MORGANTOWN — West Virginia baseball lost another player to the MLB after being drafted and another who hadn’t even seen the field. Right-handed incoming freshman Kyle Casteel officially signed with the Chicago White Sox on Thursday night. He inked a $1.25 million signing bonus after being drafted in the 11th round as the 315th pick.
“This guy is beyond special,” head coach Steve Sabins tweeted when he was drafted. “Talent and makeup (is) off the charts.”
Casteel was the No. 162 MLB prospect out of Butler, Pennsylvania, and he signed with the Mountaineers in the fall. He was ranked the No. 18th overall player in the state and was ranked the No. 10 pitcher. Casteel was named the Prep Pennsylvania Player of the Year, according to Prep Baseball Report.
Casteel padded the stat sheet in his last two years of high school. He threw a 0.63 ERA as a junior, and wasn’t far off his senior season, with a 0.64 ERA. His senior year, Casteel pitched almost 66 innings, allowed six earned runs, 34 hits, 11 walks and struck out a whopping 103 batters. He was 10-0 as a starter and helped win the WPIAL quarterfinals, PIAA first round and state semifinals.
The Chicago White Sox had the first overall pick in the MLB Draft this year and selected UCLA’s shortstop Roch Cholowsky. Casteel won’t be in the big leagues for quite some time, but the White Sox are currently 50-45 this year and tied with the Cleveland Guardians for first in the American League Central.
Casteel is the second high school signee to head straight to the MLB since 2024. He joined Griffin Burkholder, who was selected in the second round by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2024. WVU had multiple players head to the MLB and decide to forgo playing for the school in 2027. Pitchers Maxx Yehl, Dawson Montesa and shortstop Owen Henne, who transferred from Seton Hill, all decided to start their professional careers after being drafted. Utility player Armani Guzman withdrew from the draft and decided to return to WVU.
Casteel was the final Mountaineer drafted, the last of six players selected. Montesa was picked in the second by the St. Louis Cardinals, pitcher Maxx Yehl was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the third, shortstop transfer Owen Henne in the sixth by the Cardinals, outfielder Paul Schoenfeld in the eighth to the Arizona Diamondbacks and pitcher Ian Korn in the 10th to the San Francisco Giants. It was the third straight year WVU has had at least four players selected in the MLB Draft. Pitcher Reese Bassinger signed as an undrafted free agent.
Losing Casteel hurts, but Sabins has a lot of talented arms coming in to get WVU back to the College World Series. The Mountaineers have five transfer arms, a JUCO pitcher and four high school pitchers coming in as reinforcements. WVU also returns All-Big 12 first-team and National Pitcher of the Year semifinalist, pitcher Chansen Cole, to lead the rotation.
