After choosing Pirates over Clemson, Bubba Chandler says he's 'only scratched the surface'

Bubba Chandler was ready to be a two-sport athlete at Clemson until the Pittsburgh Pirates presented an opportunity to be a two-way professional baseball player — and an offer he couldn’t refuse.

The Pirates announced the signing of Chandler, their third-round pick in the MLB Draft, on Thursday morning and formally introduced the 6-foot-3, 190-pound right-handed pitcher and switch-hitting shortstop from North Oconee High School in Bogart, Ga.

Bubba the Bucco pic.twitter.com/jRg40t4Pzi

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 22, 2021

“I think I’ve only scratched the surface,” Chandler said on a video conference call from PNC Park. “Getting into this organization is going to be great for me and my career. I’ll be getting helped a lot and can really excel at the next level on both sides of the ball.”

Chandler was planning to play quarterback at Clemson this fall before signing with the Pirates for a $3 million bonus, which reflected his ranking as one of the draft’s top-25 prospects. Instead, he will report to Pirate City in Bradenton to play in the Florida Complex League.

“I knew what I wanted in my head,” Chandler said. “I love Clemson. That’s a place one day I hope I can move a family to. It’s a top-notch place, but you’ve got to let stuff go, and I felt like I needed to let it go to better myself and my career in this sport, so that’s what I did.”

The Pirates certainly gave Chandler special treatment. His bonus was $2,129,300 above slot value for the No. 72 pick ($870,700). The extra bonus money from their $14,394,000 draft pool was available after they signed No. 1 overall pick Henry Davis and a handful of other selections to below-slot bonuses.

Jim Callis of MLB.com reported that it’s tied for the second-highest bonus for a third-round pick in the MLB Draft. The San Diego Padres gave the same amount in 2019 to outfielder Hudson Head, who was later acquired by the Pirates in the Joe Musgrove trade, and paid right-hander Cole Wilcox $3.3 million in 2020. The Padres included Wilcox in their trade with Tampa Bay for former Cy Young winner Blake Snell.

Chandler was a standout in football and baseball at North Oconee, the same school that produced Vanderbilt pitcher Kumar Rocker, who was chosen 10th overall by the New York Mets.

.@Bubbachandler_ is one of the most intriguing prospects in this Sunday's @MLBDraft on MLB Network! pic.twitter.com/KM3vXW6sRN

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) July 8, 2021

As a senior, Chandler passed for 1,842 yards and 18 touchdowns while rushing for 548 yards and six touchdowns on 79 carries. He finished with 3,605 career passing yards and 40 touchdowns in his football career. On the diamond, Chandler went 8-1 with a 1.25 ERA and 96 strikeouts in 44 2/3 innings and batted .411 with 12 doubles, eight home runs, 35 RBIs and 41 runs scored as a senior, including a record 17-strikeout performance in the playoffs.

Chandler admits his pitching is more advanced than his hitting but said he was “fully prepared to put in that work” to become a two-way player.

“Pitching, I’m going to compete my butt off. Even if I don’t have all my stuff that day, I’m still going to try to control everything to the best of my ability, control the controllables and just get outs and help my team win,” Chandler said, adding, “I want to be an extreme good-level hitter and be an All-Star hitter, have that capability one day.”

Assistant general manager Steve Sanders, who called Chandler “a special athlete,” viewed that as a positive and expressed his excitement for what he can do in baseball “now that he’s fully focused on it.”

“We see immense opportunity now that his focus is going to be on baseball,” Sanders said. “We don’t want to put any limits on what Bubba can be. … We’re just excited to see what Bubba can tap into, now that he’s focused on baseball, now that he has the resources at his disposal with professional baseball. We’re just excited for him to be a Pirate.

“I think we’re going to see over the next weeks and months and years what he’s capable of, but I think, like he mentioned, that he’s really just scratching the surface. He’s going to get the opportunity to go out and show everybody what he can do on both sides of the ball out of the gate here.”