{"id":251802,"date":"2026-07-25T11:28:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T11:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/251802\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T11:28:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T11:28:19","slug":"pirates-draft-signings-3-early-picks-and-a-prep-pitcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/251802\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Draft Signings: 3 Early Picks and a Prep Pitcher"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"300\" height=\"168\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MLB-Draft.png\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium tpd-force-16x9-aspect-ratio wp-post-image\" alt=\"2026 MLB Draft, Pittsburgh Pirates\" decoding=\"sync\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Pirates announced four more draft signings on Thursday, upping their 2026 total to 15 out of 21 total picks.<\/p>\n<p>SS Aiden Ruiz, New York (High School) (2nd Round)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ruiz was considered a top 35 prospect by both Baseball America (No. 31) and MLB Pipeline (No. 32). The 19-year-old will forgo a college commitment to Vanderbilt. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 24 games as a senior with The Stony Brook School, Ruiz slashed .403\/.547\/.625 with six doubles, two triples, two home runs and 17 RBIs while going a perfect 23 for 23 on stolen base attempts. Ruiz also helped the Bears to the 2024 New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) state title. <\/p>\n<p>RHP Jason DeCaro, North Carolina (3rd Round)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DeCaro was the first pitcher the Pirates took in the 2026 draft and was ranked 133rd overall by MLB Pipeline.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DeCaro went 11-3 with a a 2.87 ERA as a junior for the Tar Heels. In 97.1 innings, the 20-year-old allowed 85 hits, walked 42 and struck out 99 batters en route to earning All-Atlantic Coast Conference first-team and D1Baseball All American second-team honors.<\/p>\n<p>OF Andruw Giles, Nevada (High School) (4th Round)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Pirated ended the first day of the draft by taking Giles, who will forgo a commitment to Oregon. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Giles, 18, Giles slashed .409\/.606\/.935 with 11 doubles, four triples, five home runs, 23 RBIs and 10 steals in 26 games as a high school senior with Basic Academy of International Studies in Nevada. <\/p>\n<p>LHP Spencer Evans, Florida (High School) (11th Round)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Evans, who was committed to LSU before signing with the Pirates, was ranked as the 144th-best draft-eligible prospect by Baseball America and No. 195 by MLB Pipeline.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 6-3 left-hander has an above-average fastball that routinely sits in the mid-90s. He features the pitch with a slider and changeup, both of which show promise.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned in this article: <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/tag\/aiden-ruiz\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aiden Ruiz<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/tag\/andruw-giles\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andruw Giles<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/tag\/jason-decaro\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jason DeCaro<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-pirates\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/tag\/spencer-evans\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spencer Evans<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"categories single-categories\">More about:<a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/pittsburgh-pirates\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pirates<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pirates announced four more draft signings on Thursday, upping their 2026 total to 15 out of 21&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[107618,107619,107620,73,75,74,10997,107621],"class_list":["post-251802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-aiden-ruiz","tag-andruw-giles","tag-jason-decaro","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-spencer-evans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251802","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=251802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}