Pirates take catcher with second-round pick

Steve Chapman has coached more than 1,000 baseball games during 30 years at Calallen High School in Corpus Christi, Texas.

But he said he never has seen a better player than catcher Wyatt Mathisen, the Pirates' second-round selection in the MLB First-Year Player Draft.

Mathisen, 18, was the 69th selection, marking the first time the Pirates have used a premium pick (rounds one or two) on a catcher since they took Tony Sanchez fourth overall in 2009.

“Wyatt can hit, he can pitch, he can catch, he can do it all,” Chapman said.

Mathisen (6-foot-2, 215 pounds) only caught four games this seasons — Pirates scouts saw three — filling Calallen's holes at shortstop and pitcher. But he was a catcher last summer and during his freshman season.

Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said Mathisen, who has signed a letter of intent to attend Texas, can become a hard-hitting catcher, but he admits there are challenges ahead.

“We like the swing, we like the strength, we like the bat speed, we like the physical tools to go behind the plate,” he said. “But there is going to be a lot of work to be done to get him to reach his full potential.”

Huntington said the team has “a legitimate chance” to sign all of its draft picks, but he said high school players are sometimes difficult to convince.

“Colleges are going to turn up the heat after the draft,” he said. “College programs have a lot of things to offer.”

Mathisen has not indicated if he will sign or go to Texas, but Chapman said, “He wants to play professional baseball.”

Chapman said Mathisen showed his instinctive side at shortstop this season when he fielded a groundball behind second base, reversed his momentum and threw out a baserunner trying to advance to third.

Mathisen hit .433 and drove in 40 runs for a team that advanced to the fourth round of the Texas 4A playoffs, the second-highest classification in the state.

Of the team's 10 picks from rounds 2-11, only three were pitchers (all right-handers) — 6-foot-6, 17-year-old Jonathan Sandfort of Winter Springs (Fla.) High School (third round), Bellevue (Wash.) Community College's Adrian Sampson in the fifth and Yale relief pitcher Patrick Ludwig in the 10th.

“We wanted to stay true to the integrity of the board,” Huntington said. “This year, there were more hitters in the mix for us.”

Over the first two days of the draft (16 picks), the Pirates chose four high school players.

Sampson, 20, needed Tommy John surgery three years ago in high school and opted to attend junior college, where he was a 16th-round pick of the Miami Marlins last season. He returned to school this season and was 11-0 with a 1.36 ERA.

The Pirates' fourth-round selection (136th pick) was Georgia Tech outfielder Brandon Thomas (6-3, 202).

In the sixth round (196th), the Pirates chose Blinn (Texas) College third baseman Eric Wood.

The Pirates picked North Carolina catcher Jacob Stallings (6-5, 220) in the seventh round. In the eighth, ninth and 11th rounds, they took shortstops Kevin Ross of Niles West (Ill.) High School (256th), Douglas Crumlich of California-Irvine (286th) and Christopher Diaz (346th) of North Carolina State. Left-handed pitcher Thomas Harlan, the Pirates' 13th-round choice, was the fourth Fresno State pitcher selected.

Note: Penn State left-handed pitcher Joe Kurrasch was chosen in the eighth round by the San Francisco Giants.

Jerry DiPaola is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at jdipaola@tribweb.com or 412-320-7997.