Like almost any MIT student, Mason Estrada wants to take what he learned on campus and apply it to the working world. Unlike any other current MIT student, Estrada’s primary workplace is a pitcher’s mound.
Estrada, the star pitcher for MIT’s baseball team, has signed a contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who selected him in the seventh round of the Major League Baseball draft on July 14. The right-hander, whose fastball has reached 96 miles per hour, is taking a leave of absence from the Institute and reported to the Dodgers’ instructional camp in Arizona.
An aero-astro major, Estrada says that pitching at MIT has never involved transferring aerodynamic knowledge from the classroom to the mound. Still, he says, he’s benefited as an athlete from “learning to think like an engineer generally, learning to think through problems the right way and finding the best solution.”
In the 2025 season Estrada went 6–0 with a 2.21 ERA, striking out 66. He is the fifth MIT undergraduate selected in baseball’s draft, of whom one—Jason Szuminski ’00—reached the majors, with the San Diego Padres.