days, so expect a plethora of mock drafts leading up to next Monday.