Chants’ Cunningham will sign with Tigers after this season

Coastal Carolina hasn’t announced yet which game junior right-hander Alex Cunningham will start during the College World Series, but any appearance could be the last of his collegiate career.

Cunningham said this week that he will sign with the Detroit Tigers, who drafted him in the 28th round last Saturday, after this season ends while forgoing his final year of eligibility.

“I’m going to sign. It’s extremely exciting. Just coming through with the arm injuries and going through the draft process last year, I was very disappointed after the draft last year obviously. But everything worked out I think the way it should have,” he said.

Cunningham, who missed a season and a half with arm trouble before returning last year and battling yet more setbacks, has been healthy all season while posting a 9-3 record and 3.58 ERA. Overall, he boasts a 17-4 career mark with a 3.23 ERA in 195 1/3 innings.

“Barring the injury, he’s a senior anyway. He’s healthy, he should take his opportunity,” Chants coach Gary Gilmore said.

Meanwhile, Gilmore said most people don’t understand what sort of collective relief his team received on that Saturday before the start of their first NCAA super regional game at LSU as six Chants in all ended up getting drafted.

Junior shortstop Michael Paez (fourth round, New York Mets) and senior third baseman Zach Remillard (10th round, Chicago White Sox) had been selected Friday before senior closer Mike Morrison (27th round, White Sox), Cunningham, junior designated hitter G.K. Young (31st round, San Diego Padres) and senior right fielder Connor Owings (34th round, Arizona Diamondbacks) followed the next day.

“I’ll tell you what, no one’s talked about this, but in all honesty if you look at us and how we played at LSU, I’m telling you right now the fact that on Saturday when all that other group of guys got drafted, the sense of relaxation in and amongst the whole group of them [was significant] – that all of the ones that at that particular time are of the ability level and the year in school that they can be a draft guy, that they all got drafted,” Gilmore said.

“[Junior pitcher Andrew] Beckwith will be a guy next year. I mean, the calmness that went across the whole team, that all of them were in and they knew that was over with, it was like, ‘Thank God.’ Honestly, as that whole thing was going on Saturday, you could have cut the tension with a knife for all the guys, especially the older guys, the senior guys. They’re sitting there sweating bullets with every name that gets called that’s not theirs. For some of those guys to have not been called, I don’t think we win. It just completely put everything at ease.”

Gilmore still doesn’t know which way Young is leaning, but he believes he could benefit by returning the way Remillard (who went from six home runs last year to 19 this season, along with 69 RBIs and a .347 batting average) and Owings (who was named Big South Player of the Year and is hitting .379 with 16 homers and 53 RBIs) did as seniors.

“We’ve talked a few times before, I haven’t asked him since then. At this point, it ain’t about the draft,” Gilmore said. “For me I hope he comes back. I honestly think he can do what Owings and Remillard did, which is significantly improve his position. ... I honestly believe that G.K. can be a sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th-round guy if he can improve his plate presence and cut out some of his strikeouts. I think he can be a 25-home run guy that shows that he can be either a catcher or a first baseman.

“But all in all if he decides to sign, there’s a lot of guys out there that fight [to retain drafted players], but I’m going to tell him both the good and bad sides of it and it’s his life. He’s the one who has to live with it either way he goes. I’m just happy for him. He came here as an undrafted guy.”

Young enters the College World Series batting .345 with 17 home runs and 65 RBIs.

And Paez (.287, 15 homers, 52 RBIs) has not yet announced a decision either, but as a fourth-round pick Gilmore knows the likelihood of him returning is slim.

“Again, I’d love for him to come back, but in that slot, I mean I would be highly surprised if he did. But he needs to play his cards the way he needs to play them. He knows that we want him back,” Gilmore said. “... I have to project that every one of those guys is gone and put a team together for next year that’s representative of this program.”

This story was originally published June 16, 2016 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Chants’ Cunningham will sign with Tigers after this season."