It’s official: Damon Casetta-Stubbs is a Seattle Mariner.
The recent King’s Way graduate who led the Knights to their first program 1A state baseball title inked a contract with the Mariners organization Wednesday morning with a $325,000 signing bonus. He was drafted with the 328th pick in the 11th round of last week’s Major League Baseball draft.
The signing makes true on Casetta-Stubbs’ intent to get drafted and sign with a team out of high school, forgoing college baseball eligibility. He was signed to play at Seattle University.
The right-handed pitcher flew down to Peoria, Ariz., this week, passed his team physical and signed. He’ll join the Mariners’ AZL rookie ball team, but says he won’t throw in a game for about four weeks.
“They want to build us up and keep it light for summer to be strong next year,” Casetta-Stubbs said Wednesday via text message.
He attended King’s Way’s graduation Saturday donning a navy blue Mariners hat in place of the standard graduation cap. He reported to Peoria shortly thereafter.
Signing a pro contract has not hit him yet and he’s not sure when it will, he said, but he’s “super excited for the future and what it has in store.”
Casetta-Stubbs, 18, started on the mound in King’s Way’s first game as a baseball program when he was a freshman in 2014. Over his four years at the class-1A school, he grew to 6-foot-4, 215 pounds and possessed a fastball that touched 97 miles per hour this past season. His pitching helped win the Knights the 1A state championship in 2017, and return to the title game in 2018.
He was recently named The Columbian’s All-Region Baseball Player of the Year.
