Mississippi State's Justin Foscue signs with Texas Rangers

It's now official. Mississippi State's Justin Foscue is a professional baseball player.

The second baseman has signed with the Texas Rangers organization according to multiple reports. Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline reports that Foscue inked with Texas with a signing bonus of $3.25 million.

Foscue was chosen by the Rangers in the first round of last week's MLB Draft with the event's 14th overall selection. The slot value of that pick was $4,036,800. It's not unusual for clubs to sign players for under slot value though, to have more money to spend on additional picks.

It all brings to an end a tremendous MSU career for Foscue that included a pair of College World Series appearances and more. Here is a look back at Foscue's Bulldog history, courtesy of Mississippi State media relations:

On the short list of Mississippi State baseball student-athletes to appear at the College World Series twice, Foscue earned All-America honors from all seven publications after a breakout sophomore season in 2019. A three-year starter, Foscue made the move from third base to second base in 2019 and didn’t skip a beat. In 62 starts, he hit .331 with 36 extra base hits – including 14 home runs – and he struck out only 32 times in 275 at bats.

Spending the 2019 summer with the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team, Foscue made 14 appearances with 12 starts for Team USA. He tied for the team lead in doubles (3) during the summer and picked up right where he left off to start the 2020 season. In the shortened 2020 campaign, Foscue owned five multi-hit games and four multi-RBI games. He posted at least one RBI in the first eight games of the season and produced an RBI in 11 of 16 games.

Foscue owns a career .380 career on-base percentage in 141 games played (131 starts) with 100 runs scored and 96 RBIs. In 594 career plate appearances, Foscue has struck out in just 9.6% of his plate appearances (57 strikeouts) and walked in 11.3% of those (67 walks). In 83 starts over the last two seasons, he posted a .320 batting average and reached base in 70 of those contests.