Nicholas Geiger Bitsko (born June 16, 2002) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

in the

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. Since its inception ...

organization. He was selected 24th overall by the Rays in the 2020 Major League Baseball draft.

Amateur career

Bitsko attended

Central Bucks High School East Central Bucks High School East is a public high school serving students in tenth through twelfth grades, one of three high schools in the Central Bucks School District. The school is located in Buckingham, Pennsylvania in Bucks County, adjacent to ...

Buckingham, Pennsylvania Buckingham is an unincorporated community in Buckingham Township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. Buckingham is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 202, Pennsylvania Route 263, and Pennsylvania Route 413 Pennsylvania Route 4 ...

. He committed to play

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

in November 2016. Bitsko gained notoriety due to the circumstances of his draft stock rising; due to the

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, few

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

scouts had seen him pitch, and much of the data collected was collected virtually. He was a top-rated prospect for the

2021 Major League Baseball draft The 2021 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on July 11–13, 2021. In conjunction with the 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the draft was held in Denver. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The ...

according to ''

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

'', but graduated from high school early and

reclassified ''Reclassified'' is the reissue of Australians, Australian rapper Iggy Azalea's debut studio album, ''The New Classic'' (2014). It was released internationally on 21 November 2014 by Virgin EMI Records, and in the United States on 24 November ...

to the class of 2020. In 2020, he was named Pennsylvania's Gatorade Player of the Year.

Professional career

Bitsko was selected 24th overall by the

in the 2020 Major League Baseball draft. He signed with the Rays for a $3 million bonus. In December 2020, Bitsko underwent right shoulder surgery. He did not make an appearance in 2021 while recovering.

References

External links

Baseball players from Pennsylvania Living people 2002 births Florida Complex League Rays players {{US-baseball-pitcher-stub