A record 3 Butler players were taken in the 2026 MLB Draft. What might the local baseball impact be?
Never before has Butler’s baseball scene burned so bright.
On Sunday, three Golden Tornado graduates — David Leslie, Kyle Casteel and Madden Clement — heard their names called in the MLB draft, weeks after Casteel, a West Virginia commit, helped steer Butler’s high school team to never-before-seen heights.
“Other coaches reached out, like, ‘Holy smokes, three guys in one year,’” Golden Tornado coach Josh Forbes said.
“That’s about as good as it gets,” said Clement, who pitched for the Cape Cod League’s Bourne Braves this summer.
People around Butler baseball hope the past few weeks lead to a local boom.
Forbes was following the draft from his phone at Pullman Park all weekend while overseeing a youth baseball event.
Forbes was there if needed for Leslie, Casteel, Madden Clement and right-hander Nolan Stefaniak, who also had a chance to be drafted, but will now head to Penn State. Forbes followed updates on Casteel’s draft combined experience and Stefaniak’s performance in front of scouts at Fenway Park. He offered encouraging words of support throughout the process and called them all Sunday.
“Just reminding them, ‘Just enjoy these moments,”’ Forbes said Sunday night. “’It’s so cool to be talked about in this setting.’”
While not as nerve-racking as coaching the Tornado to their first WPIAL championship a month before, he said with a laugh, it was a unique experience because “you really have no control over it.”
Butler has had a handful of players drafted in its history — Forbes named Colin McKee, Nick Fennell and Curt Schnur as recent picks, and the last player before Casteel selected right out of Butler High was Jacob Cuffman in 2003 — but nothing comes close to what the program witnessed Sunday.
Asked if the past few weeks and years mark the heyday of Butler’s baseball program, with multiple WPIAL playoff appearances, a title, the longest state playoff run in team history and a record draft day, Forbes said: “Eh, talk to me in a couple years if we win a few more. Next year’s teams are gonna probably be slept on a little bit.”
While lightning likely won’t strike twice in terms of three Butler graduates being plucked in the same draft, the proof of concept “gives these kids hope,” Forbes said. “There’s hope. There’s a dream.”
Last month, the Golden Tornado reached their first-ever PIAA title game, playing in front of droves of youth players who followed them there and lined up at the netting down the third-base line to plead for balls and autographs during pregame warm-ups.
Shawn Manning, who is an assistant coach for the Golden Tornado and the vice president of Butler Youth Baseball, has helped to cultivate the game locally through camps hosting those same children.
“He’s making those kids aware, and all of a sudden they’re winning Little League (tournaments),” Forbes said. “If you’re winning at a youth level, you have an idea how to win because winning’s hard.”
Forbes said at the youth level Butler doesn’t put a heavy onus on winning elite tournaments. But BYB’s 10U team just won the District 25 Little League Tournament.
Forbes said more parents have been inquiring about how to get their children involved. Swelling youth numbers is one part of building momentum.
But 6-foot-4 18-year-olds with mid-90s fastballs don’t grow on trees. Forbes said it might take some genetic luck and good support systems. He pointed to North Allegheny High School, where some children of Pittsburgh’s pro athletes reside.
“I don’t think it can be replicated what we did this year and what’s happening, but I think it can be replicated by good families moving in (to the area),” he said. “(Then) you hope you get enough good people around youth programs who are willing to direct them the right way.”
Without realizing it, Casteel and Butler Eagle Male Athlete of the Year Nolan Stefaniak have already helped pay it forward while training at Battleground Baseball Group’s facility in Callery, just outside Evans City.
Matt Clement, who also coaches the varsity team’s pitchers, is the director of college placement at Battleground, and Forbes said more than 100 athletes who trained there have gone on to play in college.
Casteel and Stefaniak would train for three hours a day at Battleground and then stick around.
“They would stay at least 3-5 days a week and just hang out in my bullpen area, just watching other kids throw and giving advice,” Battleground’s senior director of pitching Josh Sharpless said. “They were learning and they were helping. They helped create this culture of now I have guys who will throw in the bullpen and go lift, and then they’ll come back and they’ll hang out — just to be there.
“What Kyle and Nolan did, to now you have the younger kids doing it, I think they really helped create a pretty cool environment.”
Forbes said Casteel and Stefaniak had a similar impact on the varsity roster this year. Teammates saw their work ethic and discipline every day. Forbes hopes that carries over to future teams.
“It truly matters, watch them trust their preparation, watch them do what they do every day,” he said.
It’s too soon to call the county a budding baseball factory. But Butler isn’t the only team with a big draft day recently.
Mars grad JJ Wetherholt was drafted No. 7 overall by St. Louis two years ago and is having a Rookie of the Year-level season with the Cardinals. He just signed an eight-year deal. A few years before, David and Will Bednar were drafted.
Butler almost had a fourth player taken — Stefaniak, who was on draft radars this season and will be eligible again in two years when he turns 21.
It would’ve joined exclusive company. While historical records are not easy to find, there appear to be only two recent examples of one high school having four of its former players drafted in the same year: Corona (Calif.) in 2025, and Chandler Hamilton (Ariz.) this season. Corona-Norco School District said in 2025 it was the first time in MLB draft history four players from one school had been drafted the same year.
Each of the Golden Tornado’s three draftees traced different paths. Casteel was selected straight out of high school. Leslie made a name for himself at Division III Grove City College before transferring and emerging at Pitt. Clement pitched at Virginia Tech.
The latter two battled serious injuries in college without straightforward career arcs to the pros. That can serve as an inspiration, too.
“For the younger kids coming up, just know that you’re never a finished product,” Casteel said before pointing to Leslie as an example. “Work as hard as you can.”
Sharpless, a Freedom High School graduate and former Pittsburgh Pirates reliever, added: “I think baseball in Butler is gonna be on the rise for a while.”
