{"id":241161,"date":"2026-07-11T19:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/241161\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T19:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:17:12","slug":"pittsburgh-pirates-select-lsu-of-derek-curiel-in-2026-mlb-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/241161\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Pirates select LSU OF Derek Curiel in 2026 MLB Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/teams\/lsu-tigers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LSU<\/a> outfielder Derek Curiel was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft. One of the top prospects from college baseball is off the board.<\/p>\n<p>Curiel played two seasons with the Tigers prior to going into the MLB Draft. He played 58 games this past season and finished with a .353 batting average, six home runs and 46 RBI. Curiel added 82 hits and 18 doubles.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/join\/?utm_source=publisher&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=subscriber_referral&amp;ref=806889\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$19.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Overall, Curiel had a .349 batting average in two seasons (126 games). The former LSU standout also had 13 home runs, 101 RBI, 171 hits and 38 doubles. <\/p>\n<p>His versatility is evident as Curiel moved to centerfield for the 2026 season. Curiel won all kinds of individual awards as a true freshman, while LSU went on to win the national championship in 2025.\u00a0D1 Baseball\u00a0dubbed him the National Freshman of the Year after hitting .345 with a .990 OPS. A perfect fielding percentage pops up too, adding two outfield assists.<\/p>\n<p>What MLB scouts say about Derek Curiel<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lean left-handed hitter with excellent bat-to-ball skills, Curiel uses a fluid stroke and mature approach to spray hard line drives all over the field,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/milb\/prospects\/draft\/derek-curiel-815156\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Curiel\u2019s scouting report reads.<\/a> \u201cHis swing is somewhat flat and he may not have more than average strength or bat speed, so he might not deliver more than 12-15 homers per season. He resembles Christian Yelich at the same age, though scouts are skeptical that Curiel can match the power gains Yelich made later in his career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile scouts debate how much pop Curiel will have, there are fewer concerns about his ability to stay in center field. Though he played left field as a freshman, he has solid speed and looks more comfortable tracking balls up the middle. His arm is fringy but playable in center.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Curiel\u2019s head coahc at LSU, Jay Johnson, was very complimentary of his outfielder. Even as a freshman, he was key to a national title win.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was born to hit,\u201d Johnson\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsspectrum.com\/sport\/baseball\/2025\/06\/16\/derek-curiel-lsu-confidence-from-the-lord\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>\u00a0of Curiel during the College World Series. \u201cHis disposition, his demeanor is made for hitting with runners on base, made for playing in games like the College World Series. He\u2019ll probably play in the major league World Series someday because he\u2019s got that \u2018it factor\u2019 character.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LSU outfielder Derek Curiel was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the No. 5 overall pick in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-241161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}