Two days ago he finished his last high school final. Today he’s a pro baseball player.
The Seattle Mariners selected King’s Way Christian pitcher Damon Casetta-Stubbs in the 11th round of the MLB Draft on Wednesday morning, making the high school senior the highest drafted player out of Clark County this year.
“Going into this I wanted to be a Mariner,” Casetta-Stubbs said. “I think most of the teams knew that.”
The Mariners wanted to pick Casetta-Stubbs in the sixth round but he opted to wait to see if he could sign for more money, he said. His asking price was $350,000.
The right-handed pitcher said he agreed to a $325,000 signing bonus — well above what the pick was worth — and will forgo his college eligibility. He was committed to Seattle University.
“I wasn’t going to let my dreams come short for 25,000,” Casetta-Stubbs said. “It’s not the money for me, it’s them showing they are invested in me.”
Plus, the Mariners saved money during rounds 6 to 10 to entice Casetta-Stubbs even more.
He will fly down to Peoria, Ariz. to take his physical, sign with the team and join the AZL Mariners, the organization’s rookie league team.
Casetta-Stubbs helped lead the class 1A Knights to back-to-back state championship appearances each of the last two seasons, winning in 2017. It was the school’s first program title.
Now he’s the program’s first drafted player in its four-year history.
The Knights made it back to the state title game this season thanks in part to Casetta-Stubbs’ four hit, one walk and 12 strikeout complete game shutout of Cashmere in the 1A state semifinals.
He stands tall at 6-foot-4, weighs 215 pounds and had his fastball clocked as high as 97 miles per hour this season. Casetta-Stubbs said he’s made the biggest improvement as a pitcher in the past six months. He saw his fastball go from 88 to 97 miles per hour.
While standout seniors from around Clark County were competing in the Senior All-Star Baseball Series on May 30, Casetta-Stubbs was in Seattle participating in a pre-draft workout with the Mariners.
Casetta-Stubbs said he slept less than an hour Monday night, as he expected to go on Tuesday in rounds 3 through 8. He stayed home from school and spent the day with his family, watching names fly off the board that weren’t his.
After five hours he joined his family to carry on with his day. Then the Mariners called and told him they wanted to sign him.
“Teams see what they see in different guys so I had to just trust the process and see what happens,” he said. “I’m just glad the Mariners saw what they saw.”
He went to school Wednesday morning for King’s Way’s annual senior breakfast in the student ministry. A TV was at the front of the room and students watched attentively as day three of the MLB draft began.
Casetta-Stubbs went to sleep the night before knowing the Mariners intended to take him. But that didn’t stop a hint of worry from hitting him.
“It was pretty nerve-wracking,” Casetta-Stubbs said. “I’ve heard stories of guys not going when they’ve been told they’re signed.”
His nerves were quelled when he saw his name pop up on the Draft Tracker on his phone.
When the the Mariners’ pick was announced on the TV, the room erupted to celebrate its 18-year old classmate, the school’s first-ever professional baseball player.
