2022 Amateur Draft

The 2022 First Year Player Draft was the fifty-eighth Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. The first two rounds took place on July 17, 2022, as part of the All-Star Game festivities, in Los Angeles, CA at an outdoor location at Xbox Plaza. The initial draft order was based entirely on the 2021 standings.

For the second time in four years, the Baltimore Orioles picked first, by virtue of having the worst record in the majors in 2021. The Arizona Diamondbacks actually finished with the same record, so MLB went back one year to compare their records - and incredibly they also finished with identical records that year! Finally, the Diamondbacks got to pick second by virtue of their better record in 2019. The Los Angeles Dodgers saw their first round pick, which would normally have been the 30th, dropped by 10 ranks to the second round, due to exceeding the luxury tax threshold.

The top-rated player in the spring was high school OF Druw Jones, the son of former major leaguer Andruw Jones, and three other high school players rounded out the prospective top four. What was really interesting was that there were almost no pitchers ranked in the top 15 prospects in the draft, and none from the collegiate ranks - something completely unprecedented if it were to go down that way. The lack of pitchers was the result of a rash of injuries to the highest-rated candidates, and another one having been suspended for a failed drug test. That said, there was no clear consensus about who the top pick would be, with the names of Jones, college SS Brooks Lee, and high school SS Jackson Holliday, another second-generation player as the son of Matt Holliday, and a couple of others all having their backers. A big wild card was P Kumar Rocker, the #10 pick the year before, who had failed to come to an agreement on a contract with the New York Mets over health concerns, and who would only get a few starts in the independent leagues before the draft to convince a team to expend a high pick on him, something that was a possibility given the lack of other top pitchers available.

As it turned out, Holliday went first overall, to the Orioles, and Jones was second, going to the Diamondbacks, with Rocker being taken third by the Texas Rangers on the strength of an excellent performance in the Frontier League.

Draft Order

First Round

Pick	Team	Player	Position	School (Type)	Hometown	Notes
1	Baltimore Orioles	Jackson Holliday	SS	Stillwater High School (H.S.)	Stillwater, OK
2	Arizona Diamondbacks	Druw Jones	OF	Wesleyan School (H.S.)	Suwanee, GA
3	Texas Rangers	Kumar Rocker	P	n/a	Athens, GA
4	Pittsburgh Pirates	Termarr Johnson	SS	Benjamin E. Mays High School (H.S.)	Atlanta, GA
5	Washington Nationals	Elijah Green	OF	IMG Academy (H.S.)	Windermere, FL
6	Miami Marlins	Jacob Berry	3B	Louisiana State University (Col.)	Queen Creek, AZ
7	Chicago Cubs	Cade Horton	P	University of Oklahoma (Col.)	Norman, OK
8	Minnesota Twins	Brooks Lee	SS	Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Col.)	San Luis Obispo, CA
9	Kansas City Royals	Gavin Cross	OF	Virginia Tech (Col.)	Bristol, TN
10	Colorado Rockies	Gabriel Hughes	P	Gonzaga University (Col.)	Eagle, ID
11	New York Mets	Kevin Parada	C	Georgia Tech (Col.)	Pasadena, CA	Compensation for failure to sign Kumar Rocker
12	Detroit Tigers	Jace Jung	2B	Texas Tech (Col.)	San Antonio, TX
13	Los Angeles Angels	Zach Neto	SS	Campbell University (Col.)	Miami, FL
14	New York Mets	Jett Williams	SS	Rockwall-Heath High School (H.S.)	Heath, TX
15	San Diego Padres	Dylan Lesko	P	Buford High School (H.S.)	Buford, GA
16	Cleveland Guardians	Chase DeLauter	OF	James Madison University (Col.)	Martinsburg, WV
17	Philadelphia Phillies	Justin Crawford	OF	Bishop Gorman High School (H.S.)	Las Vegas, NV
18	Cincinnati Reds	Cam Collier	3B	Chipola College (Col.)	Austell, GA
19	Oakland Athletics	Daniel Susac	C	University of Arizona (Col.)	Roseville, CA
20	Atlanta Braves	Owen Murphy	P	Riverside Brookfield High School (H.S.)	Riverside, IL
21	Seattle Mariners	Cole Young	SS	North Allegheny High School (H.S.)	Wexford, PA
22	St. Louis Cardinals	Cooper Hjerpe	P	Oregon State University (Col.)	Capay, CA
23	Toronto Blue Jays	Brandon Barriera	P	American Heritage School (H.S.)	Hollywood, FL
24	Boston Red Sox	Mikey Romero	SS	Lutheran High School of Orange County (H.S.)	Menifee, CA
25	New York Yankees	Spencer Jones	OF	Vanderbilt University (Col.)	Encinitas, CA
26	Chicago White Sox	Noah Schultz	P	Oswego East High School (H.S.)	Aurora, IL
27	Milwaukee Brewers	Eric Brown	SS	Coastal Carolina University (Col.)	Bossier City, LA
28	Houston Astros	Drew Gilbert	OF	University of Tennessee (Col.)	Stillwater, MN
29	Tampa Bay Rays	Xavier Isaac	1B	East Forsyth High School (H.S.)	Kernersville, NC
30	San Francisco Giants	Reggie Crawford	1B/P	University of Connecticut (Col.)	Frackville, PA

Compensation Picks

Pick	Team	Player	Position	School (Type)	Hometown	Notes
31	Colorado Rockies	Sterlin Thompson	OF	University of Florida (Col.)	Ocala, FL	Compensation for Trevor Story
32	Cincinnati Reds	Sal Stewart	3B	Westminster Christian School (H.S.)	Miami, FL	Compensation for Nick Castellanos

Competitive Balance Round A

Pick	Team	Player	Position	School (Type)	Hometown	Notes
33	Baltimore Orioles	Dylan Beavers	OF	University of California, Berkeley (Col.)	Paso Robles, CA
34	Arizona Diamondbacks	Landon Sims	P	Mississippi State University (Col.)	Cumming, GA
35	Atlanta Braves	JR Ritchie	P	Bainbridge High School (H.S.)	Bainbridge Island, WA	Obtained from Kansas City for Drew Waters and others
36	Pittsburgh Pirates	Thomas Harrington	P	Campbell University (Col.)	Sanford, NC
37	Cleveland Guardians	Justin Campbell	P	Oklahoma State University (Col.)	Simi Valley, CA
38	Colorado Rockies	Jordan Beck	OF	University of Tennessee (Col.)	Hazel Green, AL
39	San Diego Padres	Robby Snelling	P	Robert McQueen High School (H.S.)	Reno, NV

Notes

Not only were the first two picks, Jackson Holliday and Druw Jones, the sons of former major leaguers, but so were two other players selected in the first round: Justin Crawford (#17), son of Carl Crawford, and Cam Collier (#18), son of Lou Collier. It was the first time that four second-generation players had been selected in the first round. The only previous second-generation top selection had been Ken Griffey Jr., in 1989.

Picks #2 through #5 had all participated in the MLB Develops program, aimed at encouraging kids from minority backgrounds to take up baseball, as sign that MLB's recent efforts aimed at increasing diversity were paying dividends.

All first-round picks came to an agreement with the teams that drafted them by the deadline of August 1st. In fact, only two of the first 300 players to be drafted failed to sign, with #81 selection Nolan McLean, taken by Baltimore, the highest-drafted player not to come to terms.

The first player to make it to the majors was #13 selection Zach Neto, who made his debut with the Los Angeles Angels on April 15, 2023.

Further Reading

• Jim Callis: "2022 mock Draft: Top 10 picks", mlb.com, December 15, 2021. [1]
• Jim Callis: "New Draft Top 150 list: Unprecedented 1st round?", mlb.com, April 25, 2022. [2]
• Jim Callis, Sam Dykstra and Jonathan Mayo: "Where they are now: Each team's best '22 Draft pick", mlb.com, June 14, 2023. [3]
• Anthony Castrovince: "Kids, comebacks, Kumar and all the top moments from Day 1 of Draft", mlb.com, July 18, 2022. [4]
• Steve Gardner: "Baltimore Orioles take SS Jackson Holliday with No. 1 overall pick in 2022 MLB draft", USA Today, July 18, 2022. [5]
• Jonathan Mayo: "Here's the 2022 Draft order", mlb.com, October 3, 2021. [6]
• Jonathan Mayo: "2022 mock Draft: Full first round", mlb.com, April 27, 2022. [7]
• Jonathan Mayo: "2022 mock draft: Former All-Star's son goes No. 1", mlb.com, May 18, 2022. [8]
• Manny Randhawa: "Get to know 13 top MLB Draft prospects", mlb.com, June 25, 2022. [9]

Related Sites

• Draft Day 1: Pick-by-pick rundown, analysis
• mlb.com draft tracker