Former Chatham catcher Kevin Parada (Georgia Tech) was selected 11th overall by the New York Mets in the first round of the MLB Draft. BRAD JOYAL FILE PHOTO
“Where the Stars of Tomorrow Shine Tonight.” That’s the Cape Cod Baseball League’s motto, a nod to the fact that many of the league’s alumni will one day appear in Major League Baseball.
Almost 200 Cape League alumni recently took the first step in pursuing their big-league careers when they were selected by professional teams during the MLB Draft, held July 17 to 19 in Los Angeles.
In all, 197 CCBL alumni heard their names called during the draft, representing 32 percent of the 616 players that were selected. Four hundred and ninety-four collegiate players were taken in the draft, 39.9 percent of which previously spent time playing for one of the Cape’s 10 teams.
The Lower Cape was well represented, with a combined 86 players from Brewster, Chatham, Harwich and Orleans being selected. Brewster and Chatham each had 24 alumni drafted and one additional alum sign as a free agent. Harwich and Orleans both had 19 alums taken during the three days of drafting.
For the first time since 2017, a Cape League alum wasn’t taken with the first pick overall. However, there was still a Cape connection with the first pick, Jackson Holliday, a shortstop from Stillwater High School in Oklahoma, who was selected by the Baltimore Orioles. Holliday is Chatham manager Tom Holliday’s grandson and the son of former longtime big leaguer Matt Holliday.
The first CCBL alum to be drafted was Yarmouth-Dennis alum Brooks Lee, a switch-hitting shortstop from Cal Poly who was taken eighth overall by the Minnesota Twins. Lee’s selection sparked a flurry of Cape League alumni being drafted, as seven of the next 11 picks previously played on the Cape. By the end of the first draft, 10 of the 30 picks were former Cape Leaguers.
Following Lee, the next CCBL alum selected was Gavin Cross (Brewster ’21), ninth overall by the Kansas City Royals. Two other 2021 Whitecap alums – Zach Neto and Spencer Jones – were taken in the first round. Neto went to the St. Louis Cardinals with the 13th pick, while Jones was taken 25th by the New York Yankees.
Chatham catcher Kevin Parada (’21) was picked 11th overall by the New York Mets, while a pair of Orleans sluggers from last summer, Jace Jung and Chase DeLauter, were picked soon after. Jung, a shortstop, was taken by the Detroit Tigers at No. 12, while DeLauter, an outfielder, was picked 16th by the Cleveland Guardians.
Harwich’s first alum selected was Jordan Beck, an outfielder who played for the Mariners last summer. He was taken 38th overall by the Colorado Rockies. Trey Dombroksi, last year’s Cape League Most Outstanding Pitcher Award recipient, was taken No. 111 overall in the fourth round by the Houston Astros. Two other former Harwich pitchers, Noah Dean (Old Dominion) and Eric Reyzelman (LSU), were taken in the fifth round with the No. 159 and 160 picks by the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, respectively.
The Yankees drafted the most Cape League alums of any team with 11, while Cincinnati, Cleveland and Tampa Bay took 10 apiece. The Red Sox drafted seven former Cape Leaguers.
In addition to Parada, Chatham saw Carson Whisenhunt taken in the second round with the 66th overall pick by the San Francisco Giants after pitching for the Anglers this summer. Infielder and pitcher Nolan McClean (Chatham ’21) was a third-round pick by the Orioles at No. 81 overall, and right-handed pitcher Brandon Sprout (Chatham ’21) went to the New York Mets in the third round at 90th overall.
The 24 players selected in this year’s draft bring Chatham’s total to 105 former Anglers selected over the course of the past five years.
Email Brad Joyal at brad@capecodchronicle.com.
Twitter: @BradJoyal