As a part of the Major League Baseball All-Star festivities, the MLB Draft was held in Philadelphia this past weekend. Several in-state athletes were selected in the draft.
The Chicago White Sox selected UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky as the No. 1 pick. The Tampa Bay Rays picked high school shortstop Grady Emerson from Fort Worth Christian H.S., followed by the Minnesota Twins who took Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey at No. 3. The San Francisco Giants chose college right-handed pitcher Jackson Flora fourth and the Pittsburgh Pirates selected LSU outfielder Derek Curiel, rounding out the top five.
The highest selected player from an Oklahoma school was Sooners’ catcher Brendan Brock. He was selected in the third round and the 99th overall pick by the New York Yankees.
With a fourth-round compensation pick (134 overall), the San Diego Padres picked Alex Conover, an outfielder from Oklahoma State.
In the fifth round (141) Los Angeles Angels selected OU shortstop Jaxon Willits. With the 148th pick overall, Arizona Diamondbacks selected pitcher LJ Mercurius from OU.
In the sixth round, another OU catcher, Deiten Lachance, was taken with the 184th pick by the Cleveland Guardians.
The Colorado Rockies selected OSU pitcher Hudson Barrett in the eighth round with the 224th pick overall.
A couple players were selected in the ninth round; with the 269th pick, the Kansas City Royals took Camden Johnson, a shortstop from Oklahoma. Then with the 273rd pick Cleveland Guardians chose Mario Pesca, a pitcher from Oklahoma State.
Mason Bixby, a pitcher from OU, was taken in the 14th round (413) by the Tampa Bay Rays. In the 15th round, the No. 435 selection was OU pitcher Cameron Johnson by the Chicago White Sox.
In the 18th round with the 526th pick, the Washington Nationals took infielder Avery Ortiz from Oklahoma State, and Tampa Bay selected Nate Smithburg, a pitcher from OU with the 533rd overall pick.
In the 20th and final round, with the 594th pick, the St. Louis Cardinals selected outfielder Kollin Ritchie from Oklahoma State.
Considering the success that Oklahoma had this season, winning the NCAA National Championship, it’s no surprise that eight players from that team would be taken in the draft.
With these picks come great expectations and anticipation by the teams who selected them. Every team is hoping they have found a franchise superstar who will lead them to a World Series in the future. Some of these players will do just that, others might become All-Stars, and some will be role players filling out rosters along the way, while for others, careers will be cut short by injury, or their talent will fail them at some level.
Either way, it will be fun to follow the careers of the local players and hope they make it through the minor leagues all the way to Major League Baseball.
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