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Oklahoma baseball: Four Sooners selected in 2020 MLB Draft

By Chip Rouse

VARIOUS CITIES, - MARCH 12: A detail of baseballs during a Grapefruit League spring training game between the Washington Nationals and the New York Yankees at FITTEAM Ballpark of The Palm Beaches on March 12, 2020 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Many professional and college sports are canceling or postponing their games due to the ongoing threat of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
VARIOUS CITIES, - MARCH 12: A detail of baseballs during a Grapefruit League spring training game between the Washington Nationals and the New York Yankees at FITTEAM Ballpark of The Palm Beaches on March 12, 2020 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Many professional and college sports are canceling or postponing their games due to the ongoing threat of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /
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Three other Oklahoma baseball players joined first-round pick Cade Cavalli as selections in the 2020 MLB Draft.

Cavalli on Wednesday became the 10th Oklahoma player to be taken in the opening round of the MLB First-Year Player Draft. The addition of pitcher Levi Prater in the third round and catcher Brady Lindsly and pitcher Dane Acker in the fourth round gave the Sooners four selections in this year much-abbreviated draft process.

The four draft selections in the first four rounds of the annual MLB Draft is a historical first for the Oklahoma baseball program.

Three of the four players taken in the draft represent the Sooner weekend starting rotation this season, underscoring the team’s strength in that area and a big reason Oklahoma was off to a 14-4 start and a top-15 ranking before the 2020 season was abruptly cancelled because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Prater, a left-handed starter, was the 93rd player selected overall, taken by the St. Louis Cardinals in the third round of the draft. He posted an 8-4 record and a 3.30 ERA the last two seasons for the Sooners and is the highest left-handed pitcher from OU taken in the draft since Dillon Overton was the 63rd overall pick in 2013.

Lindsly will be joining his Sooner teammate Cavalli as a member of the Washington Nationals organization. He was the 123rd player taken in the draft.  A three-year starter in four seasons at Oklahoma, Lindsly played in 148 games and posted a career batting average of .275 with 10 home runs, 79 RBI and 66 runs scored.

Acker, who throws from the right side, was taken four selections after teammate Lindsly, selected 127th overall by the Oakland A’s. In his one season at Oklahoma, the junior-college transfer threw a no-hitter against No. 11 LSU on March 1, striking out 11 and walking just one. He made four starts in the shortened 2020 season, finishing with a 1-1 record and a 3.51 ERA.

In addition to the four players from OU’s active roster, a pair of recruits in the Sooners’ 2020 class also were selected in the five rounds of the draft. Ed Howard, a shortstop out of Chicago, will almost certainly sign with the Cubs’ organization after he was selected in the first round, the 16th player taken overall. The other was 6-foot, 6-inch, left-hander Dax Fulton, a pitcher from Mustang, Oklahoma, outside of Oklahoma City, who was the 40th player taken overall, selected in the second round by the Miami Marlins.

Despite this year’s draft being shortened to just five rounds from what in the recent past has been 40, this could be one of Oklahoma’s best drafts, not in terms of quantity but in the number of players taken that early in the draft process.

The Sooners tied Vanderbilt and Michigan with the second most players selected in the draft. Arizona State led all schools with five players selected.

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