SEATTLE — Logan Gilbert doesn’t waste time.
Gilbert, the Seattle Mariners’ first-round draft pick earlier this month in the Major League Baseball draft, walked off an airplane at SeaTac earlier this week with glove in hand and asked Mariners amateur scouting director Scott Hunter when he would throw his first bullpen session.
“(We’re) getting the work ethic, upside and passion for the game,” Hunter said Saturday at a press conference to announce Gilbert’s signing. “It’s amazing what he’s done on his own and through the course of his career… It’s refreshing as an organization that we’re getting that kind of human being.”
The 6-foot-6, 225-pound Gilbert is a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher that the Mariners selected 14th overall out of Stetson University. Gilbert will report to Everett on Sunday to begin his professional career.
“I’m ready to get to work,” Gilbert said. “I saw the (Mariners) game (Friday) night and it made me want to get out there, so I’m excited to get to Everett. Hopefully I’ll get to throw a little bit and hopefully work my way up over the next few years.”
It remains to be seen how much mound time Gilbert will actually see in Everett. Hunter said Gilbert is “pretty much at his innings limit” for the season after he threw 1121⁄3 innings for the Hatters, who reached the NCAA Division I Super Regionals this season.
“They’re going to ease him in,” Hunter said. “If he throws a few innings here and there this summer it will be icing on the cake, but it’s not going to be a heavy workload whatsoever. It’s more about getting him ready for our (high performance) camp in the fall.”
Gilbert’s parents, Keith and Noel, and his older brother, Tyler, came to Seattle from Florida for the weekend. Former AquaSox manager Rob Mummau, who scouts north Florida for the Mariners, was also at the press conference. Mummau most recently managed Everett in 2016 when the AquaSox reached the Northwest League championship series.
Mummau first scouted Gilbert last summer in the prestigious Cape Cod League and followed Gilbert this spring as he completed his junior season.
“He was a little bit up and down in (velocity), but he really finished strong, and we knew what kind of worker he was and what kind of makeup he had,” Mummau said. “Coming from me, it was a no-brainer.”
The lanky right-hander went 11-2 with 2.72 earned-run average, and his 163 strikeouts led all Division I pitchers. He finished his three-year Stetson career with 23-3 record and a 2.48 ERA and 313 strikeouts in 2502⁄3 innings.
Those numbers came despite Gilbert dealing with some dead-arm issues during the college season that caused him to drop down some teams’ draft boards.
The Mariners were not one of those teams.
“I’m really thankful that (the Mariners) did stick with me,” Gilbert said. “I think it all worked out. It’s tough to go through dead-arm, especially during an important season like that, but maybe that’s the reason I ended up here. I’m really happy that everything worked out the way it did.”
A two-time Atlantic Sun Conference Pitcher of the Year who was named to several All-America teams, Gilbert reportedly agreed to a signing bonus of $3,883,800, which is the slot value for the 14th overall pick.
“He was a guy we were targeting for a long time, and we were very happy that he was there,” Mummau said.
The Mariners also announced they have signed ninth-round pick Keegan McGovern, an outfielder from Georgia, and 24th-rounder and pitcher Benjamin Onyshko, who was a Stetson teammate of Gilbert’s. The M’s have signed 32 of their 40 draft picks and nine of their top 10 selections. Third-round pick Cal Raleigh, a catcher from Florida State, remains unsigned.
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