Oklahoma baseball: This will be a big week for OU pitcher Cade Cavalli
By Chip Rouse
The boyhood dreams of Oklahoma baseball player Cade Cavalli will take a major step toward becoming reality this week.
While professional and amateur baseball remain off the field this season out of continued health an safety concerns surrounding COVID-19, Major League Baseball will hold its annual first-year player draft beginning on Wednesday this week. Like the NFL Draft earlier this spring, the 2020 MLB Draft event will be held virtually.
In a normal year, somewhere in the range of five to nine Sooner players would be selected in the draft, but this year is anything but a normal cycle. Because of the unusual circumstances, MLB officials have decided to shorten this year’s annual draft to just five rounds from what in past years has been 40 or more.
That means instead of as many as 1,200 collegiate and high school players with the opportunity to be drafted by one of the 30 Major League Baseball organizations, this year only 150 select amateur players will have that opportunity.
This year, no more than two Oklahoma Sooners are expected to have good chance of being one of the 150 players selected in the draft, and the player with the best chance is junior Cade Cavalli.
Cavalli, from the Tulsa suburb of Bixby, Oklahoma, began his collegiate career as a two-day player, but his sophomore and junior seasons he concentrated more on furthering his career as a pitcher and became the Sooners’ Friday night starter.
The right-hander appeared in four games as a starter in the shortened 2020 OU season and had a record of 1-2 with a 4.18 earned run average. His career stat line as a pitcher at OU shows a won-loss record of 9-7 in 18 starts and an ERA of 4.09.
Cavalli has been listed as a potential top 20 player in several mock drafts. Keith Law, writing for The Athletic, has Cavalli as the 13th pick in this year’s MLB Draft; R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports has the Oklahoma junior at No. 16.
In Law’s mock draft, Cavalli is the fifth collegiate pitcher taken, and Anderson show the OU right-hander as the seventh collegiate hurler to be selected.
OU senior closer Jason Ruffcorn was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the 18th round of the 2019 draft, but he elected to return to school for his senior season. He is unlikely, however, to be picked in a draft that is only five rounds long. The right-handed relief artist led the Big 12 in 2019 with 11 saves. He had five saves in seven appearances in 2020.
A couple of other Sooners are probably a year away from being an MLB draft selection, primarily because of this year’s seriously abbreviated draft. Juniors Tanner Tredaway, who has been used primarily at first base, and left-handed starting pitcher Levi Prater would most likely be selected in a lengthier draft process.
Tredaway is a career .300 hitter in two seasons with the Sooners. Prater is 11-8 as a starter with a 3.56 ERA in three seasons at OU.
Players not selected in the 2020 MLB draft can still sign with a major league team as an undrafted free agent, but only for a maximum $20,000, which is far less money than will be offered to those who are drafted.
Another player from the Norman area, high school pitcher Cade Horton, who also played shortstop for Norman High School, is projected as the 72nd pick in Keith Law’s mock draft for The Athletic. Horton didn’t plan to venture far from home. He has committed to OU to play both football and baseball. This week’s MLB Draft could change all that.