Kjerstad, Martin, 5 signees among top 150 MLB Draft prospects

Sign up for an annual HawgBeat subscription and get $50 for Arkansas gear on the Rivals Fan Shop ––> details

College Students, get a year of HawgBeat coverage for just $11.95. Request details via email from your school account (.edu) to nchavanelle@yahoo.com.

Barring any unforeseen developments, Heston Kjerstad will snap Arkansas’ five-year drought of first-round picks in the MLB Draft this summer.

The date and exact length of the draft is still up in the air, but the Razorbacks’ slugger is a virtual lock to be among the first players selected and become the eighth first-round pick in school history. He is No. 10 on MLB Pipeline’s updated list of the top 150 draft prospects.

If that ranking proves to be where he’s picked, Kjerstad would become Arkansas’ fourth-highest drafted player. Only Jeff King (No. 1 - 1986), Kevin McReynolds (No. 6 - 1981) and Andrew Benintendi (No. 7 - 2015) have been picked higher.

Making this year even more unique is the Razorbacks have a chance to have multiple first-round picks in the same year for the first time ever. Despite his struggles at the plate, Casey Martin checks in at No. 30 on the list.

There are only 29 picks in the first round this year because the Houston Astros had to forfeit theirs as penalty for the sign-stealing scandal, but there are eight Competitive Balance A picks that are also usually considered part of the first round.

Even if he slips and isn’t among the first 37 players selected, Martin could still give the Razorbacks their highest drafted tandem if he goes in the top 53 picks. That would break their record set a decade earlier, when Zack Cox and Brett Eibner went 25th and 54th overall, respectively, in 2010.

The 2010 draft is one of two times Arkansas narrowly missed having a pair of first-rounders, as Eibner was the fourth pick of the second round. In 2007, Duke Welker was also the fourth pick of the second round, following Nick Schmidt going 23rd overall.

Here are a few other takeaways from MLB Pipeline’s list of the top 150 draft prospects…

High School Signees

No. 54 - RHP/SS Masyn Winn - Kingwood (Texas)

No. 85 - RHP Markevian Hence - Pine Bluff (Ark.) Watson Chapel

No. 98 - OF David Calabrese - St. Elizabeth Catholic (Ontario, Canada)

No. 114 - 3B Cayden Wallace - Greenbrier (Ark.)

No. 139 - LHP Nick Griffin - Monticello (Ark.)

With the draft possibly being being shortened to as few as five rounds and teams getting limited opportunities to scout players, many prognosticators believe there will be a larger emphasis on college prospects in this draft.

Sure enough, more than half - 84 of 150 - of the players on MLB Pipeline’s list come from four-year colleges. In fact, only one of the first 10 and nine of the first 32 players are high school prospects.

However, Arkansas signed the No. 3 class in the country for the Class of 2020, according to Perfect Game. It is a loaded group with more top-100 high school prospects than any other team.

Not surprisingly, the Razorbacks’ five signees were tied with Texas and UCLA for the most included among the top 150 draft prospects. Florida, LSU, Miami (Fla.) and Oklahoma were right behind them with four apiece.

No Opitz

The most notable omission from an Arkansas perspective was catcher Casey Opitz.

Head coach Dave Van Horn has grouped the talented catcher with Kjerstad and Martin when talking to the media about players he expected to get picked in a shortened draft and has said he believes he’s one of the top three college catchers in the country.

MLB Pipeline disagrees, as it doesn’t include Opitz in its top 150, but does list four college and six high school catchers.

North Carolina State’s Patrick Bailey, Ohio State’s Dillon Dingler and Arizona’s Austin Wells are each among the top 27 players. Interestingly, the fourth catcher is UALR’s Kale Emshoff, who checks in at No. 147.

This is significant because if the draft is shortened to five rounds, there will be only 161 total picks.

Other Tidbits

~There are 27 players from the SEC on the list, meaning nearly one-third of the Division I prospects come from the conference. That is by far the most of any conference, with the ACC’s 16 being the second most.

~Every SEC team except Kentucky has at least one prospect on the list, with nine having multiple players. Georgia, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt each have three.

~Of the 64 non-Division I players (high school/JUCO) committed to a college, about one-third (21, to be exact) have signed with an SEC school. The next closest conference is the Big 12, with 14.

~One name included on the list that Arkansas fans might recognize is Bryce Bonnin at No. 122. A highly regarded recruit, he played for the Razorbacks in 2018 before transferring to Texas Tech.

~Another player with ties to the Razorbacks is Alerick Soularie at No. 106. He actually signed with Arkansas out of high school as a top-200 recruit in the Class of 2017, but ended up playing one year of JUCO before signing with Tennessee, which is coached by former Arkansas assistant Tony Vitello.