Surprising MLB Draft pick puts Duke baseball commit’s future in doubt
The Texas Rangers drafted a Duke baseball commit in the second round of the MLB Draft, which could end the chances of the prospect landing in Durham.
Just like any professional sports league draft, there are some surprises, and the Texas Rangers made a surprising pick in the second round of the 2020 MLB Draft.
The Rangers selected Evan Carter from Elizabethton High School (TN) with the No. 50 overall pick and the second selection the team had in the MLB Draft.
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Carter had signed with Duke to join head coach Chris Pollard, and the expectation was that the outfielder and pitcher would head to Durham after neither being ranked in the Baseball America Top-500 draft prospects nor the MLB.com Top-200 rankings.
In high school, Carter was a multi-sport athlete, also staring in football, and in a virtual press conference with reporters following his selection, he said that signing with the Rangers over going to Duke is a “no-brainer”.
This is the second recruit Duke will lose to the MLB Draft after top incoming prospect Jordan Walker was selected with the No. 21 overall pick by the St. Louis Cardinals.
It was expected that Walker would be a first-round pick and opt to head for the professional ranks rather than coming to Durham, but any other recruit being selected in the MLB Draft, which was shortened from 40 rounds to just five, would have been a surprise.
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Nonetheless, Duke will now enter the 2021 season with a 10-man recruiting class as Pollard will try and lead the Blue Devils to a College World Series, which the program has come so close to reaching on multiple occasions.
Prior to the canceled season because of the coronavirus pandemic, Duke had come within one game of reaching Omaha in back-to-back seasons and looked poised to make another run at the College World Series in 2020.
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One of the main reasons behind that lofty goal was ace Bryce Jarvis, who just became the highest draft pick in Duke baseball history, going No. 18 overall to the Arizona Diamondbacks.