As the calendar rapidly approaches August, last week we could sort of put a bow on the athletic year, when Major League Baseball conducted its draft. WVU had five players taken for the second straight year. The first one chosen was catcher Logan Sauve (seventh round, Oakland A’s). The remaining four were all picked in the 13th-15th rounds: Kyle West (thirteenth, New York Yankees), Robby Porco (thirteenth, LA Dodgers), Griffin Kirn (fourteenth, Oakland A’s), and Skylar King (fifteenth, Boston Red Sox). Two additional players, Jack Kartsonas (Tampa Bay) and Sam White (Toronto) have signed free agent contracts. In addition, one incoming player, Owen Puk, was taken in the 18th round by the Washington Nationals. Puk was a transfer, and likely would have been a weekend starter for WVU. It is likely that all will end up signing with the pros – apparently the MLB teams will talk with the players’ agents beforehand, and have a good idea that they would sign with the team when they are drafted.
An interesting pro draft note: WVU was one of 25 teams who had players drafted in both the NFL draft and the NBA draft. If you add in the WNBA draft, WVU is one of only seven schools in all three: UConn, Kentucky, Maryland, South Carolina, FSU, and Michigan are the others. All of those schools did have at least one player taken in the MLB draft, so that number did not get any smaller.
Another note of importance for West Virginia University: the new president is officially on board. Michael Benson assumed the position on July 15. It should be noted, perhaps, that his previous school, Coastal Carolina, made it to the final 8 of the College World Series in Omaha. WVU baseball fans will hope for Benson to have similar success now that he is in Morgantown.
The focus for WVU teams now will be two-fold: first, preparing for the next season, and second preparing how to navigate the latest iteration of the NCAA rules. It’s a new era of rules with roster limits, revenue distribution to athletes, and NIL after the House settlement – although the new rules aren’t quite set in stone. I plan to have an explainer in the coming weeks to try to make a bit of sense about the House settlement and what that means for WVU.
