The 2023 draft will be a historic one for the Pittsburgh Pirates. At the time, they had an extremely tough choice on their hands between Paul Skenes, Dylan Crews, and Wyatt Langford. Luckily, they made the right choice, taking Skenes. However, they took a high school third baseman in the 17th round with Daniel Cuvet. Cuvet did not sign with the Pirates, and now after having an extremely successful college career, may end up being a first round pick in 2026.
Cuvet didn’t sign with the Pirates, but that’s not on the Bucs. Teams regularly take high school players late into the draft, even if they have a slim chance of signing them. It is a low-risk, high-reward flier. If the player signs, the team gets a high-ceiling high schooler on a late pick. If they don’t sign them, they don't use an early round selection, and can use the draft money toward another unsigned draft pick.
Cuvet has spent all three of his college years at the University of Miami. In total, he has played 134 games thus far with 610 plate appearances. Cuvet has demolished ACC pitching, slashing .355/.441/.721. He has gone yard 48 times, and has racked up 48 doubles. He has also walked in 11.6% of his plate appearances, while striking out at a 21% rate. So far into 2026, Cuvet has six home runs, more walks (15) than strikeouts (14), and has 17 total hits over 75 plate appearances.
Cuvet also hit well in the Cape Cod League. He is batting .307/.367/.486 in 158 plate appearances there. Cuvet owns a .179 isolated slugging percentage with a half-dozen home runs in the Cape. However, Cuvet has struggled with strikeouts. His K% comes in at 29.1%, and his walk rate clocks in at 7.6%. The Cape Cod League is a wood bat league, so there is a learning curve for hitters.
As of right now, Cuvet is a consensus top 100 draft prospect by Baseball America (77th) and MLB Pipeline (ranked 67th). He has some of the most power potential in the 2026 draft class, with Pipeline going so far as to state if he can make more contact, he has 70-grade in-game power. Cuvet is also listed at an imposing 6’4”, 235-LBS, giving him plenty of raw strength. He’ll need to improve his swing decisions and cut down on the whiffs, but it’s not an overly glaring issue of his game just yet. Cuvet also has a chance to stick at third base because of his plus arm strength. However, there is still concern he will have to move over to first base in the future.
If Cuvet shows some improvement with his hit tool, he’d likely become a top 50 draft prospect. That puts him in range of being a potential late first round, under-slot pick in 2026. It is unfortunate that the Pirates were unable to sign him in 2023 given how well he has developed in college. But this wouldn’t be the first time in baseball history something like this has happened, to any team, not just the Pirates. We’ll see this upcoming July if Cuvet goes to a team in the first round. The corner infield slugger certainly has the potential to do so.
