The Pirates don't usually hand out full slot value without a fight, but Ryan Marohn just got exactly that. Pittsburgh's fifth-round pick, the former NC State Friday night starter, signed for $532,000 -- full slot for pick No. 140 -- a number that says the front office isn't worried about the arm trouble that knocked him off the mound for the back half of his junior season.
5th-rder Ryan Marohn signs w/@Pirates for $532,000 (full slot 140 value). @NCStateBaseball LHP, tumbling changeup & feel for four-pitch mix, missed time w/flexor strain but had clean MRI. @MLBDraft
Before the injury, Marohn was arguably the best arm on a loaded NC State staff that sent 7 players off the board in this draft. He went 6-1 with a 3.18 ERA and 62 strikeouts across 45.1 innings, establishing himself as the Wolfpack's Friday guy before soreness in his throwing arm shut him down and he didn't pitch again the rest of the year.
That's the part that makes this deal interesting. A guy who disappears from the box score for two months in his draft year is supposed to see his stock crater -- teams get skittish, agents scramble, bonuses shrink. Instead the medicals reportedly came back clean, and the Pirates paid him like nothing ever happened.
What they're banking on is the stuff: a changeup that scouts already had pegged as a plus pitch with serious tumble, paired with a four-pitch mix and the feel to keep hitters off balance from the left side. That's the profile of a starter, not a project, if the arm cooperates going forward.
Pittsburgh's system has leaned heavily on pitching development over the last few draft cycles, and a full-slot signing for a college lefty with a track record like Marohn's fits that pattern -- take the talent, worry about workload management later. The next checkpoint is simple: how his arm looks the first time he actually takes a mound in a Pirates uniform, whenever that ends up being.