South Fayette grad Pitzer signs deal with Padres
When the Major League Baseball draft concluded on Sunday and Tyler Pitzer wasn’t selected, his first thought was he was going to return to college for his senior season.
Then, he got a phone call from a scout he knew from the San Diego Padres.
“He asked if I would be interested in signing as a free agent after the draft,” Pitzer said. “They talked with my agent and then called me back and we made it happen.”
It was a call that led to making his lifelong dream of becoming a professional baseball player a reality.
Pitzer, a South Fayette graduate, signed with the Padres Sunday night.
“I’m super excited for it,” Pitzer said. “It’s what I’ve been working toward my entire career. Seeing all the work pay off and being able to start a new journey is great.”
Pitzer pitched mainly out of the bullpen for Mississippi State in the spring.
It was his only season in Starkville and he had a 3.90 ERA in 30 innings with 38 strikeouts to 16 walks.
Pitzer was committed to transfer back to South Carolina for his senior season after pitching there as freshman and sophomore, but the chance to turn pro was too good to turn down.
Part of what makes the MLB draft different from other sports is the monetary pools for the teams. Each team goes about how they spread their pool out differently, which makes signings in the back half of the draft vary in terms of signing bonuses.
Pitzer said he was in contact with a couple different teams, but nothing came to fruition during the draft.
He and his agency had a target monetary value before the draft, and while it didn’t lead to him getting drafted, it worked out in the end.
“As soon as the draft ended and I didn’t get picked my first thought was that I was going to go back to school, but then the Padres called and got me what I needed financially, so I ended up taking it,” Pitzer said. “We had a plan going into the draft and the plan didn’t really work, but afterwards it did. We got what we needed and went from there.”
Pitzer had some contact with the Padres in the fall during scout meetings at Mississippi State, but didn’t hear from them until after the draft concluded.
He probably got on the Padres, and other teams’, radar with how he performed last summer in the Cape Cod wood bat league.
Pitzer was the Pitcher of the Year in the Cape Cod league. He had a 0.34 ERA in 26.1 innings with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.
His performance in Cape Cod, which is considered the top wood bat summer league, was a topic of discussion during meetings with scouts.
“I had a really good freshman year (at South Carolina), but my sophomore year was definitely a down year, so the summer was huge for me,” Pitzer said. “It really put my name out there and got (Major League) teams to know who I was and started following me a lot heavier.
“This year (at Mississippi State) I maintained what I had done over summer and it ended up being enough for me to get signed.”
Pitzer is flying out to Arizona Sunday and will report to the Padres’ spring training complex in Peoria.
The plan is to spend a few weeks there for evaluation before learning where he’ll finish the season.
Regardless of where that will be, Pitzer is eager to pursue his dream of being a Major League Baseball player.
“The biggest thing for me is to work even harder now that I have this opportunity,” Pitzer said. “I haven’t made it yet. This is just the beginning of it, so it’s a motivation for me to use to get all the way to the Big Leagues.”