Pitt baseball’s ace, junior right-hander Mitch Myers, will trade one Oakland for another after being selected by the Athletics in the 12th round of the 2021 MLB Draft. The junior college transfer, who spent two years at Pitt, was the 368th overall selection of the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday afternoon.
This is the first time Myers has been drafted in his career. He still has eligibility remaining if he wants to use it, but Myers has not indicated publicly whether he will sign immediately or consider a return to school.
Myers is not a dominant arm, but wins with precision. His fastball velocity floats around the high-80’s to low-90’s, occasionally touching 93 or 94 miles per hour, but his command is outstanding. He had the fourth fewest walks and seventh most strikeouts of any ACC pitcher who threw more than 80 innings in 2021.
In his only full season with the Panthers, Myers went toe-to-toe with some of the best arms in the ACC as the Friday night starter. He ended 2021 with a 5-5 record, .249 opponent batting average and 3.21 ERA, the sixth-best mark in the conference.
Myers also became an impressive big-game pitcher over the course of last spring. He burst onto the national stage by striking out 13 over six-shutout innings in a 1-0 win on the road over then-No. 9 Florida State on February 26. He allowed just one run over nine innings in a 2-1 victory against eventual College World Series participant Virginia on March 20.
He ended his season by starting a must-win game against North Carolina. Myers threw 89 pitches over 4 ⅔ innings on only three days’ rest and allowed just two runs as the Panthers kept their season alive with a 5-3 win.
Myers is the first Pitt player drafted since 2019 and the 12th round is the earliest a Panther has been selected since right-handed pitcher Matt Pidich went in the eighth round to Cincinnati in 2018.
