PHOENIX — The Pirates announced Monday that they signed seven of their picks in the 2018 MLB Draft, including five in the first 10 rounds.
Right-handed pitcher Aaron Shortridge, the club’s fourth-round pick, right-handed pitcher Michael Flynn, outfielder Brett Kinneman, left-handed pitcher Zach Spears, right-handed pitcher Logan Stoelke and catcher Zac Susi were assigned to short-season West Virginia.
Right-handed pitcher Brad Case, a 17th-round pick, will report to the Pirates’ Gulf Coast League affiliate.
Shortridge was moved into the University of California's starting rotation at the beginning of the season. After leading Cal with a 1.99 ERA in 14 relief appearances as a sophomore in 2017, Shortridge threw three complete games in 12 starts in 2018, striking out 74 with only 18 walks in a team-high 91 innings.
He’s an athletic, 6-foot-4 right-handed pitcher with a 93-mph fastball, slider and changeup. Baseball America had him ranked as the No. 365 player in the draft, saying he has the “ceiling of a back-of-the-rotation starter in the future.”
Flynn, a 6-foot-3 right-hander from the University of Arizona, missed this past fall season because of elbow soreness and returned this spring to appear in 22 games, including four starts, with 49 strikeouts to 13 walks in 52 innings. He won five games and lost none, posting a 3.29 ERA. Flynn spent his entire sophomore season in the rotation with 72 strikeouts in 73 2/3 innings.
Reports indicate his breaking pitches were improving as his junior season progressed, leading to a 12-strikeout performance against UCLA last month.
Kinnemann, a left-handed left fielder for N.C. State, was arguably the Pirates’ most intriguing pick on Day 2. He batted .274 with a .923 OPS, 17 home runs and 61 RBIs this season, striking out 65 times with 46 walks. That followed a sophomore season where he batted .282 with 10 home runs, 41 RBIs and 36 runs. He rose up draft boards earlier this spring, when he hit 12 home runs in his first 106 at-bats, but he had only one homer in his next 80 at-bats.
Spears, a 6-foot-7 lefty from Miami (Ohio), struggled as a sophomore, posting a 5.85 ERA with a team-high 69 strikeouts in 2017, but he learned to better command his fastball this past season. That led to a 3.73 ERA with 88 strikeouts to 39 walks in 83 1/3 innings. Spears was not ranked among Baseball America’s top 500 prospects.
Stoelke, a senior 6-foot-4 right-hander from Louisiana Lafayette, pitched only 47 2/3 innings during his collegiate career, including 33 1/3 innings in 21 relief appearances this past season. He held opponents to a .165 batting average while striking out 36 with 15 walks.
Stoelke appeared in 42 games as mostly a defensive replacement in the outfield last season.
Susi hit .335 with nine doubles, one triple, one home run and 33 RBI in 56 games as a junior in 2018 at UConn. Case went 5-6 with a 3.46 ERA and 74 strikeouts in 16 appearances as a junior at Rollins College.
