Jeff Kent's Son Selected in Third Round of MLB Draft

For only the fourth time in the 61-year history of the Major League Baseball draft, no Cal players were selected in this year’s draft.

The two-day, 20-round MLB draft was completed on Monday, and the only player with a Cal connection who was drafted was shortstop Kaeden Kent, who is the son of former Cal and major-league star Jeff Kent.

Kaeden Kent, who hit .279 with 13 homers for Texas A&M this past season, was taken in the third round by the New York Yankees.  He was the 103rd overall selection, which is lot sooner than his father was taken 36 years earlier.  Jeff Kent was not selected until the 20th round of the 1989 draft, the 523rd overall pick, by Toronto. 

Jeff Kent went on to win the 2000 National League MVP while playing for the San Francisco Giants and was selected to five all-star games.

But no Cal players were taken in any of the 615 draft picks this year.  Since the draft was started in 1965, the only other years in which a Cal player was not drafted were 1968, 2007 and 2020.  And the 2020 draft hardly counts since it was limited to five rounds because of the pandemic.

Cal had four players drafted last year, including first-round pick Caleb Lomavita, and six Golden Bears were taken in the 2022 draft, including first-round selection Dylan Beavers.

The Cal players who were most likely to be drafted this year were catcher Alex Birge and pitcher Austin Turkington, but neither had their name called.