Commissioner Rob Manfred is announcing the name of recent Corona High grad Seth Hernandez as the sixth pick in the first round of Sunday’s MLB Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Photo: @YoungBucsPIT / X.com.
Corona High doesn’t set a record with two players from the same team selected in the first round of an MLB Draft, but getting a third player picked toward the end of the first round made that a truly unique accomplishment for any school in state history. No. 6 overall Seth Hernandez, No. 10 overall Billy Carlson and No. 32 overall Brady Ebel were the three players. California did have another alum (but now in college) picked even higher than Hernandez and there was another player chosen in the first round from the Inland Empire. We have every player written up from Sunday night’s first 105 players picked.
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It can get complicated at the MLB Draft about what’s the first round and what’s not, but if the organization itself is laser printing hand-crafted bats that say first round, then we’re counting the first 43 picks in Sunday’s draft held in Atlanta as the first round.
After the first 27 picks of Sunday night’s draft held at the Coca Cola Roxy in Atlanta, there were several compensatory selections that are awarded by MLB due to various financial reasons. One AI search said those picks done before the start of the second round do not count as the first round. Some in the media didn’t count any picks after 27 as the first round, either, but others did. All of the printed bats as well as the ESPN telecast, however, referred to the picks from No. 28 down to No. 43 as being in the first round. We’ll go with that as well.
Whether the 32nd pick is considered first round or not, with that selection going to third baseman Brady Ebel of Corona High by the Milwaukee Brewers, that move was historically huge. It meant a California high school for the first time (and it looks like the first time considering the nation) had three first round picks in the same MLB Draft. As a comparison, the only college that had more was Tennessee with four. Arkansas and Wake Forest were the only other colleges with two. USC and UCLA had a combined total of zero.
Brady Ebel might not have been the No. 1 or No. 2 player at Corona High in 2025 season, but went in the MLB Draft higher than any other high school players in the state other than those two plus one. Photo: legendarysportsmedia / Instagram.com.
Ebel was not projected to be quite that high in the mock drafts seen prior to Sunday. Almost all had him going in the second round. The son of L.A. Dodgers’ third base coach Dino Ebel (who missed Sunday’s game that the Dodgers played in San Francisco to be with Brady during the draft) moved up and joined Panther teammates Seth Hernandez (6th overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates) and Billy Carlson (10th overall by the Chicago White Sox) as first rounders.
One might think that one high school having two first-round picks in the MLB Draft is unheard of. For a school from another state, yes that would be true. But California is the greatest state for baseball and doing the two-step has happened four other times since the first draft in 1965.
The first time was 1972 for Cordova of Rancho Cordova. The Lancers had Mike Ondina picked at No. 12 in the first round and then at No. 20 it was Jerry Manuel. That is the same Jerry Manuel who later became an MLB manager and was inducted into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2010.
The second school to have two MLB first rounders was in 2000 for Rancho Bernardo of San Diego. The Broncos, who still have the most first rounders in the MLB Draft of any California high school with nine, had Matt Wheatland selected at No. 8 overall and then it was Scott Heard going at No. 25.
One of the greatest teams in state history, 33-0 Chatsworth of 2004, was the next to gain two in the first round. The Chancellors had Mike Moustakas at No. 2 overall and Matt Dominguez at No. 12 in the 2007 draft. Is that better than No. 6 and No. 10? By average, yes it is. But it’s also not two in the top 10, which is what Hernandez and Carlson did (and that’s never happened before).
The most recent team to do it prior to Corona on Sunday was Harvard-Westlake of Studio City. That was in the 2012 draft with pitcher Max Fried at No. 7 overall and pitcher Lucas Giolito at No. 16 overall. Giolito was coming off an injury and Fried had transferred in from another school so there was only a couple of games in which the two first rounders were playing for the Wolverines in games that season. They will still be joined at the hip as Harvard-Westlake alums in MLB, along with a younger teammate of theirs in 2012, pitcher Jack Flaherty.
Here is a look at each player chosen during Sunday’s MLB Draft:
First Round (including compensatory picks)
No. 2 Tyler Bremner (Scripps Ranch, San Diego) Angels
After Eli Willits, an Oklahoma high school shortstop, went at No. 1 to the Washington Nationals, Tyler was picked in the No. 2 position. It was a big surprise to many analysts, who didn’t have him in the top 10. Bremner has really blossomed as a pitcher at UC Santa Barbara. His selection was bittersweet since his mother, Jennifer, passed away just last month after a five-year battle with breast cancer.
No. 6 Seth Hernandez (Corona) Pirates
Our two-time Mr. Baseball State Player of the Year said in an interview with ESPN just a few minutes before the draft that the “whole process of being able to be considered a 1-1 pitcher it’s just unbelievable. Obviously, I’m super blassed and excited to be moving forward.” He found out a little while later that he’ll be moving forward with Pittsburgh. Two years ago, the Pirates selected Southern California’s Paul Skenes of El Toro with the No. 1 pick. Seth has been forecast to be close to the top of this year’s class for more than a year.
No. 10 Billy Carlson (Corona) White Sox
Too bad Carlson wasn’t picked one spot earlier by the Cincinnati Reds because the Reds and Corona High basically have the same uniform, logo and colors. Carlson was chosen just about where he was forecast to be picked and was part of an outstanding group of high school shortstops in the draft. Of course, as we all know from all the years of covering high school baseball in the state, the best athletes on most of the top teams are playing shortstop. Carlson’s defense at the position, however, is elite so he may not move to another position later on like other high school shortstops do.
No. 12 Gavin Fien (Great Oak, Temecula) Rangers
Younger brother Dylan was selected in the seventh round of last year’s draft and now Gavin has become the highest drafted player yet from Great Oak. Fien (third base) became known to MLB teams mostly through an impressive summer that he had last year.
No. 32 Brady Ebel (Corona) Brewers
The 2022 State Freshman of the Year when he was at Etiwanda moved up from a projected second round position to a place where he could be counted in the first round. Younger brother Trey Ebel will be a senior next spring at Corona. Both are infielders.
Second Round (including compensatory picks)
No. 50 Angel Cervantes (Gahr, Cerritos) Pirates
A pitcher with huge upside who has signed with UCLA (no one picked on Friday is likely going to go the college they committed to) has been Cervantes. He ended up just a few spots outside of the first round. That he was picked by the Pirates, who also took Seth Hernandez with their earlier selection, gives the team yet another SoCal pitcher to build around.
Murph Gray from Madera South is another from the state drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Photo: Twitter.com.
No. 53 Cooper Flemming
(Aliso Niguel, Aliso Viejo) Rays
Cooper hasn’t had many high school accomplishments to report for a good reason. He didn’t play high school baseball until this season at Aliso Niguel. The scouts knew about him and he did have a senior season at Aliso Niguel that netted him the Orange County Register Player of the Year honor. He was a pitcher/shortstop for the Wolverines but will be a shortstop/infielder as a pro.
No. 54 Quentin Young
(Oaks Christian, Westlake Village) Twins
This was a selection that was lower than projected and it’s hard to see why. Young, the nephew of former State Players of the Year Dmitri and Delmon Young, had a great senior season in which he led all of the state’s large school players with 14 homers. Young played infield on defense.
No. 73 Murph Gray (Madera South, Madera) Pirates
He was the first alum or current player from a NorCal school to be selected during this year’s draft. After he starred at Madera South, Murph went to Fresno State as a pitcher/infielder. The third baseman shined last summer at third base in the wooden bat Cape Cod League.
Third Round (including compensatory picks)
No. 87 Anthony Eyanson (Lakewood) Red Sox
Longtime Lakewood head coach Spud O’Neill has had six first rounders in the MLB Draft and got Eyanson for the third round in 2025. Anthony was one of the top pitchers this season for LSU’s national championship team.
No. 89 Jack Gurevitch (Notre Dame, Sherman Oaks) Cardinals
Notre Dame had the No. 2 pick in the first round of the 2017 MLB Draft with pitcher Hunter Greene and is the alma mater of 1967 No. 1 pick Tim Foli plus future Hall of Famer Giancarlo Stanton. Gurevitch went to the University of San Diego to play first base after high school.
No. 97 Cameron Millar (Alhambra, Martinez) Royals
The prep pitcher for Alhambra wound up as the only high school player in Sunday’s first three rounds who is from Northern California. He had signed with Arizona and is someone who seemed to be steadily moving up the draft lists. All the way into the top 100 was not projected.
No. 98 Ben Jacobs (Huntington Beach) Tigers
We saw Ben pitch in the 2021 CIF SoCal D1 regional championship game for the Oilers when they beat JSerra to win that title. He was all-state that season and then went to college at Arizona State.
Mark Tennis is the editor and publisher of Cal-Hi Sports. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
