Pittsburgh Pirates second-round draft pick Angel Cervantes stunned the baseball world Wednesday night when he announced that he would bypass professional baseball to attend UCLA.
The 6-foot-3, 195-pound right-hander from Downey (Calif.) Warren High School, who doesn’t turn 18 until Aug. 21, was selected with the No. 50 pick in the MLB Draft on July 13. Cervantes was ranked the No. 49 prospect by MLB Pipeline and No. 51 by Baseball America.
Go bruins!!
AGTG✝️@johnwdavis @d1baseball @UCLABaseball @LesLukach @ShooterHunt @latsondheimer @prepbaseball @PrepBaseballCA@BaseballAmerica pic.twitter.com/JWKfpthZ9A— Angel Cervantes (@AngelC_2025) July 24, 2025
Baseball America has UCLA as the No. 1 team in the nation in its “Way Too Early” rankings, as Bruins coach John Savage returns national player of the year Roch Cholowsky and most of the key players from its first College World Series team since 2013.
Choosing college over the pros is rare for a player selected in the top 10 rounds, so this is a blow for the Pirates’ draft class. They signed first-round pick Seth Hernandez, a 19-year-old right-hander from Corona, Calif., to a $7.25 million bonus on Tuesday and have signed 12 of their 21 picks.
Slot bonus value for the 50th pick is $1,934,700. If Cervantes doesn’t sign by the 5 p.m. deadline Monday, the Pirates will lose $1.93 million toward their bonus pool for the 2026 draft class but receive a compensation pick.
This isn’t the first time the Pirates have had a prep pitcher choose college over signing.
In 2016, they selected left-hander Nick Lodolo 41st overall but he opted to attend TCU. The Pirates selected prep right-hander Steven Jennings with the 42nd pick the next year, but waived him in 2021. Lodolo was drafted seventh overall by the Cincinnati Reds in 2019 and has started 68 games over four seasons in the majors.
In 2018, the Pirates picked right-hander Gunnar Hogulund 36th overall but he attended Ole Miss instead. The Pirates chose outfielder Sammy Siani with the 37th pick in 2019, and the 24-year-old is at Double-A Altoona. Hoglund was taken by the Toronto Blue Jays at No. 9 in 2021. Hoglund was traded to the Athletics in 2022 as part of the package for third baseman Matt Chapman and has started six games in the majors this season.