Mountaineer fans did not need to stay up very late to hear their star player’s name get called in the first round of the MLB Draft. The highest selection ever for a player of out WVU, JJ Wetherholt was selected as the seventh overall pick to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Many mock drafts leading up to Sunday night had the Mountaineer shortstop going as the first overall pick to the Cleveland Guardians. There was a split in those mock drafts however, between Wetherholt and Oregon State’s Travis Bazzana.
Ultimately, Bazzana would be the first player taken in the draft and fans around the Morgantown area started to hope that Wetherholt could possibly slip to the most local team, the Pittsburgh Pirates at the ninth pick. The dream for some fell two picks short.
Two other players from the Big 12 Conference were selcted in the fist round Sunday night alongside JJ Wetherholt. The Mountaineer was the first player from the league to be taken. Big 12 tournament Most Outstanding Player, Carson Benge, was taken by the Mets with the 19th pick.
Benge was drafted as an outfielder despite playing both on the mound and in the outfield.
The third other player to be taken in the first round of the 2024 MLB Draft was Kaelen Culpepper from Kansas State. The shortstop was taken at 21 by the Minnesota Twins.
The news for Mountaineer fans Sunday night did not end after the Wetherholt pick. Mountaineer commit Griffin Burkholder was selected in the second round of the draft.
New WVU Baseball Head Coach Steve Sabins announced on Twitter following Burkholder’s selection that he will not be choosing to come to continue to play and grow his draft stock in Morgantown and will go right to play in the Phillies’ organization.
WVU could potentially see some more names be taken off the board in the coming rounds including Gold Glove winner, Derek Clark.
Day 2 (Rounds 3-10) and Day 3 (Rounds 11-20) can be seen beginning at 2 p.m. ET each day on MLB.com.
