Oregon State Baseball: Notable Beavs Not Selected In the 2018 MLB Draft

OSU had six players taken in the draft, but a few draft eligible Beavers didn’t hear their names called.

By Joe Londergan@joehio_ Jun 7, 2018, 7:45am PDT

NCAA Baseball: College World Series-LSU vs Oregon State

The 2018 MLB draft came and went already. Crazy, right?

While Oregon State is still focused on getting through Minnesota and back to the College World Series, they were fortunate to have six players selected and three future players drafted. A testament to the talent within their program, there were still several players from the team baseball fans expected to be drafted who didn’t get the call from a major league club.

Here are four draft-eligible members of Oregon State’s team who weren’t selected this week and where they go from here.

Bryce Fehmel

Career ERA: 3.00 - 26 Wins, 5 Losses - 154 strikeouts -.226 Opposing Batting Average

Three years at Oregon State have been kind to Fehmel. A freshman All-American in 2016, Fehmel was mostly a reliever but showed flashes of brilliance moving him into the starting rotation towards the end of the year. Then in 2017, Fehmel was a mainstay in the starting rotation on the way to a berth in the College World Series with the Beavs. This year, Fehmel has filled a similar role. He threw the only complete game of the season against Hartford back in March.

The good news for Fehmel is that he has another year left of eligibility to impress scouts. Next year he could very well be the Friday night starter too. So he’s set himself up to have a big senior year, which should allow him to be selected somewhere in next year’s draft.

Luke Heimlich

Career ERA: 2.32 - 35 Wins, 11 Losses - 368 strikeouts -.207 Opposing Batting Average

A two-time Pac-12 pitcher of the year, Heimlich became the program career leader in strikeouts earlier this season. During the 2017 season, Heimlich posted the lowest ERA in division one baseball at 0.76. Through the 2018 regional round, Heimlich leads the team with a 15-1 record and a 2.42 ERA.

I think many of us saw this coming. We’re all well aware of the big issue with Heimlich at this point. In the news cycles leading up to the draft, some MLB GMs indicated that they wouldn’t select Heimlich because of the legal baggage attached to him. They obviously followed through on that idea. Heimlich’s future is unclear at this point.

Zak Taylor

Career Batting Average: .260 - 52 hits - 27 RBIs - .991 fielding percentage, 4 errors

Taylor saw very limited time on the field his freshman season in 2016. Then in 2017, he played in a little over half of OSU’s games with 15 starts, hitting .232. Now, the first baseman and occasional catcher is hitting .279 and has been extremely reliable defensively.

While this, Taylor’s first season as a mainstay in the Beavs’ lineup, has gone fairly well, he’s been in a “blessing and a curse” situation. He was behind K.J. Harrison last year at first base and his other position is catcher. Adley Rutschman is also a catcher. Taylor is in a similar situation as Fehmel where a good senior season next year should put him in a good position for next year’s draft.

Jake Mulholland

Career ERA: 1.71 - 8 Wins, 3 Losses, 20 saves - 78 strikeouts -.190 Opposing Batting Average

One of OSU’s top relievers as a freshman in 2017, lefty Mulholland was named a freshman All-American by several different publications that year. In 2018, Mulholland took over the closer role from Max Engelbrekt and has 14 saves so far this season. While he has only played two seasons at OSU, his age (21) made him eligible for this year’s draft.

No matter how this season ends up, Mulholland will have that job waiting for him when he comes back next season. There’s not really anything in his game that would have scared scouts off, so it stands to reason that the lack of interest was an experience thing. He’ll most likely have more and more scouts around to watch him as he continues to develop in the next one, possibly two, years.

For more on the Beavs who WERE selected this week, here are a few more reads for you.