This weekend, hundreds of college baseball players, including a handful or more from the 2026 national champion Oklahoma Sooners, will have their dreams realized by being selected in the annual Major League Baseball Draft.
According to official records from the OU athletic department, 305 Oklahoma players have been selected since the first MLB Draft was held in 1965. In total, 151 have been since 2000, including eight first-round selections.
Over the past quarter century, Oklahoma has averaged 5.8 draft selections per year and has had at least one player selected every year. Three different times during that span (2011, 2015 and 2022), as many as 11 Sooners were selected in the same year.
Pitcher Jonathan Gray was the highest OU first-round selection over the past 26 years, taken by the Colorado Rockies with the third overall pick in the 2013 draft. Another Sooner pitcher, Cade Horton was the seventh overall pick, by the Chicago Cubs, in 2022, and dual-athlete and Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray was the ninth overall selection in the opening round in 2019, selected by the Oakland Athletics. Murray, however, was also drafted No. 1 overall by the Arizona Cardinals in the 2019 NFL Draft and opted to play professional football instead.
This got us thinking, what would an All-25-year Team of Oklahoma Sooners look like for the first 25 years of the 21st century. Here is our version of what the starting lineup would be.
All-25-Year Oklahoma Sooners baseball team (2000-2025)
C J.T. Wise (2008-2009)
J.T. Wise was the starting catcher at Oklahoma for two seasons under head coach Sunny Golloway. Wise batted .316 the two seasons he played at OU with 24 home runs and 111 RBI. The Sooners were a combined 76-46-1 the two seasons Wise was there, and in 2009 OU finished with a record of 43-20 and in second place in the Big 12. Wise was named a First Team All American in 2009 and was a fifth-round selection of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2009 MLB Draft.
1B Tyler Hardman (2018-2021)
Tyler Hardman played four seasons at Oklahoma, where he averaged .311 at the plate along with 24 home runs and 119 runs batted in. His best season was in 2021, when he finished with a batting average of .397, 12 home runs and 49 RBI. Hardman was named a First Team All-American in 2021. Unfortunately, the Sooners never finished higher than fourth in the Big 12 standings while Hardman was at OU. His head coach all four seasons was current head coach Skip Johnson. Hardman was a fifth-round selection of the New York Yankees in the 2021 MLB Draft.
2B Jack Mayfield (2010-2013)
Jack Mayfield played four seasons at Oklahoma and was the starting second baseman in 2012 and '13. His junior and senior seasons were his best. He averaged .267 and 67 hits during that two-year stretch with 10 home runs and 69 runs batted in. Mayfield signed with the MLB Houston Astros in 2019 as an undrafted free agent. He spent two seasons with the Astros and also played for the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners over a four-year period.
3B Garrett Buechele (2009-2011)
Garrett Beuchele was a three-year starter at third base for Oklahoma and head coach Sunny Golloway from 2009-13). His career batting average while at OU was .343 with 29 home runs and 168 RBI. His best season was in 2010, when he hit .359 with 17 home runs, 68 RBI and an on-base-plus slugging percentage of 1.067. Buechele was a 14th-round selection of the San Francisco Giants in 2011.
SS Sheldon Neuse (2014-2016)
Sheldon Neuse had a career batting average of .313 in three full seasons playing at Oklahoma along with 23 total home runs and 138 RBI. His best season was in 2016, when he hit a team-best .360 with 10 home runs and 48 RBI and an on-base-plus-slugging percentage of 1.111, for which Neuse earned First Team All-American status. He was awarded the Brooks Wallace Award in 2016 as the best shortstop in college baseball. Neuse was taken by the Washington Nationals in the second round of the 2016 MLB Draft. Neuse never made an MLB debut with the Nationals, but did play two seasons with the Oakland Athletics and one with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
OF Reggie Willits (2002-03)
This is a name that will sound very familiar to Oklahoma baseball fans because he is the dad of Jaxon Willits, who was a member of this season's NCAA national champion Sooner baseball team. Reggie Willits is now associate head coach on Skip Johnson's staff, but he played two seasons at Oklahoma in 2002-03. Willits collected 144 hits for the two seasons and hit .335 along with 105 runs scored, 28 doubles, 54 stolen bases and drew 63 walks. His final season as a Sooner, he batted .379 with team highs of 55 runs scored and a .472 on-base percentage. Willits was a fifth-round selection of the Los Angeles Angels in 2003. He played six seasons with the Angels and coached for several seasons in the New York Yankee's organization before returning to his alma mater.
OF Kyler Murray (2017-2018)
Kyler Murray is best known for his performance on the football field, but he was also accomplished on the baseball diamond, and he did both at the University of Oklahoma. Murray played baseball for two seasons at OU. His best season was 2018, when he batted .296 with 13 doubles, three triples and 10 home runs to go with 47 runs driven in. He committed just three errors in 78 games playing mostly center field for the Sooners. The Oakland A's selected Murray with the ninth overall pick in the opening round of the 2018 MLB Draft. But the NFL Arizona Cardinals went one better, picking Murray with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
OF Steele Walker (2016-18)
Steele Walker and Kyler Murray were outfield teammates at Oklahoma for a couple of seasons. Walker batted .326 in his three seasons as a starting outfielder for OU. His stat line over the three seasons also included 24 home runs and 136 runs driven in. Walker was a second-round pick by the Chicago White Sox in the 2018 MLB Draft.
DH Greg Dobbs (2001)
Greg Dobbs was at Oklahoma for just one season, but he made his mark in the one year he was there. Dobbs earned All-America honors the one season he was in Norman with an impressive team-best .428 batting average, 10 home runs and 62 RBI and a .671 slugging percentage. A Second Team All-American, Dobbs was signed as a free agent by the Seattle Mariners in 2001 and went on to an 11-year career in the major leagues, including four seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies.
SP Jonathan Gray (2012-2013)
A home-grown native of the Sooner State, Jonathan Gray played two seasons at Oklahoma and produced a combined record of 18-7 and an ERA of 2.32 as an ace starting pitcher for Sonny Golloway and the Sooners. The hard-throwing right-hander averaged 8.6 strikeouts per game his final season at OU and had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.80 (251 to 66) over the two seasons. Gray was named the National Pitcher of the Year by the College Baseball Foundation in 2013. He was the third player taken overall in the 2013 MLB Draft, selected by the Colorado Rockies. Last season was his 11th in the major leagues and fourth with the Texas Rangers.
RP Dylan Crooks (2024-2025)
Dylan Crooks has been out of school just one year, but he was a premier relief pitcher the two seasons he played at Oklahoma. Used primarily in the closer role, Crooks had a 2.43 ERA in 47 appearances over his two Sooner seasons. He recorded 16 saves in the 2025 season, the second most in a single season in program history, along with an ERA of 1.69, 33 strikeouts to 10 walks, and an opponents' batting average of .195. The right-handed reliever was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 15th round of the 2025 MLB Draft.
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