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The second day of the 2014 MLB First-Year Player Draft came and went on Friday, and two Gators went with it.
Catcher Taylor Gushue was snagged in the fourth round by the Pittsburgh Pirates, with the 131st overall pick, and pitcher/outfielder Justin Shafer — who profiles as a pitcher in the pros — was taken by the Toronto Blue Jays in the eighth round, with the 234th pick of the draft.
Gushue was expected to be an early pick on Day 2, and he was also expected to leave Florida for the pros. He'll be a Pirates farmhand as soon as he signs his contract.
Shafer, on the other hand, heard his name called a little earlier than expected. He will probably depart Florida for the professional ranks as well.
The really good news for the Gators on Friday? Another one of Kevin O'Sullivan's vaunted recruiting classes made it through unscathed. Catcher JJ Schwarz of Palm Beach Gardens High, who was thought of as a Day 1 or early Day 2 pick, wasn't selected on Friday, and tweeted out this message, which sure sounds like an affirmation that he'll be a Gator for the next three years:
Can't wait to get up to Gainesville this summer and start my career with the Florida Gators!! ⚾️ #GoGators #GodIsGood
— JJ Schwarz (@jj_schwarz5) June 6, 2014
Scout's Cody Jones also got Schwarz saying "I'm going to school!" on the record.
Florida signees Alex Faedo and Dalton Guthrie, both Perfect Game Second-Team All-Americans, also went undrafted on Friday. While neither has publicly commented on their plans yet, it's a good bet that they're likely to come to Florida, given the diminishing value of the slot money allocated to picks as we get deeper into the draft.
The only Florida signee to be drafted on Friday was outfielder Alex Abbott, who went in the sixth round to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He'll have a big decision to make: The slot value for the 179th pick, used to select him, is about a quarter of a million dollars.