TAMPA -- The last time Daniel Pierce was at George M. Steinbrenner Field, it was for a pre-Draft workout with the Rays that turned out to be quite a story. With his luggage lost and most of his baseball gear with it, Pierce nonetheless made a tremendous impression on Tampa Bay’s front office.
It showed. When Pierce walked onto the field from the home dugout on Friday afternoon, he was a Ray.
The Rays signed Pierce only five days after selecting him with the No. 14 overall pick in this year’s MLB Draft. Pierce agreed to a $4,313,100 signing bonus, $1 million below the assigned slot value. He will report to the Rays’ Spring Training complex in Port Charlotte, Fla., on Saturday to begin his professional career.
“Still don't think it's sunk in at all. I think it's gonna sink in kind of within the next couple of days as we go to Port Charlotte and kind of get acclimated there and start to work there,” said Pierce, wearing a Rays City Connect polo shirt and a Rays cap. “I'm just super pumped to get there and get started.
“Obviously, it's a crazy time right now, with traveling down here, and just kind of hanging out and being around a bunch of big leaguers is kind of surreal. But I'm just pumped.”
The Rays expect to finalize all their Draft signings by the middle of next week, with 42nd overall pick Brendan Summerhill set to sign on Saturday.
“Everything's been going, knock on wood, very smoothly,” amateur scouting director Chuck Ricci said.
Accompanied by his parents and two older brothers, Pierce spent some time on the field during the Rays’ pregame workout, taking it all in. The first player he met was Josh Lowe, a fellow Georgia native who played for a coach that Pierce’s father knew.
An excellent defensive shortstop with the potential to develop into a five-tool player as he continues to add power, Pierce’s work ethic and feel for the game stood out to the Rays as much as anything. He developed a unique perspective by spending so much time with his father, Paul, a longtime high school coach who coached his son’s team this spring.
“I think that is really going to help him as he moves up, just being around the game as much as he has been,” Ricci said. “He’s a baseball rat, and he’s grown up around it. It’s only going to help him accelerate his path.”
Prospects are often evaluated in showcase settings leading up to the Draft, events that highlight players with the biggest and loudest tools. Pierce was certainly impressive on that front as well, but the Rays learned more by watching him practice. As Ricci said, “You can learn a lot from watching somebody take batting practice.”
They learned quite a bit about Pierce, who credited his dad for instilling the right mindset in him.
“He always just told me to be myself,” Pierce said. “I'm not the biggest of showcase players. I don't hit the ball the farthest, and certainly don't throw the hardest and stuff like that, but I think I'm one of the most all-around players in this Draft class and stuff like that. So he just kind of taught me to be myself, and don't try to be other people, and it'll be plenty.”
The Rookie-level Florida Complex League season ends later this month, so Pierce’s introduction to pro ball will likely take place in unofficial “Bridge League” games and intrasquad competition on the backfields in Port Charlotte.
Asked what he was looking forward to the most about professional baseball, Pierce smiled and said it was “probably meeting a bunch of new people.” He already knew some of the Rays’ top picks and has reached out to others, forming an early bond before they take the field.
“I'm a big talker, and I like to smile and have fun,” he said. “So [excited to] meet a bunch of new people that also share the same hobby as me, and we're all trying to get to the same place and have the same goal. So that'll be fun.”