NC State’s Patrick Bailey drafted by San Francisco Giants in first round of MLB Draft

North Carolina State University catcher Patrick Bailey has been selected by the San Francisco Giants with the 13th overall pick in the first round of the 2020 Major League Baseball Draft

Bailey started behind the plate in all but one of N.C. State’s 17 games this season. He finished second on the team for runs scored (20), and hit homers from both sides of the plate on Feb. 28 against Iowa, making him the first player in program history to do so. Bailey also finished second in RBIs and fourth in homers in the ACC.

In 2019, Bailey was named First-Team All-ACC and Collegiate Baseball Third-Team All-American, and made the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team.

As of Wednesday morning, Bailey was projected as the No. 14 pick in an MLB.com mock draft. He was one of just 23 prospects invited to join the draft virtually and is widely regarded as the best catcher in this year’s draft.

Bailey’s teammate and fellow prospect, Nick Swiney, said Bailey was projected so high because of the relationships he has with his pitchers.

“He gets to know his pitchers really, really well behind the scenes, bullpen, stuff like that,” Swiney said. “He really tries to form that relationship with them and get to know what their strengths are and what he’s gonna call to put them in the best situation.”

Coming out of Wesleyan Christian Academy in 2017, Bailey was drafted in the 37th round by the Minnesota Twins, but turned them down to play at N.C. State.

In a recent virtual news conference, Bailey said that outside of not playing games, his life as an athlete has remained mostly normal. He said teams wanted to see him improve his hitting, so that was something in particular he worked on.

This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 9:12 PM with the headline "NC State’s Patrick Bailey drafted by San Francisco Giants in first round of MLB Draft."