Boasting five MLB Draft selections, another free agent signing, and the 10th best slot value among all universities’ draft picks, WVU’s 2024 draft class easily has the highest expectations among recent years’ groups of Mountaineers.
Those expectations rise even more so when putting names and context to this set of draftees. JJ Wetherholt, this draft’s seventh overall pick to the St. Louis Cardinals, is just two years removed from his historic Big 12 Player of the Year campaign and months removed from placing at the very top of several mock drafts.
Alongside Wetherholt, who is now WVU’s highest drafted baseball player of all time, are pitchers David Hagaman, Aidan Major, Derek Clark, Tyler Switalski, and Mets free agent signing Hayden Cooper. The rotation is coming off the Mountaineers’ all-time best run in the NCAA postseason, which ended in a super regional loss to North Carolina.
Five drafted players puts the 2024 draft class with the most WVU representation since the 2019 class, which sported 10 former Mountaineers. More Mountaineers signed rookie deals this season than there were on MLB Opening Day rosters. While making the big leagues is certainly not guaranteed for all of WVU’s draftees, that fact alone puts a spotlight on the class.
Under that spotlight, the former Mountaineers will find themselves compared to those that have stuck around in the show. Pitchers Michael Grove, Alek Manoah, and John Means as well as outfielder Victor Scott II are the names in those comparisons, and their personal rookie campaigns leave big shoes to fill for the 2024 rookies.
Michael Grove: 2022 Rookie for the LA Dodgers
One of four Mountaineers in the 21st century to be drafted in the top two rounds, Grove got his chance in the MLB just under four years after being selected in the second round by the Dodgers.
Grove had a storied career in the minor leagues, where he climbed from High-A to AAA in three seasons. Grove’s journey in the minors is nowhere near over, as he has made AAA appearances in conjunction with every season in his MLB career, but after 59 games of exclusively Minor League Baseball, he now regularly gets to the mound for LA’s 63-44 powerhouse.
As a rookie, Grove appeared in seven games and started six. In those games, Grove secured one win and was not attributed to any losses. He played 29.1 innings combined and pitched an ERA of 4.6, which stands as his best for one of his three MLB seasons.
Allowing 32 hits and 21 runs (15 earned) in under 30 innings was enough for the Dodgers to finally put some trust in their second round pick. Grove rose through the ranks quickly, earning 12 starts and 69 innings in 18 appearances in 2023 and becoming a trusted reliever in 2024, where he has made 28 appearances, including two starts, for 37.1 innings pitched.
Alek Manoah: 2021 Rookie for the Toronto Blue Jays
Manoah easily has the most desirable career model for the rising Mountaineer pitchers. A first round pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, Manoah quickly made a name for himself in Low-A to finish out the season before being forced to the shadows in 2020 during the canceled Minor League Baseball season.
In 2021, Manoah immediately moved all the way up to AAA and struck out 12 batters in six innings during his debut. After three wins in three starts for an ERA of 0.5, the rest is history, as Manoah made his Blue Jays debut and quickly set on a path to be named an All-Star and All-MLB first teamer in 2022.
As a rookie, Manoah shined, pitching seven strikeouts and two walks while allowing just two hits and no runs in his May 27 debut. He set the Blue Jays franchise record for consecutive strikeouts the next week, striking out seven Tampa Bay Rays batters in a row on July 2.
Aside from his five-game suspension and league-highest 16 hit-by-pitches thrown, there is not much that the 2024 Mountaineer draftees should not want to emulate once their chance to be a rookie arrives. Manoah went 9-2 and made 20 starts in 20 appearances as a rookie, pitching an ERA of 3.22 in 111.2 innings with 127 strikeouts, his second most in an MLB season to date.
John Means: 2019 Rookie for the Baltimore Orioles
Simultaneously making the earliest MLB debut and waiting the longest for it was John Means, the 2014 11th rounder from the Orioles.
Means played his cards correctly to make the show, passing on a professional contract after getting drafted due to injury, causing him to enroll at his local community college in Fort Scott, Kansas before transferring to WVU and making 25 starts as a Mountaineer.
Five full seasons in the minors later, Means had pitched 622.2 innings across five levels, earning him his first and only call-up of the 2018 season on September 26. Means threw 3.1 innings as a reliever and allowed six hits, including a home run, and five runs with four strikeouts and no walks.
In Means’ full rookie season in the major leagues, though, the 26-year-old’s hard work truly paid off. As a full starter, Means pitched an ERA of 2.50 for the first half of the year, earning him a bid to the MLB All-Star Game.
Means started in 27 of his 31 appearances in 2019 and finished the year with a 3.60 ERA and a 12-11 record. He finished second in the American League’s Rookie of the Year race. Means threw 121 strikeouts in the season as well, his second most in an MLB season in his career.
For the Mountaineer pitchers of the 2024 draft class, Means’ story is a first-class example of hard work paying off. After no Division 1 college offers, several years in the minor leagues after college, and years of effort, Means got his chance in Major League Baseball and has since been a staple of the Baltimore rotation in some capacity.
Means leaves a huge legacy to live up to any time a Mountaineer pitcher gets a chance on the biggest stage of baseball, but he also leaves a trail of how to reach that point that can be essential for the newcomers of this draft.
Victor Scott II: 2024 Rookie for the St. Louis Cardinals
The only batter of the former Mountaineers in the big leagues finds himself in the same place that the only WVU batter of this draft class will be.
Victor Scott II, an outfielder who spent three seasons with WVU, made his MLB debut this season after being drafted in the fifth round by the Cardinals in 2022. His quick journey to the MLB is impressive for someone drafted in the middle rounds, but after getting his shot, Scott struggled.
Scott played 21 games for the Cardinals this season in conjunction with 71 games thus far in the minors. He got his most recent chance in a surprise call-up in June but had no at-bats.
Ranked the third best prospect on the Cardinals by MLB.com, it is safe to say that Scott, known for his speed more than his ability to make contact with the ball, will get another chance with the Cardinals sometime soon. Making it to the league so quickly is still something for the rising Mountaineer prospects to strive for, but the adversity that awaits for Victor Scott II will tell the real story of whether or not he can be a strong role model for JJ Wetherholt, who joined his organization this year.
