ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
SEATTLE — Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews, star teammates on the LSU team that won the Men’s College World Series, were selected with the first two picks of Major League Baseball’s amateur draft on Sunday, becoming the first pair of teammates to go 1-2 in draft history.
The Pittsburgh Pirates began the draft by picking Skenes, the hard-throwing pitcher, No. 1 overall, and the Washington Nationals followed with Crews, the power-hitting outfielder.
Skenes became the first pitcher to go No. 1 overall since Casey Mize was selected by the Detroit Tigers in 2008. Skenes’ selection was announced by Seattle Mariners legend Ken Griffey Jr.
Skenes went 12-2 with a 1.69 ERA and a Division I-leading 209 strikeouts, breaking the single-season SEC record, in 122⅔ innings for an LSU Tigers team that went on to win the Men’s College World Series. Skenes became the first pitcher ever to win Most Outstanding Player at the Men’s College World Series and then go No. 1 overall.
Crews became the first player ever to win the Golden Spikes Award, a national title and be drafted in the top five within a single year.
Detroit selected high school outfielder Max Clark from Franklin, Indiana, at No. 3. Clark was the Gatorade national player of the year after hitting .646 with six homers and 33 RBIs during his high school season.
Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford went No. 4 to the Texas Rangers, and high school outfielder Walker Jenkins, from Oak Island, North Carolina, went fifth to the Minnesota Twins.
The Oakland Athletics took college shortstop Jacob Wilson, the son of former major league shortstop Jack Wilson, from Grand Canyon at No. 6.
Ranked third heading into the draft by ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel, Skenes regularly throws his fastball into the triple digits and couples it with a plus slider that could make him a major leaguer as early as 2024. Crews was a two-time SEC Player of the Year who slashed .426/.567/.713 with 18 homers in 71 games as a sophomore this past season.
It’s the third time a school has produced multiple top-three picks in the same year, following UCLA in 2011 (Gerrit Cole (1) and Trevor Bauer (3)) and Arizona State in 1978 (Bob Horner (1) and Hubie Brooks (3)).
The Pirates were selecting first overall for the second time in three years — they took Henry Davis in 2021 and called him up to the major leagues three weeks earlier — and the sixth time overall, more than any other team. They enter the draft with the highest bonus pool at just over $16 million; slot value for the No. 1 overall pick sits at $9,721,000, but teams and players are free to negotiate their own bonus.
MLB is hosting the draft from Lumen Field, which sits adjacent to T-Mobile Park and hosts the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL and the Seattle Sounders of MLS. The draft consists of 20 rounds and will take place over the course of three days, with the first 70 picks taking place on Sunday. The Pirates were awarded the No. 1 overall pick by virtue of winning MLB’s first draft lottery in December.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Oklahoma defensive tackle David Stone entered the NCAA transfer portal Friday, sources told ESPN.
Stone, a former five-star recruit and the No. 6 overall player in the ESPN 300 for the 2024 class, made the surprising decision to enter the portal after playing in all 13 games as a true freshman with the Sooners. The 6-foot-3 313-pounder saw limited playing time, playing 88 snaps and recording 6 tackles, 2 tackles for loss and 1 sack.
Stone was expected to compete for a more significant role as a sophomore, and Oklahoma coach Brent Venables recently praised him as the Sooners’ most improved defensive tackle this offseason.
The Oklahoma native finished his high school career at IMG Academy in Florida and was a significant recruiting victory for Venables and his coaching staff in August 2023. Stone chose the Sooners over Texas A&M, Oregon, Florida, Miami and Michigan State.
The SEC does not grant immediate eligibility to players who transfer within the conference during the spring transfer window, so Stone would need to sit out the 2025 season if he moves on to another SEC program.
Oklahoma returns its top three defensive tackles from 2024 in Damonic Williams, Gracen Halton and Jayden Jackson. It also added Trent Wilson, the No. 164 recruit in the ESPN 300 for 2025, as an early enrollee this spring.
Browne committed to rejoining the Boilermakers on Friday after entering his name in the NCAA transfer portal Wednesday.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound redshirt sophomore started two games for Purdue in 2024 but moved on amid the program’s head coaching change and went through spring practice under new Tar Heels coach Bill Belichick.
North Carolina landed a commitment from South Alabama transfer quarterback Gio Lopez on Thursday.
Browne and freshman Bryce Baker were North Carolina’s lone scholarship quarterbacks available for spring practice and were competing with three walk-ons while sixth-year senior Max Johnson recovers from a broken leg.
Browne threw for 636 yards, rushed for 240 yards and scored four touchdowns while appearing in nine games as Hudson Card’s backup over the past two seasons at Purdue, earning starts in losses to Illinois and Oregon.
Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood showed glimpses of the growing pains he will experience as a freshman and flashes of the promise that made him the nation’s top-rated high school football recruit in the Wolverines’ spring game Saturday.
Underwood was 12 of 26 for 187 yards with a scrimmage-ending, 88-yard pass to tight end Jalen Hoffman on a reverse flea-flicker in a 17-0 win for the Blue over the Maize.
He also recovered his fumble, had a pair of delay-of-game penalties, several errant throws – high and wide – and some dropped. Underwood lost 12 yards on two sacks and gained 17 yards on three runs.
“He did well,” coach Sherrone Moore said. “Made some really, good throws and had some things we need to clean up and get better at.”
As the Wolverines wrapped up spring football in front of about 40,000 fans at the Big House, all eyes were on Underwood and he has become comfortable with that.
“It’s just the pressure that came with my arm,” Underwood told The Detroit News earlier this spring. “I can’t stop that.”
Underwood was sacked on his first snap and his first completion went for a loss. He did throw some darts, usually in the flat, and was quick enough to escape collapsed pockets to pick up yardage with his feet.
Underwood is expected to compete with sophomore Jadyn Davis and Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene for playing time ahead of the season-opening game on Aug. 30 at home against Fresno State.
“It’s a battle,” Moore said. “It’s going to go all the way to fall camp.”
Underwood is motivated to start and kick off a legacy-building career with lofty goals.
“A couple of Heismans and at least one natty,” Underwood said last month in an interview on the Rich Eisen Show.
Underwood knows there will be people doubting he can live up to the hype.
‘He’s just a freshman. He won’t be good enough,'” Underwood said. “I might keep that chip my whole three years.”
He attended at Belleville High School, which is about 15 miles east of Ann Arbor, and flipped his commitment to Michigan after telling LSU coaches last year he intended to play there.
Tom Brady, a former Wolverine and seven-time Super Bowl winner, talked with Underwood during the school’s recruitment via FaceTime and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people, also connected with him.
Jay Underwood told the Wall Street Journal that his son is expected to make more than $15 million at Michigan, but that doesn’t guarantee he will take the first snap next fall.
“He wants to earn everything,” Moore has said. “He doesn’t want to be given anything.”
Hoffman said Underwood has simply blended in with his teammates.
“He’s really humble, like not a big head, ego, nothing like that,” he said. “Comes into work and every day, he wants to get better every day. He’s not riding off his success in high school. He’s really trying to be one of those top players in college football.”
Underwood participated in practices with the team before it beat Alabama in a bowl game, enrolled in classes in January and gained a lot experience in 14 private practices before a public scrimmage.
“Football is football,” he told MLive.com. “School is a little bit more overwhelming now.”