MLB Draft 2022: Kumar Rocker goes No. 3 to Texas in stunner

By Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writer

LOS ANGELES — On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the 2022 MLB Draft commenced with its first 80 selections in front of an eager crowd thrilled to be in attendance for the second open-to-fans draft in baseball history.

Here were the best — and most surprising — moments of the event:

Kumar Rocker goes No. 3, OMG!

Let’s revisit what I wrote in my preview about Rocker, the Vanderbilt star-turned-independent leaguer, and the uncertainty surrounding his draft stock: “My best guess is that his agent, Scott Boras, secures him a signing bonus in the $2-3 million range, and Rocker goes somewhere in picks No. 20-40. But I actually have no clue.”

Good thing I included that last sentence — because none of us had any clue!

Though some mocks did have Rocker going in the first round, any notion of him going in the first three selections would’ve been laughed at all the way up until Commissioner Rob Manfred called Rocker’s name.

Adding to the curiosity of this selection — one that reunites Rocker in the Rangers org with his Vanderbilt rotation mate Jack Leiter — is that Texas doesn’t have another pick until the fourth round after forfeiting its second- and third-round selections after signing big-ticket free agents Marcus Semien and Corey Seager.

It appears the Rangers will save some money with the Rocker selection, so who they select with pick No. 109 will be one of the biggest storylines of Day 2.

More importantly, Rocker ultimately did get to hear his name called near the very top of the draft just as he likely expected a year ago. I’d say he’s probably pretty satisfied with how this played out, as strange of a journey as it was.

Cubs take Cade Horton Goes at No. 7

Note to pitchers who are struggling through the first few months of the college season: It’s OK, you can still go seventh overall! All you have to do is go on one of the most epic postseason runs imaginable and dominate every outing in front of huge crowds of scouts.

Indeed, the right-hander from Oklahoma — who had a 7.94 ERA on April 21 — became the first pitcher selected in this year’s draft and went higher than even his biggest fans thought possible heading into the night.

His story will be held up for years to come as the ultimate beneficiary of the draft being held much later than it used to be.

The Cubs got a good one.

Confident high-school prospects

It has been really fun to see some of the top prospects attend the draft in person, and a few of this year’s attendees gave the audience some of the best quotes of the night after being selected.

When asked what the Pirates were getting by selecting him fourth overall, Termarr Johnson said “the best player in the draft.”

After Brandon Barriera was selected 23rd overall by Toronto, he made sure the teams that passed over him knew what he thought of that decision.

Braves pick J.R. Ritchie insisted “No one’s going to outwork me. I’m going to bring another title back to Atlanta.”

Finally, Marlins‘ second-round pick Jacob Miller was more than happy to be picked up by a team in a city like Miami:

Those are some confident teenagers. It should serve them well in pro ball.

The Rays did a Rays thing

Leave it to the Rays to give us the most shocking first-rounder of the evening. They used pick No. 29 on Xavier Isaac, a high school first baseman from North Carolina with huge raw power but extremely limited track record against top-tier competition.

Isaac missed all of the summer showcase circuit last year due to a broken foot, so teams had much less to go on than some of his fellow high school hitter peers, and thus he was projected in the third- to fifth-round range.

Still, Tampa Bay clearly believed enough to take him in the first round and sign him for likely underslot, allowing the Rays to scoop up some more exciting college players later on in the draft: athletic outfielders Brock Jones (Stanford) and Ryan Cermak (Illinois State), as well is super speedster Chandler Simpson from Georgia Tech.

It was a strange sequence of picks, but hey, it’s the Rays – should we really be doubting them?

High school right-handers? No problem for the Braves!

There was a lot of intrigue surrounding what the Braves’ draft strategy would be after they acquired the 35th overall pick (teams can trade competitive balance picks) from Kansas City in a trade last week.

That extra pick also came with additional bonus pool money, leading observers around the league to wonder what kinds of players Atlanta would target with their four selections on Day 1.

With pick No. 20, the Braves selected Owen Murphy, an athletic pitcher from the Chicago area who is also a legitimate prospect as a hitter but made huge strides on the mound this spring.

Next, at No. 35, was J.R. Ritchie, who was in attendance in L.A. and was clearly ecstatic to be selected by the defending champions.

The real surprise came at pick No. 57, where the Braves tripled down on what is considered to be the riskiest demographic in the draft — high-school right-handers. They took Cole Phillips, a hard-throwing pitcher from Texas who had Tommy John surgery in April but was considered the type of talent that would go in the first two rounds.

They rounded out the night with Auburn right-hander Blake Burkhalter at No. 76, which helped to balance out the class a bit. Burkhalter was one of the best relievers in college baseball this season and is a fairly safe bet to reach the big-leagues quickly.

That’s a lot of eggs in a historically shaky basket, but this is the team that took Ian Anderson third overall in 2016, so we can’t be all that shocked … and that has worked out fairly well.

Brock Porter is going to school? Or is he?

Speaking of high school right-handers, what in the world happened with Brock Porter? The big righty came into the draft in the upper echelon of prep pitchers available and ended up not being selected on the first day.

Though he was thought to have a considerably high asking price to sign him away from his commitment to Clemson, Porter was still projected by nearly every outlet to go somewhere between picks 8-15 or so because his talent seemed to be well worth the potential signing bonus.

Instead, he remains on the board as one of the most intriguing Day 2 picks, though it will require a team to commit a sizable amount of their bonus pool and thus dramatically shift their strategy for the remainder of the draft.

Porter just might be worth it, but it’s looking much more likely that we’ll see him next spring at Clemson as one of the more exciting arms in college baseball.

Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He lives in D.C. but is a huge Seattle Mariners fan and loves watching the KBO, which means he doesn’t get a lot of sleep. You can follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_.