The second day of the Major League Baseball draft kicked off when the Oakland Athletics drafted Rutgers shortstop Joshua Kuroda-Grauer with the first pick of Round 3 Monday.
Rounds 3-10 were held Monday after the first two rounds (74 total picks) took place Sunday evening. The draft began with the Cleveland Guardians choosing 2B Travis Bazzana of Oregon State.
Some teams’ drafting strategies were on full display. The New York Yankees used their first five picks on right-handed pitchers from the college ranks, including Vanderbilt’s Greysen Carter in the fifth round. Notably, Carter’s fastball can touch 103 mph.
Mississippi State outfielder Dakota Jordan, the top-ranked player available after the first day, slid to No. 116 overall in the fourth round to the San Francisco Giants. Jordan was ranked No. 34 on MLB Pipeline’s big board and passed on football (he played wide receiver) to focus on baseball. He racked up 30 home runs, 23 doubles and 112 RBIs in two seasons in Starkville.
Late in the seventh round, the Houston Astros drafted South Alabama outfielder Joseph Sullivan, whose late grandfather Pat Sullivan won the 1971 Heisman Trophy as a quarterback at Auburn. Pat Sullivan went on to play six NFL seasons and serve as the head coach at TCU (1992-97) and Samford (2007-14) before his death in 2019.
The third and final day of the draft comes Tuesday, featuring Rounds 11-20.
–Field Level Media