Black drafted by San Francisco in third round
Jul. 13—Mason Black didn't want regular updates.
He asked to be kept in the dark, for the most part, so he didn't develop higher or lower expectations for draft day. To take his mind off things, he asked his brother if he wanted to go golfing, but they settled for a trip to the gym instead.
Around 2:15 p.m., he got a call. Shortly thereafter, his name popped up on the screen.
The Lehigh University ace, who helped lead Valley View to the PIAA Class 4A championship game in 2018, went to the San Francisco Giants in the third round of the Major League Baseball Draft on Monday. Black was the No. 85 overall pick.
"I know I say this all the time, but it still doesn't feel real yet," the 21-year-old Archbald native said.
"Once I saw that, it was like an instant sense of relief. And just like gratification, I guess I would say. I mean, just to be surrounded by all the people that really helped me to get there, like my close family, my friends, my teammates, it was an unreal experience for everybody, not just me."
Valley View recently saw one alum debut in the big leagues. Now, Black might be on his way there, too.
The 6-foot-3, 230-pound right-hander was 7-3 with a 3.11 ERA for Lehigh this season, striking out 11.8 batters and walking 3.9 per nine innings while earning Patriot League Pitcher of the Year honors. He jumped on the national radar after his first college season in 2019, when he posted a sparkling 1.47 ERA over eight games with Brewster of the prestigious Cape Cod League, then drew the Giants' attention the next summer when he stymied South Florida Collegiate Baseball League hitters to the tune of a 0.64 ERA.
"I think he really saw some strides in his arsenal, in the way he was able to learn how to pitch by going down to the Florida Collegiate League," said Michael Holmes, San Francisco's director of amateur scouting. "We saw some velocity jump out of him. Another guy who made some minor adjustments in his kind of delivery and his arm action and really kind of saw his stuff take off. And then that allowed us to kind of follow that momentum into this spring and continue to watch him."
Black said the Giants started talking to him over the offseason, then he met with them in person at the MLB Draft Combine last month. He said he felt every meeting went well, but had no inclination about just how much San Francisco — or any other team, for that matter — liked him.
"He's a really kind of high-aptitude kid," Holmes said. "He has a great understanding of the data and analytic side of pitching. He's used that to his advantage. And the uptick in the stuff, the physicality, the durability — he's just a guy that we were really interested in as a future major league starter who checked a lot of boxes for us."
San Francisco used its first nine picks on pitchers, including Mississippi State's Will Bednar in the first round (No. 14 overall) and Fordham's Matt Mikulski (No. 50). Holmes said it wasn't the team's plan to go focus so much on that side of the ball, but added he felt it was a particularly deep year for the position.
Black served as Valley View's hard-throwing closer in 2016 — Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Max Kranick's senior season — which was really the first time he started to take pitching seriously. After Little League, he moved to catcher for the majority of the next four years. Black said the catcher version of himself would've tried hard to become a pro, but likely would've fallen short, heading off to med school to become a doctor instead.
Kranick, who made his second MLB start for the Pirates on Saturday, was among the first to congratulate Black on Monday.
"Let's gooooooo! So proud of you brother, no one deserves it more," Kranick tweeted shortly after the selection was announced.
The pick carries a suggested slot value of $710,700, and players can agree to deals worth more or less than that number. Black still has college eligibility and could return to Lehigh, but players taken this high in the draft are normally locks to sign professional deals.
"I'm so proud of him," said Black's brother Dixon, a rising baseball prospect in his own right after a big first season at Division-I Monmouth University. "He's worked his tail off to get here."
After Mason's name popped up on the screen, Dixon wrapped him in a big bear hug while the tent stationed outside Cocetti's in Peckville, a restaurant owned by their mom Tara Cocetti Black and aunt Tammie Cocetti McHale, erupted in cheers. Mason said seeing the reaction of his mom and dad George meant everything.
"Just to be surrounded by all the people that really helped me to get there like my close family, my friends, my teammates, it was an unreal experience for everybody, not just me," Mason said.
In San Francisco, Black could also join an organization who gave Scranton's Joe McCarthy his first big league chance in 2020. McCarthy currently is with the Giants' Triple-A team in Sacramento.
Black isn't the only player to be chosen in the MLB draft who had ties to Lehigh and Northeast Pennsylvania. In 1971, the Washington Senators selected Dunmore native Rich Revta out of the Bethlehem school in the 26th round.
"I honestly haven't really talked a whole lot about going pro yet, just because of how recent it's been, but I would say that I'm just really excited," Black said. "It's been a childhood dream of mine to be a professional baseball player. And up until I started pitching a couple years ago, I didn't know that it was a chance, or that there was a chance for me to do that. So, I'm just really excited to be given this opportunity and can't wait to hopefully be a Giant."
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