As expected, NC State baseball catcher Patrick Bailey did not have to wait long to hear his name called in the 2020 MLB Draft, but the destination may have been a surprise.
The San Francisco Giants took Bailey with the 13th overall pick. The reason why the selection may have raised eyebrows is because San Francisco selected catcher Joey Bart from Georgia Tech with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 draft. Bart is rated as the Giants’ top prospect by MLB.com. He finished the 2019 baseball season with a successful 22-game stint with San Francisco’s AA-affiliate.
Nevertheless, MLB Network analysts Harold Reynolds and Jim Callis praised the Giants for taking their best player on the board in Bailey.
“Switch hitter, power from both side of the plate, can really swing the bat. … Watching this guy catch and throw, he’s going to be able to do this in the big league, but the bat is ahead of everything else,” Reynolds noted.
“He’s a switch hitter with power,” Callis added. “He should be able to stay behind the plate. He’s cleaned up his receiving. He’s got solid arm strength.”
Bailey burst onto the scene when he hit .321 with 13 homers as a freshman for NC State. After hitting 10 home runs as a sophomore, he was well on his way to another double-digit year with six (including two grand slams) before the season was canceled after 17 games. He is a career .302 batter for the Wolfpack.
Bailey will notice a familiar face in the Giants’ system. Former NC State infielder Will Wilson was drafted 15th overall in the first round of last year’s MLB Draft by the Los Angeles Angels, and then he was traded to the Giants during the offseason. Wilson played 46 games in rookie ball last year in the Angels system and hit .275 with five homers in 189 at bats.
Bailey becomes NC State baseball’s ninth first round pick in school history, and for the first time ever Wolfpack players went in the first round in back-to-back years.
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