CBA’s Dalatri Gets Big League Chance with Cardinals

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By Rich Chrampanis

Former CBA pitcher Luca Dalatri is getting his shot at the big leagues. The University of North Carolina pitcher signed a free agent deal with the St. Louis Cardinals for a $20,000 signing bonus. The 2020 MLB Draft was reduced from 40 rounds to just five due to the coronavirus and, while Dalatri was not officially selected, he was quickly offered a contract by St. Louis once the draft window closed.

RICH CHRAMPANIS
Former CBA pitcher Luca Dalatri has signed a free agent contract with the St. Louis Cardinals.

While at CBA, he was one of the most dominant pitchers in New Jersey high school baseball history and appeared to be on the path to dominance for the North Carolina Tar Heels before injuries took a toll on what could have been a stellar collegiate career. Dalatri went 30-0 with pinpoint control in his final three years at CBA, winning a state title and two Shore Conference titles along the way. His strikeout-to-walk ratio was a staggering 118 to four in his senior year.

He made the leap to ACC baseball and became North Carolina’s No. 2 starter as a freshman, going 7-3 with a 3.34 ERA earning Freshman All-American honors and third team All-ACC. But hip and elbow injuries limited him to just 59 innings over three seasons. While undrafted in the 2020 MLB Draft, Luca had his name called twice in his career. Following his high school career, he was a 40th round selection of the Colorado Rockies but the bigger headline was his reported offers in the $1 million dollar range from the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies in the early rounds of the 2016 MLB Amateur Draft. Dalatri turned down the chance to jump into professional baseball right away and opted for Chapel Hill.

In the 2019 draft the Detroit Tigers selected Dalatri in the 40th round but once again the right-handed pitcher looked to return to UNC in 2020 hoping to regain his form of three years ago.

St. Louis sees the massive potential a healthy Dalatri could bring to the Cardinals stable of arms. If he’s able to rekindle the CBA version of himself, Dalatri could be a steal for one of Major League Baseball’s historic franchises.

The article originally appeared in the June 25 – July 1, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.