The top college player from the state picked in the 2026 MLB Draft is pitcher Jackson Flora of UC Santa Barbara plus Foothill High (Pleasanton). The No. 2 pick from the state’s players just coming out of high school is Trey Ebel of Corona. Photos: Lily Chubb / Noozhawk & Instagram.com.
It’s another strong showing for former California high school players in Saturday’s first round of the MLB Draft. Two of the first five picks count from the Golden State. We also finished with eight out of the first 40, including the just named 2026 Mr. Baseball State Player of the Year from Huntington Beach going at No. 12 and the brother of a first-rounder from last year going at No. 25.
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The first three picks in Saturday’s first round of the annual Major League Baseball Draft, which was conducted in Philadelphia as part of the events surrounding the All-Star Game, went pretty much as expected, but most analysts thought the selections starting at No. 4 were more unpredictable.
Roch Cholowsky, a shortstop from UCLA, was the first pick of the draft and went to the Chicago White Sox. He was given comparisons as a fielder to former UCLA shortstop and longtime San Francisco Giant Brandon Crawford, but unlike Crawford he’s from an Arizona high school and not California. High school shortstop Grady Emerson of Texas then went at No. 2 to Tampa Bay and Vahn Lackey, a college catcher from Georgia Tech, was picked third by the Twins.
Brandon Crawford’s name came up again for the fourth pick in the first round. That’s when the Giants went with pitcher Jackson Flora of UC Santa Barbara, who went to high school at Foothill of Pleasanton (the same place where Crawford is from). Flora was highly regarded coming into the day, but we didn’t see too many mock drafts that had him going fourth.
It was a bigger surprise to many with the fifth pick right after Flora’s name was called. That’s when the Pittsburgh Pirates took outfielder Derek Curiel of LSU. Derek was a highly regarded and successful hitter since his freshman season of high school at Orange Lutheran of California. He had been seen in the 10-15 range prior to the actual draft. He comes from the same high school as 2011 No. 1 overall draft pick Gerrit Cole. That also made it two of the top five for California.
Later on in the first round, as players kept getting picked from SEC colleges, several of the commentators on the NBC broadcast mentioned how California “needs to catch up” with the south as a baseball state. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only should Curiel count as a California player (where he grew up and went to high school) but so should others from colleges in the south. It’s not a college that probably paid the most in NIL money and the location of that college’s state that should get the credit for that player. It’s everything else.
By the end of the first 40 picks (one of those was officially listed on the MLB.com tracker as second round), there were eight of those players who went to California high schools. That’s better than the five from last year in the top 40 and another very strong showing for the state. California baseball also continues to be far stronger than California football or California basketball when looking at the top rounds of the draft in MLB, the NFL and the NBA.
Here is a look at each player chosen among the top 40 picks in the 2026 MLB Draft:
First Round (including compensatory picks)
No. 4 Jackson Flora (Foothill, Pleasanton) Giants
One year after a UC Santa Barbara pitcher, Tyler Bremner, also from Scripps Ranch High of San Diego, went at No. 2 overall to the L.A. Angels, Flora came through at No. 4. He went to UCSB after playing at Foothill against the top competition of teams like De La Salle and Amador Valley in the East Bay Athletic League. Jackson had an impressive junior season at Foothill in 2022 with a 7-2 record and 1.27 ERA. He didn’t pitch quite as many innings as senior, but still ended his career with 151 strikeouts in 121 1/3 innings. His younger brother, Hudson, is one of the top catchers in the state who just graduated from Foothill. He will be starting out at UCSB just after Jackson has departed.
Derek Curiel of Orange Lutheran may have gone fifth in the 2026 MLB Draft, but his school has had a No. 1 pick earlier in its history. Photo: oluathletics.org.
No. 5 Derek Curiel (Lutheran, Orange) Pirates
The Pirates seem to keep picking SoCal guys. They went with two-time Mr. Baseball State POY Seth Hernandez of Corona at No. 6 overall last year, they once picked Gerrit Cole at No. 1 and they also recently picked Paul Skenes (El Toro) at No. 1. Derek, an outfielder, has competed at the highest levels of the game as a younger player, including being on two USA national 18-under squads. He had 33 hits, 21 RBI and 19 stolen bases in his senior year at OLu.
No. 12 Jared Grindlinger (Huntington Beaach) Angels
Our 2026 Mr. Baseball State Player of Year is going to start out his pro career with the team he grew up rooting for. “It’s definitely a dream come true,” Grindlinger told the Orange County Register. “Growing up as an Angels fan….we’ve had Angels tickets right behind third base dugout so it’s a dream come true. I’m ready to go.” Before the draft, Jared was often described as the best two-way player (hitting & pitching) near the top of the board. The Angels drafted him as an outfielder. The plan now is for him to start out as an outfielder and then perhaps go back to pitching later on. Grindlinger also became the first California high school player chosen in the draft, which is significant since he went before any of the Class of 2026 players who had not reclassed. Jared reclassed earlier this year after he was the State Sophomore of the Year for the 2025 season.
No. 15 Ryder Helfrick (Clayton Valley, Concord) Diamondbacks
A former all-state catcher from an East Bay school not far from where Jackson Flora is from, Helfrick was praised by the TV commentators for his defense. After starring at Clayton Valley, Ryder headed to the University of Arkansas where he became one of the Razorbacks’ best catchers ever. He was a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award and Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award. Ryder’s hometown is listed as Discovery Bay, not far from our Stockton office going by Highway 4 across the Delta. That’s a decent drive from Discovery Bay to where Clayton Valley is located in Concord.
No. 23 Cade Townsend (Santa Margarita, Rancho SM) Cubs
Here’s a third former California high school player going in the first round from an SEC college as Townsend also is from Ole Miss. It kind of proves our point about the state needing to “catch up” as was suggested more than once on the NBC broadcast. We don’t fall behind any place for baseball talent. Townsend was a 2024 all-state first team pitcher for the Eagles who also was Orange County Pitcher of the Year. He had not played high school baseball until his senior season at Santa Margarita. Townsend had a breakout season in 2026 for Ole Miss with 88 strikeouts in 64 innings.
No. 25 Trey Ebel (Corona) Brewers
Brother Brady (also Corona and also the son of L.A. Dodgers’ third-base coach Dino Ebel) was selected just last year at No. 32 overall and by the same Milwaukee Brewers. That counted as the first round as well. “We did it, bro!” Brady shouted out to his brother on a cell phone call captured by MLB.com. Trey had a much-improved senior season compared to the junior year as he batted .417 on 45 hits with nine homers and 47 RBI. Another note: Trey also goes down as the fourth first-round pick off of Corona’s 2025 squad, joining Seth Hernandez, Billy Carlson and his brother who were seniors in the 2025 draft.
De La Salle’s Tyler Spangler is shown during his junior season. He has been regarded as one of the nation’s top shortstops for the Class of 2026. Photo: delabaseball / Instagram.com.
No. 36 Tyler Spangler (De La Salle, Concord) Phillies
Our 2025 State Junior of the Year didn’t play for the Spartans this past season with a back injury, but did enough in pre-draft workouts to show the Phillies and others what he could do. Spangler started at shortstop for the Spartans as a freshman and displayed power hitting and contact hitting from the left side. Without the back injury and after last year’s draft, Spangler was considered a possible top 15 pick in the first round for this class.
Second Round (including compensatory picks)
No. 38 Logan Reddemann (Quartz Hill) Rockies
While there were two players picked behind Logan at No. 39 and No. 40 who are listed on the MLB.com tracker as being from the first round, he is listed as being the first pick of the second round. Honestly, we don’t know why as the baseball draft has a lot of quirky rules that seem to come and go. At least we don’t have trades of drafted players like in the NFL and NBA. Reddemann, now at UCLA, was an all-state pitcher in high school for longtime Quartz Hill head coach Aaron Kavanagh, who we have as on track to win the 500th game of his career next season. Logan had a 23-2 career record on the mound for the Royals. He also had a 1.62 ERA and struck out 190 batters in 147 1/3 innings. He has been at UCLA for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 season.
No. 45 Jarren Advincula (Archbishop Mitty, San Jose) Angels
Here’s yet another California kid who came into the MLB Draft from a southern college as Jarren is from Georgia Tech. Advincula had a .412 batting average over a three-year career at Archbishop Mitty in the WCAL from 2021 to 2023.
No. 47 Mason Edwards (Palisades, Pacific Palisades) Athletics
There haven’t been too many from CIF L.A. City Section going this high in the MLB Draft but Edwards qualifies. There was many analysts that thought the USC pitcher was going to go even higher.
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
