Bishop Verot grad Joey Lawson signs with MLB's Miami Marlins
· Yahoo Sports
Joey Lawson thought his opportunity to play professional baseball would have to wait.
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On the final day of the 2026 MLB Draft, the 19-year-old was headed to the airport for a flight back to North Carolina to rejoin the Tar Heels after rejecting offers from a couple of interested teams to forgo his college eligibility.
Then in the 20th and final round, Lawson got a call from Ryan Cisterna, the assistant scouting director for the Miami Marlins. The team, which had worked out the right-handed pitcher before the draft, decided to select him with the 595th overall pick.
Lawson, who had already started second-guessing his decision to pass on those earlier offers, was elated. Less than two weeks later, on July 23, the two-time Southwest Florida Baseball Player of the Year made it official, signing with the Marlins for a reported $196,500.
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“I knew down in my heart I wanted to be a professional baseball player,” he said. “I didn’t want to go to college and not have my heart (in it) knowing what could have been. And I don’t want to do anything if my heart’s not it.
“The Marlins decided to take a chance on me and give me a second chance by drafting me as a flier pick. And I’ve never been happier. There’s nowhere else I would rather be.”
Lawson recounted a first-grade assignment where he wrote “I want to play baseball and get drafted out of high school” as his answer to a question about his dreams for the future. His teacher responded that he’d have to be really good at baseball for that to happen.
“Just that feeling to make a dream come true and prove some people wrong is like no other,” Lawson said. “I couldn’t be more happy and just seeing how happy my parents and my brother were, it means the world to me.”
Lawson was one of two Bishop Verot products selected in this year’s MLB Draft. The other was Aidan Knaak, a 2023 graduate now at Clemson, who was a fifth-round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers. As of July 24, the right-handed pitcher had yet to sign with the team.
Meanwhile, Lawson is headed to Jupiter where he’ll join the rest of the Marlins’ rookies at the team’s spring training facility to begin his pro career.
“Being able to get on the field as a professional, especially for an organization like this, is just unfathomable,” he said. “I can’t believe this is my life and what I get to do.”
Contact Sports Reporter Dan DeLuca at [email protected]. For the best sports coverage in Southwest Florida, follow @newspresssports and @ndnprepzone on Instagram.
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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Bishop Verot grad Joey Lawson signs with MLB's Miami Marlins