The Pittsburgh Pirates today announced they have signed outfielder Travis Swaggerty, the 10th overall selection in the 2018 First-Year Player Draft. The announcement was made by Pirates Executive Vice President and General Manager Neal Huntington and Senior Director of Scouting Joe DelliCarri.
The 20-year-old Swaggerty hit .296 (63-for-213) with 10 doubles, 13 home runs, 38 RBI and a .526 slugging percentage in 57 games as a junior this season for the University of South Alabama.
Swaggerty was named a pre-season first-team All-America by Baseball America, D1Baseball, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, Perfect Game/Rawlings and College Sports Madness. He was also named to the USA Baseball Preseason Golden Spikes Watch List. He was also a first-team selection to the Sun Belt Conference post-season team as an outfielder.
"We are thrilled to welcome Travis and his family into our organization today" said DelliCarri. "We are looking forward to the opportunity for our development staff to work with Travis' physical skill sets, in combination with his strong grit and determination, in maximizing all his abilities during his path to playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates."
During the summer of 2017, Swaggerty appeared in 19 games for the USA Baseball Collegiate National team, where he ranked second on the team in hits (21) and on-base percentage (.449) and third in stolen bases (six) and batting average (.328).
As a freshman in 2016, the 5-foot-11 Swaggerty was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America by Collegiate Baseball. He was also named to the NCAA Tallahassee Regional all-tournament team.
Swaggerty, who was signed by Pirates Area Scouting Supervisor Darren Mazeroski, will begin his professional career with the West Virginia Black Bears.