WVU's Ace of the Future Has Difficult Decision to Make After Being Drafted by White Sox

Kyle Casteel has until July 27th to sign with Chicago, or he'll be on his way to Morgantown.

WVU Athletics Communications

On Sunday, West Virginia incoming right-handed freshman pitcher Kyle Casteel was selected with the 315th overall pick in the 11th round by the Chicago White Sox in the 2026 MLB Draft.

The fact that he fell to the 11th round may seem promising for Mountaineer fans, hoping that he will not sign and instead play at West Virginia next season; however, the White Sox have the ability to make a strong, compelling offer, thanks to their league-best $20.4M bonus pool.

The first 10 rounds of the draft have an assigned slot value for every pick, but from the 11th round on, each selection is slotted at $150,000. Teams can sign a prospect for more than that, and whatever the amount is that they go over is removed from their bonus pool.

I wouldn’t expect a decision from Casteel anytime soon, as the White Sox will need to do their best to sign some guys drafted ahead of him under slot value to make an offer worth his while. He will have until July 27 at 5 PM Eastern time to make a decision.

This past season at Butler High School in Pennsylvania, Casteel posted an insane era of 0.64 in 13 outings, striking out 103 batters while walking only 11, giving up 34 hits and six earned runs in 65.2 innings of work. Only three extra base hits were allowed by him in his four-year prep career, spanning over 125.2 innings.

Casteel is a huge piece of West Virginia’s future, so if he elects to come to Morgantown, you can expect him to be a candidate to be their midweek starter next spring and eventually develop into a weekend starter, ultimately with the end goal of being the Friday night guy. His fastball sits in the low 90s, but will eventually tap into the mid 90s over time, and has a filthy slider and changeup to go with it.

By passing up on whatever offer the White Sox give him, Casteel would be required to spend three years in college (under the current rules), which would give the Mountaineers an ace to build around in the future.

Should Casteel sign with the White Sox, the Mountaineers could keep David Hagen in that midweek role or give some of those opportunities to some JJ Glasscock or some of the new arms they added this offseason, such as Zak Whitney, Drew Becker, Korey Alston, Austin Ziance, Griffin Paige, or Colton Hartman.